My First Baby

Before I begin, can I just wish myself a very happy Due Date Month? IT'S MARCH, PEOPLE. I realize that my due date is late March, so this little one may very well end up as an April baby when all is said and done, but still. IT'S MARCH ALREADY. Holy cow.

All these recent preparations for the new member of our family have made me think about my first baby - my "fur baby," if you will - my dear, sweet Achilles.

Cuddled up in a tight little ball on the couch, his trusty frog nearby

I can't help but wonder how he will adjust to our new addition. Part of me thinks he knows what's up, that things are about to change a bit around our household. He has been watching me closely as I spend my weekends busily working around the apartment to get things ready. He has learned (after getting yelled at a couple of times) not to try to walk across my belly. He obviously notices that my lap is smaller. He isn't even phased when I get up a million times a night to go to the bathroom. I guess you could say he's adjusting to our adjustments. And really, he tends to be pretty good at adjusting to changes in his life. We've moved him around a lot, changed our routines, etc. and he does tend to settle in pretty quickly.

But then I think the poor guy just has no idea what is really about to go down. We adopted Achilles seven and a half years ago, and he has been our (spoiled rotten) baby ever since. I've fussed over him, babied him, dressed him up, cuddled with him, you name it. We have done a lot of work in the past year or two on who really is the "pack leader" of our family, and we've made good progress there, but I wonder how he will adjust to us adding a new member to our pack, yet another who outranks him. I've been trying to do some reading about how to help dogs adjust to new babies and I do think he'll be okay in the long run, really. He may have some jealousy at first, but I really believe that as soon as he realizes the new pack member is here to stay, he'll become just as fiercely loyal and loving to her as he is to us.

In the meantime, I am trying to soak up my time with my "first born." When I'm not running waddling all over the apartment in a fit of "nesting" during the weekends, I'm pretty much a permanent lump on the couch, and that is just Achilles' speed. We've been having some nice relaxing moments together, and I'm trying to enjoy them before he gets pushed down another notch on the family totem pole.

Sharing a loving gaze

Smoochin' the pooch

I do love that little guy. I'm sure he'll love his sister, too - I think he'll ultimately be a great "big brother!"

He looks up to the task to me!