Read TWAS for lot of years, glenn. Congratulations to you both. Your daughter is beautiful. :)

Congratulations, glenn and Bethany! glenn, know this: you will be an excellent Dad. The thought, emotional awareness, and consideration you bring to all other aspects of your life will serve you very well in this one.  

Oh, and you might want to start the project of moving those CDs to above toddler height NOW.

mysticgal, we studiously avoided having either child sleep with us because we didn't want either of them to develop the habit of "crashing" our bed. It worked.  

It is true that attitudes, or at least, confidence changes with the second child. With our first, I would wake up (with her in a bassinet at the foot of our bed) and wonder "Is she OK? Is she breathing?" With the second, you already know how amazingly tough and resilient they are. Our son was in his own room (with a monitor) in no time.

Not to sound either overly snoopy / stalkerish or weirdly clairvoyant, I had been thinking to myself a month or two ago, "Man, haven't seen much new on furia nor many postings from glenn on the Loud Family list. I figure they're having a baby or something."  

Now, I don't often spend time thinking about the family status of people on the basis of their website or listserv participation, but regardless - mazel tov glenn and Bethany and best wishes to the future little mcdonald, whomever he or she may turn out to be!  

Michael
n.p. Cry Cry Cry

I was waiting to hear this news! Congratulations and best wishes to you both -- you'll make wonderful parents.  

Here's my endorsement for the Diaper Genie -- You'll appreciate it especially during the first six months when the eat-sleep-eliminate cycle repeats with surprising frequency in the space of 24 hours. After that, regular disposal works fine since it takes longer to fill the "genie", and you take out the trash more frequently than you need to empty the cannister.  

Laundry basket? Drawer? Sure, that'll work -- for about a week! The progression is usually "Moses" basket, bassinette, crib (and don't spend a lot of money on the first two). That's for your first baby. The second one sleeps with you :-).

Belated but enthusiastic congratulations to you both; I wouldn't trade my own parents for the world, but your kid is very, very lucky to have the pair that he or she is getting.

Re: the finer points of strollers  

You want one that runs on tank treads instead of wheels. Then you can take it anywhere.

Congratulations! Though Rose and I aren't parents, we're uncles and aunts several times over, and it's been inspiring to watch our nieces and nephews grow (the oldest is now in her first year of college). And watching their parents grow as well.

glenn & Bethany: Congratulations!  

As for the Containment of Poo[tm], you want the Diaper Genie. You will need it, as you will be *amazed* at how much excrement a little baby can make. Plus, when you are done, you have a big green twisted snake full of nappies that you can threaten the cats with.

Thanks for the good wishes! For an "early adopter" type with tech stuff I'm feeling very low tech for some reason about the baby at the moment, like can't it sleep in a laundry basket or an open drawer and have a normal trash can? Maybe with a little cat litter sprinkled in the can? I'm sure I'll come around. I tried to sick glenn's research-happy brain on studying the finer points of strollers but he seems obsessed with the Containment of Poo.

Thanks! And yeah, we know the outlet covers are ahead of schedule, but anything we can do now instead of later when it's suddenly important but we're totally frazzled, seems like a good idea.  

Also, regular trash cans are boring!

congratulations ! life is about to become so interesting you'll barely be able to stand it.  

indeed you won't need the outlet covers until later, but you won't have time later, so do it now ;-)  

I went into fatherhood expecting it to be the hardest thing I ever tried, turns out it's even more difficult than my most saturnine self expected. Still as you say it is the quintessential human project and worth it.  

semantic web, and Ruby ? ooo very nice. I still have to deal with Cobol and CICS under VSE, exposed as web services.. typical customer has a retired old guy consulting on the mainframe, harnessed to a dude who knows only .NET, and we have to get them talking. Never mind tech support, I need a therapist's qualifications.

Oh, and you won't need those outlet covers till approximately month seven, when the formerly pliable lump who stays where you put her turns into a scooting, reaching, grabbing fiend, terrorizing the cats and poking her tiny little fingers (yes, they're that small!) into the outlets.

The baby-industrial complex would have you believe you need a purpose-made diaper-containment system, but I've found any old covered garbage can, emptied frequently, will do just fine. Congratulations to the both of you. I look forward to the transformation of Furialog into a daddy blog.

glenn, great news about the baby!  

There are so many cliches you hear when you are expecting. As is often the case, there is usually some basis for these. It is a transformative experience!  

As I'm sure many have told you, the first six months are challenging on a physical and spiritual level: so much work, so little sleep, so little payback. But from spit-up and smelly diapers emerges a person with his own qualities and eccentricities. As many ways as your child will reflect you and Bethany, he will also be so unique; he is the two of you and so much more. You will see of glimmers of the person he is becoming, and they will appear more frequently. He will become richer and more complex, develop a sense of humor, challenge you, surprise you.  

I have two kids: an 11-year old daughter and an almost 10-year old boy. Every day, they make me glow with happiness.