An Introduction and Some Musings of a Daddy Who Doesn't Know What To Do!

Hi!

My name is Tanner, and my wife's name is Shelby.  We are totally and undoubtedly just your average 30 year old couple who have been married for almost 3 years.  We have both gained more weight since getting married than we wanted to, accomplished less than we thought we would, and traveled to some pretty awesome places, but wish we could have gone to more.  However, we're still deeply in love, and we are also cooking a human being in my wife's chasm of human creating wombendom. Or, for all you non-sarcastic folk, we're pregnant.  Almost 9 months pregnant in fact.  At this point, our baby girl could arrive pretty much any day.  And I gotta tell ya', that excites, and terrifies me to my very core!!  

I am the youngest of 5 kids, I have 4 older sisters (yes, I'm the only boy) and even though I have like fifty nephews and 3 or 4 nieces (yeah, too lazy to count) I am totally and completely clueless as to how to make sure this little human stays alive, and doesn't get diaper rash at the same time.  When I'm holding a screaming nephew, I can just hand him off to his mom, and be done with it, but when it's YOURS, you're the one who has to take the little screaming demon. And if there's poop in their pants, oh geez, like anyone else is gonna get on that boat! Which brings me to my next point.

I have admittedly NEVER changed a diaper in my life.  I know what you're thinking: "That's about to change."  Yeah, I didn't read your mind, I've just heard it from like 72 people who I've told.  Anyway, I literally have NO IDEA what to do.  First off, there's baby crap EVERYWHERE, because heaven forbid, it be solid, so where do you even start?  Then there's the whole, "Don't wipe up you'll get poop in her second butt" (I heard a kid call it this one time, thought it was funny) "Don't do it too tight, oh don't do it too loose, or she'll have an assplosion", "oh be careful of her diaper rash", etc etc...  Is it weird that this is the one thing that so far I am most anxious about?  I'm sure once I do it, it won't be as bad as I thought, but we'll just have to see.  Luckily my wife is the 2nd oldest in her family of 5, so she'll be able to guide me.

Anyway, moving on.  Every time I walk by our newly put together nursery, I can't help but think to myself, "Holy crap, I'm actually going to be a daddy!"  SO many feelings flood into my mind at that thought.  "I am SO EXCITED", "I just want to meet her!", "Gosh, I hope she's not ugly!", "Am I going to screw this up?", "Will I be a good dad?", "Gosh, I'm hungry, I want some pizza".  Yeah, I'm pretty much always thinking about pizza.  But all these feelings combined even though there is some anxiety, and trepidation around becoming a daddy, make me so absolutely excited.  I honestly cannot wait to meet my baby girl.  

I've created this blog so that I can keep a journal of sorts.  A place to put my inner thoughts and feelings, or frustrations and follies, as a new father (And mother when Shelby wants to post too, she's a hippy and hates technology, that's another blog post though).  I wanted to start from the very beginning; before our baby is even born so that my family and friends, and any other people who are bored enough to come along for the ride can share in this journey with us.  The journey of not knowing what the heck to do!  Not always having the right answers, but figuring it out anyway.  Because that's what parents do, right?  So, hopefully we can keep you interested enough to continue following our new journey.