Spain Dad, a baby blog

We visited our college friends, Dan and Julie Perkins, on their organic farm in Indiana last Friday. Their son, Harper, was waiting in the red Radio Flyer wagon with his muddy boots when I lifted Teo into the wagon behind him. Dan pulled the boys in the wagon ahead of us through the fields, pointed [...]

This post is part of a series telling Teo’s birth story. Click here to start at the beginning. I went downstairs to check April into the hospital, and when I got back to the delivery room, I found the doctor and the midwives chatting on the couches in the small waiting room outside. I felt [...]

I will be telling Teo’s birth story over the next few days. Let’s begin with the taxi ride to the hospital… Taxi by Daquella manera. I didn’t say anything to the taxi driver about my wife being in labor when we climbed in the back seat of his car, but when I told him to [...]

The only time I thought about being a parent today was a short five-minute conversation I had with April before we went to bed. The conversation wasn’t much, but it’s all I have to tell, so here goes. I was sitting on the couch, and April was stuffing residency paperwork into a folder at the [...]

nest•ing in•stinctn. refers to an instinct or urge in pregnant animals to prepare a home for the upcoming newborn(s). It is found in a variety of animals (both mammals and birds) and can occur in human mothers as well. April stopped and set down the shopping bag in the middle of the sidewalk. “You’re going [...]

We had two girl names picked out for Alleke when she was born. April had her favorite, and I had mine. Neither of us was willing to give up our name right up until the very end, so we did what all indecisive people do, we decided not to decide. Well, actually, we agreed to [...]

I rubbed my eyes and looked at the alarm clock. Three minutes. I had three minutes before the clock would automatically turn on the radio and my day would officially begin. These few moments were like a gap in time, where even time itself had been caught dozing off. April lay next to me in [...]

For those who are curious about what it’s like to give birth in Spain, I got to sit down with April this afternoon and interview her about her second pregnancy and how she’s gone about choosing a birthing center in Madrid. This interview is also available to listen to as a podcast. Kelly (Spain Dad): [...]

Apparently we’re having the baby “ultra-sooner than we thought” since the ultrasound at our birthing center in Madrid today said we were 16 weeks along instead of 14 weeks. I’m all for getting this baby here as soon as possible. Patience is not my virtue. Watch our 16 Week Ultrasound on Vimeo. For more, read [...]

The midwife shook the bottle, turned it upside down, and drew a circle of blue gel on April’s belly. She rolled over the ultrasound machine, which was nothing more than a laptop on a cart with a holster on the side for the probe, which she untangled and rolled over April’s stomach like a miniature [...]