34 Weeks, Nursery & Baby Classes / Abby Visits & Maternity Photos / Val Talking! / Layoffs
Nicole has made it to 34 weeks and counting! Everything is right on the money for March 12th and our baby is supposedly in the head-down position so we're extremely relieved. Nicole has begun having difficult back pain nearly around the clock and she's really losing sleep over it. I'm trying to keep her spirits up and remind her that it's okay to take it easy. We have a lot of little projects to accomplish before the baby comes but thankfully nothing is so important that we have to run ourselves ragged to get it done now when it can wait a day or two or ten. So I'm always encouraging her to take the day off or get in naps. It's all going to be okay.
Our second bedroom has really begun to take shape as our nursery over the last month. We've built a crib and a dresser and are moving other pieces of furniture and clothing in. It's coming down to the wire but it's really happening! Another thing we're doing is going to baby training classes. We signed up for in-person baby care classes with Providence in Portland. The class we're in is six weeks of two-and-a-half hour seminars covering topics like the birth and breastfeeding to emergencies and resources. It's been rather special because it's the very first in-person classes Providence has offered in the Portland area since the pandemic started three years ago. Also, one of my former coworkers from a department I worked in years ago happens to be in the same class herself! It's such a coincidence! What a small world!
During January, we had Nicole's best friend, Abby, visit from Montana with her one-year-old daughter, Edith, in tow. It was fun to have some visitors around here for a couple days and it was a a little taste of what it will be like to have a baby hanging around. While Abby was here, she surprised Nicole with a booking for a photographer to get some maternity photos! We ventured out to a local park and got about a hundred or so really nice photographs. We've begun sending around a few of the photos and we've even had a few of them printed out for framing around the house. We're not huge photograph people but maybe having a child will change that about us. Here's one of the photos:
Perhaps inspired by the announcement that we're expecting a daughter, my sister, Valerie, has reached out and asked to reunite. For a little over three years now, my mother and I have been no-contact (NC). A year ago when Nicole and I decided to try to have a child, I wanted to attempt to rekindle things with my mom and things were going well. We spoke over the phone every week for about two months until she found out my siblings and I were benefiting from an inheritance that she felt entitled to. It triggered her narcissism and instead of letting it go and wishing her children well, she dredged up past events where she felt used and victimized (All nonsense) so quickly we went back to NC. At the time, Val was very much Team Mom. She felt that we should all turn the other cheek and be proud to put up with her unstable narcissism. She was coming from a place where she believed family unity was more important than everyone's mental health. I didn't agree, so we unfortunately went NC with her too.
Fast forward to now and soon after the baby announcement, Val reached out and wanted to get together. We set up a meeting at a coffee shop and wondered how it was going to go down. To my relief, Val appears to have done a lot of growing in the last year. She's worked on things and realized what happened and although she still supports my mother, she understood and apologized for what happened a year ago. It was actually a really nice time and we spent more than three hours at that coffee joint catching up and covering everything. I'm still a bit skeptical that this will last but it's a positive start. Now we can go into 2023 and into the birth knowing we have one more ally.
There's been a huge downturn in the technology industry for months and it's affected a lot of tech leaders including the place I work. They announced that before the end of January, there'd be a sizable chunk of layoffs approaching ten percent of the company's workforce. Unfortunately, a lot of the factory folks I'd been working with for years were laid off and the place just won't be the same. I was worried that if I were laid off, I'd lose my paternity leave and health care but thankfully, my entire team was spared from the layoffs.... This time, anyway. The market is expected to be soft for the whole year so I bet this won't be the last round of layoffs I have to survive this year.
Our second bedroom has really begun to take shape as our nursery over the last month. We've built a crib and a dresser and are moving other pieces of furniture and clothing in. It's coming down to the wire but it's really happening! Another thing we're doing is going to baby training classes. We signed up for in-person baby care classes with Providence in Portland. The class we're in is six weeks of two-and-a-half hour seminars covering topics like the birth and breastfeeding to emergencies and resources. It's been rather special because it's the very first in-person classes Providence has offered in the Portland area since the pandemic started three years ago. Also, one of my former coworkers from a department I worked in years ago happens to be in the same class herself! It's such a coincidence! What a small world!
During January, we had Nicole's best friend, Abby, visit from Montana with her one-year-old daughter, Edith, in tow. It was fun to have some visitors around here for a couple days and it was a a little taste of what it will be like to have a baby hanging around. While Abby was here, she surprised Nicole with a booking for a photographer to get some maternity photos! We ventured out to a local park and got about a hundred or so really nice photographs. We've begun sending around a few of the photos and we've even had a few of them printed out for framing around the house. We're not huge photograph people but maybe having a child will change that about us. Here's one of the photos:
Perhaps inspired by the announcement that we're expecting a daughter, my sister, Valerie, has reached out and asked to reunite. For a little over three years now, my mother and I have been no-contact (NC). A year ago when Nicole and I decided to try to have a child, I wanted to attempt to rekindle things with my mom and things were going well. We spoke over the phone every week for about two months until she found out my siblings and I were benefiting from an inheritance that she felt entitled to. It triggered her narcissism and instead of letting it go and wishing her children well, she dredged up past events where she felt used and victimized (All nonsense) so quickly we went back to NC. At the time, Val was very much Team Mom. She felt that we should all turn the other cheek and be proud to put up with her unstable narcissism. She was coming from a place where she believed family unity was more important than everyone's mental health. I didn't agree, so we unfortunately went NC with her too.
Fast forward to now and soon after the baby announcement, Val reached out and wanted to get together. We set up a meeting at a coffee shop and wondered how it was going to go down. To my relief, Val appears to have done a lot of growing in the last year. She's worked on things and realized what happened and although she still supports my mother, she understood and apologized for what happened a year ago. It was actually a really nice time and we spent more than three hours at that coffee joint catching up and covering everything. I'm still a bit skeptical that this will last but it's a positive start. Now we can go into 2023 and into the birth knowing we have one more ally.
There's been a huge downturn in the technology industry for months and it's affected a lot of tech leaders including the place I work. They announced that before the end of January, there'd be a sizable chunk of layoffs approaching ten percent of the company's workforce. Unfortunately, a lot of the factory folks I'd been working with for years were laid off and the place just won't be the same. I was worried that if I were laid off, I'd lose my paternity leave and health care but thankfully, my entire team was spared from the layoffs.... This time, anyway. The market is expected to be soft for the whole year so I bet this won't be the last round of layoffs I have to survive this year.