The next phase of life

Babies, writing, parental leave

Our kid is nearly here.

Liza and I are having our first child in mid-December if timelines hold, which means that the rest of my life is about to begin. I’m approaching the upcoming epoch with a mix of wide-eyed terror and full-body excitement, a blend that I am somewhat unfamiliar with as they don’t tend to come as a pair.

And yet.

Getting here wasn’t easy. Our fertility journey — a phrase I wish I was not familiar with and had no experience uttering — included a barrage of medical appointments and experiments that eventually dropped us into the lap of IVF. We did two rounds and from those collected embryos, Ada is just nearly here.

It’s almost a system-shock how completely our context as a couple has changed. Flipping from trying to get pregnant to being pregnant is no small shift. It’s a lightswitch flip, and one that we almost didn’t trust when we first confirmed that we were, at last, expecting.

We didn’t need to worry. Ada’s journey to-date has been nominal to even better, meaning that Liza and I are ambling ahead towards birth without too many worries concerning her health, or Ada’s. We’re beyond grateful for that fact. And as things are going so well, we had a set of photos taken.

This was Liza’s idea, and it was a good one. I even put on a shirt with sleeves to celebrate the occasion (a big thanks to K and G for shooting our engagement, wedding, and now maternity photos).

Observe the cuteness from this sampling of the shots:

I didn’t have a real reason to write other than that I am so damn excited to meet Ada. Thanks for indulging me.

Expect this blog to be a bit more baby-focused while I’m on parental leave in a few weeks. After that I want to get back to writing more here, as it seems like having one’s own platform is just good jobsec for journalists in the modern era.

Hugs — Alex