nah, i'm pleased really. just surprised it happened so fast. i figured i had til christmas at least to continue acting like a child.
there must be a way i can get that fuck*ng bike, though. i wonder how many back rubs i can fit in before may? also i could volunteer to massage oil into her perineum. apparently this helps reduce tearing.
jesus
Yes on the perineal massage. Believe me on this. Probably the least sexy thing you will ever do to your wife's bits, but it will help preserve them for future sexy times.
Also, as a mother of a toddler with another baby on the way, you can tell you wife I said to buy the fuckin' bike.
I mean, seriously. Kids don't really start to get expensive until they get to be about a year old -- assuming that your wife plans to breastfeed. (Formula is ridiculously expensive.) We also cloth diapered, which saved a bundle. It's more work, but if you'd rather have the bike than the convenience of disposable diapers, go on eBay and buy two dozen chinese prefolds and six proraps covers (don't forget a pair of snappis) and promise to do the laundry every three days for the first year of the kid's life*.
Also, throw a big baby shower, and don't register for shit you don't need. Things you need: car seat, stroller, onesies, socks, sleepers, (possibly) pacifiers. A good
baby sling and an infant swing or bouncy seat if you can possibly afford it. That's probably it. Your wife will want things -- cute things, pretty things -- but the baby doesn't need them right away. You don't need a crib if you let your kid sleep with you for a while (great for nursing BTW). The kid's up so often the first few months that you don't want to run down the hall to the nursery five times a night. Or you can use a portable playard as a crib for the first year, then go straight to a toddler bed or a twin (with rails). Do yourselves a favor and don't worry about decorating the nursery until *after* the kid arrives -- we did my son's for his first birthday. And if you're in the 25-35 range, ask friends who have already spawned if they have any baby clothes you can buy from them at garage-sale prices. We got hand-me-downs from three separate families and our second son will be wearing clothes that have been through three other kids before him. They outgrow stuff so fast it doesn't have a chance to get worn out. Ebay is good for this, too.
Warning: I am a hippie minimalist mom, your mileage may vary. Co-sleeping, exclusive nursing, cloth diapering, etc. do NOT work for every family. But they are all really conducive to raising a baby on the cheap. You'd be surprised at what you can do without when you start paying attention to your kid and stop paying attention to what the staff at Babies 'R Us tell you.
All I'm saying is -- buy the bike.
And a trailer. No need to become someone different just because you've got a kid now.
Oh yeah, and Congratulations!
*
According to my calculations, you can get this stuff new from cloth-diaper.com (where I got most of my stuff) for under $100 and you won't need new covers until the kid outgrows them around six months or so. (Even then it's another $30 for half a dozen covers in the next size up; you can use the same prefolds inside.) Assuming 8 diapers a day (minimum), you'll probably go through a $40 economy plus pack of diapers in about a month -- so over the first year you'll save at least $350 by using cloth.