[Sca-cooks] Should I be doing this?

[Jeff Gedney]

>    This is our first baby.  I have no direct experience of how
>    much time this
>    kid is going to take.  Should I even be trying this? Am I
>    making myself an
>    early candidate for baldness and the galumphing hangnails?  Or
>    should I damn
>    the torpedoes and start shopping?

Depends on how in shape you and you wife are. Having a baby is a BIIIIIG
drain on the system, and a woman has to be in pretty good physical condition
to bounce back from it.
For the first couple of weeks she's gonna need a lot of sleep and backup.
You are gonna be suffering from a severe sleep deficit.
At three months you'll have been dragging your a$$ aroung for a while but
definitely hitting your second wind. Same with your Lady.
It is definitely possible.
But you should think about arranging for the baby to go over to the inlaw's
for the day. You definitely do not want the baby around as it will be a very
big distraction for you, especially if it starts feeling colicy or stressed
out. Babies are remarkably good mirrors of the emotion state of the
caregiver, and you will need to concentrate on getting the feast out.
You will probably need to have your wife take care of the baby for the most
part, including nightfeedings and evenings, for a few days before the event
while you are doing the prep work and any precooking (looks like there will
be very little precooking, good menu choices).
and you will need to make sure that you clean your hands a LOT, especially
after doing the diaper. ( another reason why you might want to consider
keeping the baby at home or the inlaws where there are alternate caregivers
not involved in cooking.)

OH... and congratulations! Your like is about to make some pretty sharp
turns in some unexpected directions, but you wont regret any of it.

I do have a theory about parenthood that you may want to consider.
You see, you are gonna get really wrapped up in the baby, and the babies
various functions.
You see I think that in order to give a baby life, the parents usually pour
nearly all of their own into the baby, and then they have to regrow their
own lives back again. This generally take years.
Get used to not having a life.
Get used to enjoying not having a life.
I know it sounds weird but then again think about the whole process.
Having a baby is, well, wierd all over.
IF you are not reminded several times in the course of the last trimester of
the movie "Alien", you are not really thinking about the process.

Brandu