Two staff members will be adding to their families soon. Secretary Carrie Boeckman and history teacher Jess Rutledge are the new parents-to-be. The Charger spoke to each of them about the upcoming changes in their lives.
What are you most looking forward to?
Rutledge: I think just seeing my son grow up. Seeing him go through all the stages of life. Just excited to see him grow.
Boeckman: I’ve always, always wanted to be a mom and so after we lost the first baby, I’m so excited that everything has gone well this time and that dream of mine is finally coming.
What are you least excited for?
R: Diapers. Changing diapers.
B: Puke and poop and you know, all that side of it.
Are you scared about anything?
R: Obviously you don’t want to mess it up. It’s a human baby. It doesn’t have the ability to correct the problem itself.
B: Becoming a parent is scary because you are the one solely in charge of this little person. It’s up to us to make sure everything goes ok. We haven’t done it before so we don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into so it’s just the fear of the unknown.
Are you looking forward to waking up in the middle of the night?
R: Honestly I wake up two or three times anyway (to eat), now I’ll just have a smaller version of me who wants to eat too.
What kind of parent will you be?
R: I don’t even know how to answer that. I hope a good one. One that’s going to be able to help my child, but stern so my child learns the right things from the wrong things. I hope to be a successful parent.
B: I know that my husband is going to be the parent where baby is wrapped around his finger, so I feel like I’m going to have to be sort of the disciplinarian. I don’t want to be that person, but I see myself taking on that role.
Your spouse?
R: She’s 100 percent going to be the loving and nurturing one. She is with our dogs. That’s just her nature.
How will your pets react?
R: I hope they react well. They seem really intrigued by my wife now that she’s pregnant. They love little kids, they’ve been around them, especially my deaf dog.
B: My dogs have been around other kids and done really really well around them. I think they’re going to be very protective but also very gentle.
What kind of prep do you have done for the baby?
R: We got the nursery ready and registering for what seems like endless products that you need to have for a baby. Just kind of reading up on it as much as we can. My wife and I are going to take a class in March for parents for the basics.
B: We have the nursery done and all that but because we don’t know what baby is, we don’t have any clothes really. All that stuff is going to have to come afterwards, which is kind of intimidating. We do have daycare set up and we can start that in June. We’re just going to be winging it for awhile.
Names?
R: His name is going to be Ty Allen Rutledge.
B: If it’s a boy, his name is going to be Camden, if it’s a girl her name is going to be Clara
How did you feel when you found out you were having a boy?
R: I was really excited regardless to find out that my baby was healthy, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy to find out my first kid is going to be a boy.
Is he going to play football?
R: I hope so, but if he wants to be in chess club that’s cool. I’ll get better at chess and help him get better at that. I just want to support whatever he wants to do.
Favorite dad joke you’re excited to use?
R: Oh my gosh I have so many. Probably like whenever says “I’m ___” and then I can be like “Oh hi ___ I’m dad!” That’s going to be my go to.
Why didn’t you find out the gender?
B: One, there’s not many natural surprises left in life for people. This is one of them. We just wanted that moment of the doctor saying it’s a boy or girl. Also with losing our first one, we didn’t care what gender was we just wanted it to be healthy. I think its a girl personally, my husband thinks it’s a boy, but we would be excited with either.
— Emma Frey, @_emmafrey_
The parents and grandparents at WHS have advice for Rutledge and Boeckman
Diane Breiner — Enjoy every minute of every age, they grow up faster than you think.
Brandi Miller — Always sleep when the baby sleeps and make good deals with your spouse. Like “I’ll do the dishes, if you change the diapers.”
Lisa Hull — The most important thing is to sleep when baby sleeps. Most people try to catch up on things in that time, but you’ll ever get caught up anyway so it’s not worth it. And when you start to think about a second child, just know it’s really not twice as much work… but an exponential amount of work.
Jeanne Perry — Just always try and remember to take a deep breath. Don’t stress about the dishes or laundry as much. Always take time to be in the moment with them.
Jan Hutley — Spend as much time with them as you can, they learn more from you than you realize.
Laura Delfelder — When it gets hard or you’re just having a bad night, just remember that this is just a phase. Look at big picture and remind yourself it’s just a moment.
Brendan Praeger — Get lots of children’s books to read. They get old fast. After going through “Goodnight Moon” 200 times, anything will seem like a good alternative.
The Charger 
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