Although I have a significant amount of work to do tonight, I have been informed by my pregnant wife that giving her a massage is one of the things that’s on my to do list. When I got home after work she said that today her obstetrician “prescribed” massage, of course to be filled by me.
When I asked for an actual script, she blushed. “He didn’t have his pad with him.” It’s not the first time she’s lied to me to try and bum a massage from me, but it’s the first time she’s blamed it one someone else.
I’ve …read more

As an expectant father I am well aware of how volatile a pregnant woman can be. It’s perfectly natural, but you fathers (and some of you mothers) know that expectant moms can be hormonal, angry and often hard to calm down. However, here is substantial proof that you should not mess with a pregnant woman.
A 21 year old pregnant woman in Gilbert, Arizona recently “attacked a suspected purse snatcher with a pocketknife.” A man approached the expectant mother from out of the bushes while she was walking home (alone and way too late) at night. He asked if she had …read more

I’ve mentioned before that my wife and I try to pay particular attention to the foods we eat while she is pregnant to make sure the baby is getting everything he needs and nothing he doesn’t. Apparently there are more links between a pregnant woman’s diet and a child’s health than I was aware.
According to a seven year long study by University College Dublin,
“The diet of pregnant mothers plays a significant role in the chances of their children developing asthma.”

Scrubs has got to be one of my favorite TV shows. Syndication now makes it possible for me to watch at least four episodes a night, but my schedule as an expectant father has robbed me of the luxury of time to do so. I rarely watch much more than a half hour of TV to put me to sleep at night, so I will have to relive the magic of this TV series through Wikiquote.
I found this particular quote to be funny even before I was an expectant father.

Dr. Cox: You know, Jordan, I have to tell you — …read more

Part of being an expectant father is damage control, putting out the hormonally fueled fires that may crop up at any moment. Pregnancy is an emotional time for everyone, even if you aren’t the one with whom hormones aren’t wreaking havoc.
Seeing as how the father is not the one in the midst of the biochemical tantrum, he should help calm the pregnant mother when she is in melt down mode. As I’ve mentioned before, the mere sight of Oprah will cause a woman to burst into tears. For the most part those types of episodes are usually crocodile tears, but …read more

The word couvade is derived from the early French word couver, “to hatch.” The practical modern vernacular for this word is “getting fat with mom.” Experts attribute expectant fathers gaining weight during pregnancy to everything from a sympathetic reaction to pregnancy hormones to a psychosomatic response.
However, as I found myself eating grilled cheese sandwiches with my wife at midnight last night, it was obvious that it was something else. Based on absolutely no scientific tests, I readily attribute weight gain in expectant fathers to changes in diet and the availability of snack food. If you’ve got a …read more