Waiting for something

People have at times called me an impatient person. I still have no idea what they're talking about. OK, maybe sometimes.

But I can be a patient man. There are times in photography and journalism where it pays to be patient.

Recently, I've had to be patient and learn to concentrate more effectively. There have been nights now when Bridgett and I will sit contorted on the couch, concentrating and waiting.

We're waiting and concentraiting, waiting for something to happen, something very specific. I hold my arm up, pressing my hand against her belly and we wait.

"Did you feel it?" she will ask. I am unsure. We continue to wait.

A minute or two passes with us frozen in our poses. "Surely you felt that," she then says. And perhaps I did, or maybe I didn't. I want to feel it, but I am unsure. Perhaps I was expecting too much.

We discuss my expectations, and yes, I was expecting too much. We continue the vigil.

Then I think maybe I feel something, but she says nothing so I begin to doubt.

Then she asks me again if I feel it, I had lost my concentration and missed it.

Then it happens; we both feel it; a movement coming from inside.

The word "kick" is really a misnomer. It's more like a "lump that comes and goes." But regardless what it is called, it is there. It is a child. Our child. Less than three months from making his or her way into the word and these are our very first interactions.

They say the movements will get more vigorous and will actually become more like kicks as time goes on. We'll be there, waiting for them.

Still a mystery

If you're wondering, we still don't know if we're having a girl or a boy. We've decided to keep it a mystery until the birth. At the doctor's office the other day, it seemed like everyone was about to say something but remembered our request just in time. I'm sure so many people these days go ahead and find out, it's easy for the pros to forget that not everyone finds out beforehand.