Having a Puppy is Hard Work!
I'm sure that having an actual baby will be hard work too, so this is good preparation, but our new puppy is certainly enough to keep us on our toes already. He wants to play ALL THE TIME, and has a habit of barking, nipping at heels, and generally demanding attention or trips to the backyard (or both) while we are trying to work. I'm actually imagining that having a baby will be easier, in that the baby won't be mobile for about a year and will sleep a lot in between feedings. In contrast, our dog walks around chewing on everything he can find, including potential dangers like unknown mushrooms in the backyard and cherry pits found under the couch... we really have to keep an eye on him. Hopefully he will outgrow this phase before the baby becomes a lot of work, so we only have one rambunctious toddler at a time.
Speaking of the baby, we have been a little worried because he hasn't been kicking as much, although the doppler still shows a strong heartbeat and the doctors don't seem that concerned. We're at 26.5 weeks, and kick counting isn't supposed to start in earnest until 28 weeks, but he had been kicking more consistently before, and the decline correlates with what my wife thinks was gallbladder pain she had been having before modifying her diet to be more gallbladder friendly. Hopefully we are just experiencing parental anxiety, but we would feel a lot better if he started kicking more regularly. We might go in to get a fetal wellness check, but it sounds like they just monitor the heartbeat and don't do much more for that, so it might not be worth it. If all goes well, he will be here before we know it.
Our parents are each planning trips out here to help with infant care, but we aren't sure of the best way to travel in the COVID-19 environment. I'm of the view that airplanes and airports, being crowded with people, are likely contagion centers, but my parents seem to think that staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, and using gas station bathrooms while driving out here would be more risk of exposure. I'm not sure who's right, but with a second wave of cases due to the administration's failed response to the pandemic, I worry about them traveling at all. My wife's parents will likely drive out in mid-September, and my parents probably wouldn't come until mid-October, so maybe there is time for the second wave to pass, but it's not looking good. I don't want them to risk their health just to be out here.