Lately, I’ve had a couple of instances that put my late-night thinking ability into doubt. First, I’m a fairly sound sleeper so it takes a bit to wake me up. Second, because I’m in such a deep sleep I’m left a bit discombobulated when being suddenly awakened.

For example, as part of my job at the Y I work for, I am the person the alarm company calls when there’s a problem at the branch. Of course, problems only occur between the hours of 2:30 and 4:30 a.m. When the alarm company tries to get a hold of me, they first call my cell phone and then, if there’s no answer, they call my home phone. Saturday night/Sunday morning I was awakened by my wife elbowing me at 2:30 in the morning. I heard her say the words, “Honey, your cell phone.” I could hear the distinct ring tone of my cell phone upon which I immediately picked up the home phone and said “Hello? Hello?” It took me a minute to realize I wasn’t answering my cell phone. Luckily the home phone rang a few seconds later.

Fast forward to last night. It’s 4:00 a.m. and I am awakened by a loud bang. The house shakes and for a split second I’m not sure if we’re experiencing an earthquake or if a car has run into our house. I jump out of bed and my wife tells me, “It’s an earthquake, Honey.” In my still clouded mind I immediately think, “Where are the babies Are they in their bassinet in our room or in their cribs down the hall�”

Only then do I realize that the babies haven’t been born yet and they are safely inside Andrea’s belly.

For some reason, this has Andrea concerned. She’s convinced that once the babies arrive she’s going to catch me some late night petting the babies and trying to diaper the cat.

I’m having some weird dreams about babies lately. Last night, I dreamt that I visited my brother and his wife for the first time since they had their baby. When I arrived, I was shocked to see one “Main Baby Thomas” and about 10 other “Secondary Baby Thomas’”. Well, after questioning my brother, I found out that his wife Liz, unbeknownst to me, had become pregnant with fertility drugs and there were a lot more babies than they had planned.

“Wow, Liz must be really tired breast feeding all of these babies.” I commented.

“Yes, she’s tired, but the other babies will be gone after about a year.” Ben replied.

“How so” I asked.

“Well,” Ben replied, “the babies were born with donated sperm and the donor definitely wants all of the left over babies.”

“Who would want 10 babies” I asked.

“Well,” Ben replied, “the donor is Bill Walton and he is excited about having the babies.”

“Wow”, I said, “Thomas is going to be TALL.”

“Yep.” Ben replied.

Yesterday, Andrea and I were able to see our babies for the first time in about two months. First of all, they’ve grown quite a bit (way to go guys!). But the best part is that we finally know what the sex is. Yes, Andrea and I are blessed to be expecting both a boy and a girl. I guess you could say we’re very efficient in the baby-making department (those of you who know Andrea wouldn’t doubt that for a second). The other interesting thing is that personalities are starting to develop. In a scene that I hope does not become a regular thing after they are born, the boy kept kicking his sister in the head during our ultrasound. He was so wiggly that the ultrasound lady commented, “don’t ask me to babysit him!” In another scene that I hope doesn’t become common, once we saw his little “tally wacker” (as the ultrasound lady called it), he kept wanting to show it to us. It seemed every time she moved the wand over him, we got a “thumbs up” from the little guy – only that wasn’t a thumb.

We’re now throwing around some names but nothing is definite. Andrea and I both have fathers who passed away when we were young and we wanted to honor them but my nephew Thomas is already named after my father and John (Andrea’s father) is not a first name that Andrea and I are really attached to. So, it remains to be seen what we are going to do. I’m sure it will turn out fine.

Knowing the sex of the babies has made this a lot more real. My excitement level has grown (if that’s possible) and I can’t wait to meet “whats-her-name” and “whats-his-name” real soon.

My brother and his wife Liz just had a baby boy. My conversations with my brother have centered around parenthood since he is experiencing it for the first time and I’m trying to take notes on all of the nuggets of wisdom he has learned so far (most of the tips have centered around changing diapers but I hope there’s more to parenthood than changing diapers – perhaps not).

Inevitably, we compare his experience with what I’ll encounter when I have two. I get a little nervous feeling when my brother says things like…

“Dude, you are so screwed.”