In your patience possess ye your souls.

My wife and I are expecting our third child. The due date for this baby to arrive in our family is February 20th. That date is nearly two weeks away and yet I cannot wait any longer for this baby to arrive. To understand why, I must first give some background of our previous experiences of having children.

When we discovered my wife was pregnant with our first child, naturally we were thrilled. That excitement grew into anticipation of knowing if we were going to have a little boy or little girl come to our home. Twenty weeks (halfway) into the pregnancy seemed to take a lifetime. We were finally to the stage where we could have an ultrasound and determine the sex of our unborn child. I so badly wanted to have that ultrasound and see that black and white blur of which only the doctor can really interpret. My wife on the other hand wanted to wait until the birth to know. Many discussions were had on this subject, and finally my wife gave into my desires. The ultrasound followed and we knew we were going to be having a son. Our new son came to our family ten days earlier than his due date. A fun surprise!
Child two: The same events happened with this child in the same order as the first, all the way down to the same blurry black and white picture. This time, the doctor said we would be having a daughter to bring home. Our baby girl came to us 13 days early. Wonderful surprise! One boy and one girl! Perfect! Perfect is what I thought at the time. Little did I know that having one of each would haunt me on child number three.

For Father's Day 2008 my wife surprised me with the fact that we would be having number three. Excitement of course ensued. Since the first two pregnancies had gone my way with minimal objections from my wife, I just figured number three would be the same way. This time 20 weeks arrives rather quickly, and we had our usual ultrasound conversation. A little different this time is the resolve my wife had to hold her ground to not find out the sex of our child. I plead my case that knowing at 20 weeks is just as much a surprise and just as exciting as finding out at the birth. Civil discussions seemed to have no effect, so I began to BEG! No change. There would be no blurred mono-chrome image for us know which color we should decorate the baby's room in.

So here I sit 38 weeks into the gestation of our third child. Knowing our first two children were early, I am pacing the floor and anxiously awaiting the signal it is time to get to the hospital. I guess my wife was right...(I hope she doesn't read this entry), waiting for the baby to be born to find out the sex has made this part of the pregnancy so much more exciting. I intently wait to be standing next to my wife in the delivery room coaching her through each contraction. To see for the first time our baby. Boy or Girl? I don't know. For Now!