Dead Ink Vinyl » Parenthood

Most important election

dlkinney — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:05:00 +0000

Today I voted in the most important election of my life. Not because of the historic accomplishment of Barack Obama or the magnitude of the challenges facing my country, but because it was the first election after the birth of my daughter. This is the first election in which I voted for her future, not my own. And what an amazing future it will be.

Posted in Personal Tagged: barackobama, election, election2008, Parenthood, vote, voting

The Difference of a Day

dlkinney — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:41:14 +0000

What a difference a day makes! When I wrote my last entry, the plan was to try carrying the baby to 36 weeks before delivery. The next morning the remaining test results came back, confirming the diagnosis of preeclampsia. My wife’s blood pressure is high enough that the doctors are now planning to induce labor when she reaches 34 weeks—on Monday.

I am running around throwing things into order throughout the house. That list of essentials from two days ago has been scaled back even further. And I have to add: thank heavens for Amazon Prime shipping! Fortunately, we’ve already attended most the parent-to-be training classes and we got an early start on the nursery so all of the furniture is in place. I have some tasks on my list to make the nursery ready for use, but it’s already mostly there.

I’m getting the infant car seat installed later today. Then there is a lot of cleaning and rearranging of furniture to be done.

My parents will be stopping by on Saturday to help me around the house. I will be leveraging my mother’s experience to help me sort through our already-significant collection of baby clothes and identify which clothes are for now and which are for later. (I’m told that the size labels aren’t the full story.)

Fatherhood, Crystalized

dlkinney — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:07:07 +0000

In my conversations with other fathers, many have said that the moment when impending parenthood “became real” for them was when they first heard their baby’s heartbeat. That wasn’t it for me. I knew the baby was real, and I knew that my life was going to change forever as soon as the stick showed two lines all those months ago.

For me, the abstract became concrete for me only today. It happened during a conversation with my wife while we were slashing everything except the core essentials off of our “getting ready for baby” list. This is it. This is the real thing. In a month I’ll be a father.

I Can’t Think of a Better Reason

dlkinney — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:54:35 +0000

I don’t know if it’s father-to-be hormones or just that the story is so poignant, but I can’t read Daniel H. Steinberg’s On why I use a Mac without tearing up.

Why do I use a Mac? I can’t imagine that I would have these memories of the last two months of Elena’s life if we used anything else. That may not convince you either. But tomorrow is the second anniversary of my little girl’s death and I will have movies to watch and pictures to look at.

I can’t think of a better reason. Amy and I share our condolences and wish your family the best.