Media Reviews!!!!

Welcome to the official babygronseth multimedia review blog post. Today I’ll comment on TV, books, music, and movies. It’ll be fun. The TV statement has nothing to do with the baby, but I’m currently watching the Giants/Packers game and it looks COLD! Tom Coughlin looks like he fell asleep in a tanning bed. I’m glad to be sitting in my big blue chair watching it from a warm house. (PS – As I was writing this blog post the game ended and Lawrence Tynes atoned for two missed figgies with one in overtime. Now he can go inside and have some hot chocolate, plus he gets a free trip to Phoenix.)

Susie is twelve weeks along today, and this last week we were able to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time. I mean, five weeks ago we saw the flicker of the heartbeat on the ultrasound screen, but this was completely different. The audible sound made it seem so much more real and was confirmation that everything is still going well. Since up to this point Susie isn’t really showing a lot, and since she hasn’t had any warning signs or reasons to be worried, we’re just trusting that it’s still growing and healthy. So this was a great encouragement. Too bad there wasn’t a way to record it and stick it on my iPod or something.

This week I received the first baby-related gift specifically for me. It came from Susie’s cousin and her husband. It’s a book called, “My Boys Can Swim!” by Ian Davis. I would highly recommend this book to any guy whose wife is expecting, or really anyone. It’s funny, irreverent, informational, and not too long. And as he promised in the book, it was possible to finish in four extended trips to the john. My thanks go out to Danielle and Carlos. I’ll pass it along to another expecting dad.

Last Friday night I went with some friends to see the new movie Juno. It’s a comedy about a high school girl that gets pregnant and about how she deals with the pregnancy and the related drama associated with being a teen mom. I was immediately sucked in when the first scene involved a great cameo by “The Office’s” Rainn Wilson. Overall I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. But something was different. I’ve seen quite a few movies throughout my life that somehow involved pregnancy and/or childbirth. But this was the first one I watched as an expectant dad. I have to say that despite knowing everything was jazzed up Hollywood-style, I was into it a lot more than I normally would have been. I guess my “baby radar” is in a heightened state right now. But I’m pretty sure I still would have liked it even if Susie wasn’t preggers.

I started listening to a band called Athlete just before we learned we were pregnant. They are from the UK and are similar to Coldplay. Their music is incredible. One song that I was initially drawn to is called “Wires.” If you have a minute, click on the link to their myspace page and listen to it. It was written by Joel Pott, the lead singer, and it's about when his first child was born prematurely. He sings of his fears and his longing just to hold his child that has to stay “in a plastic box.” The line that always gets me is: “first night of your life, curled up on your own.” You can just hear and feel his emotion and it’s obvious that he’s completely baring his soul in this song. I thought it was weird that I was so drawn to this song initially. Maybe subconsciously I knew that Susie was pregnant. I don’t know, but I can identify with Joel because I want so badly for my baby to be healthy and safe.

Well, that’s really all I have for now. I had a few people tell me this last week that they enjoy the blog and I really appreciate those comments and the fact that people are still reading it. It’s therapeutic to get my thoughts and feelings out on “paper” since I feel like I’ve been more emotional lately. Maybe it’s sympathy pregnant hormones or something. The baby widget for week 12 talks about Couvade syndrome. Couvade syndrome causes expectant fathers to produce hormones that give them typical pregnancy complaints. Hopefully there’s no such thing as sympathy labor pains. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for us and the baby. We’ll be sure to keep you updated in the future.