When you know your husband is on board...

I'll admit it. For months now, I've been giving Doug a hard time. The physical effects of pregnancy let me know quite early that this baby was for real... constant exhaustion, motion sickness day in and day out... even before my pants didn't fit, I was well aware that we were on the baby train. But for Doug, all he knew was the his normal looking wife was unhappy with him. When I compared him to Seth Rogan in Knocked Up for shirking on reading the baby books (The Expectant Father has been sitting in our garage for weeks. I'm almost six months pregnant and he's read one chapter - month four) - he scoffed. I was quite adamant that he wasn't stepping up (to be fair, he would strongly disagree with this assessment). After all, he wasn't feeling sick, he wasn't making (and rescheduling) the appointments... or studying up on which mattresses were safest... or learning about cord blood banking. All of the sudden this egalitarian relationship wasn't feeling so equal. And to him, all of the sudden, his wife was overreacting (an assessment I'd disagree with - See? We're even:-). 

But recently, I was convicted of the fact that I've probably been too hard on him. And that he's more on board than I would have guessed. His mom emailed both of us a few days ago to ask for our Christmas list. She's always ahead of the game and is assembling a master list to send to everyone in the family. I would have expected Doug to respond about some new album coming out, a jacket he's been eyeing or even some books on his wish list, but no. What did this dad-to-be say he wanted for Christmas?

"... I really want one of those diaper bags especially for guys... and one of those things that let's you strap the baby on the front..." 

That's all he asked for. No X Box, no gift cards, just baby accessories. In contrast this selfish mommy was thinking a necklace from Tiffany's and an Anthropologie gift card for when I find my way back into normal sized clothes. 

The next day he spent his day off priming and painting the nursery and putting the crib together. I guess I hadn't been giving him enough credit after all...