by BabyCenter Guest Blogger posted in Pregnancy

By Mike Moore
I was at the gym when I got the phone call. My wife was hysterical, but I couldn?t tell if she was laughing or crying. After I asked her to repeat herself for the third time she paused and took a deep breath. This time I heard everything she said.
?I'm pregnant!?
I couldn?t speak. I think I responded. I wanted to express my excitement. Instead there were a lot of unintelligible sounds coming out of me, most akin to grunting.
?Grrr, ooof, baby good!? is, according to my wife, what I finally said.
My regression into a Cro-Magnon continued from there.
Of all the reactions that flooded over me when I learned we were expecting, one of the strongest was an overwhelming need to protect my wife and son. I felt like a caveman of sorts; all that was missing was a club and loincloth. My instinct was to provide for my family and guard them with my life. I didn?t go so far as to move us into a cave and hunt for wild boar, but I was relentless. I researched products, I pored over books, and I anchored every piece of furniture in our home. Twice. It?s true, I wasn?t happy the first time and I went back and added a second set. Our walls will probably look like Swiss cheese when we move; there are five anchors supporting our bookcase alone.
I stocked our house with pickles and ice cream, asked my wife?s doctor so many questions that she had to schedule a second appointment for me -- I mean, us -- just to answer everything, and f...