Well, it is official. In exactly two weeks our son is scheduled to be born. He will be our first child. Yep, first one. Of course we cannot begin to fully fathom what this all entails. Nevertheless, Cat and I are immensely excited to share in this journey together with our new son.

Overall, the pregnancy has been a very good and healthy one. A few days of morning sickness in the first trimester, a few days of extra tiredness throughout, but that is really the only difficulties we have had throughout the pregnancy. Now at 38 weeks, it’s really just preparing the last few things before he comes.

We have joked about the fact that if our son is anything like his dad, he will be born early. But if he is anything like his mom (or mum), he will come late. I’m punctual and Cat isn’t so much. But she is way over me in just about every other area of life. So we are thinking, or hoping, it might all even out with him being born on his actual due date, 1 July. I know it really doesn’t work like that, but it is funny to consider such.

The nickname my mother-in-law has given our son has been ‘Brussel Sprout’. This all comes from the fact that we live in Brussels, hence the name, Brussel Sprout. It’s been kind of a joke, and my dad now loves the name, but someone actually did buy us a baby outfit with those words on the front. I guess babies are made to wear cute little things like that. Maybe I should find a matching shirt for the father – Brussel Pop.

As for a real name, we finally decided on this a couple of months back. Oddly enough, we always had a girl’s name in mind. But when we found out we were having a boy, we had to do some serious soul searching. Not really. It wasn’t much stress. But I was surprised that we could so easily come up with a girl’s name but not a boy’s. Nevertheless, we have settled on a name, but it shall only be revealed after he is born. And this has not been fun for the grandparents, or at least on my side of the family. [Insert big smile!]

The baby furniture has now been constructed, albeit one chair for rocking and feeding. But that should take 30-45 minutes, as it is from IKEA. My wife has slowly been putting away the loads of clothes, diapers (nappies) and other various assorted baby items. Actually, I think we have enough diapers and wipes to last through four children! Or maybe I could start a side business. Yeah, I know, I will need them all in just the first few weeks. Anyways…

As for visits from family, Cat’s mum and sister arrive 6 days after the due date. Her sister will only be able to stay a week, but her mum will be able to stay for approximately four weeks. Then, my parents shall be arriving on 15 July, though flying out from the US on the 14th. Flying through seven time zones will make time kind of disappear. As with Cat’s sister, my dad can only stay for one week, but my mum will be able to stay for about three and a half weeks. Thus, by the combined powers of the mum’s (or grandmothers), we shall have two lovely people here to bless us and support us while we try and catch up on sleep here and there. (I can hear the jokes about sleep right now.)

Of course, if my son is anything like his father, he will have no problems sleeping. Come on, son. I know it’s your destiny!

So, I am sure we shall post pictures soon after the birth. So keep your eye on this space.

Much love to all of our friends and family.