What really matters.
By Darin H Posted in Miscellanea — Comments (44) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
I want to share some news with everyone - I'm going to be a dad. This will be our first child. I'm so excited! And yes, a bit scared. My adorable wife Erica is about 9 weeks along (due Jan 27th) and she just had her first Ultrasound a couple of days ago:
S/he is just about the size of a grape right now, but you can hear the heart beating away already! In the picture, the head is on the left and the rest of the body is on the right (that's one big headed kid!). We have a while until we find out what the sex will be, and have a few trips planned that we won't be able to take for a bit after the baby is born.
Mom doesn't have any morning sickness for now (Darin keeps fingers crossed), and is doing very well so far!
1) Trying
2) Loving it!
3) Trying.... :)
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I can't wait, I've been wanting kids for a while, just been waiting on the wife because she's a few years younger.
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Thanks for sharing your wonderful news!
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Congratulations! I still remember the first time I heard my first baby's heart beat. There was no other feeling like it!
I second Shaggy Dog's advice -- get as much sleep as you can now. You'll need to be well rested to get through those first few months after Baby is born.
--
"'You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,' said Aslan. 'And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.'" -- C.S. Lewis' "Prince Caspian"
I'm a little worried about it, I'm pretty cranky when I'm not well rested, so I'm just going to have to get over that. It's about 5% anxious and 99% excited (they overlap).
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Congrats!
Cigars all around. Except for the mother.
----------------------
Dependence is Slavery.
I like a good cigar and the wife doesn't :)
Thanks LK
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says bs, as he watches his firstborn prepare to leave the nest for college in six weeks... Enjoy it now Darin. Savor every minute. S/he'll be hitting you up for gas money before you know it. :-)
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I remember hitting my parents up for $10 in gas money to fill up the tank, probably be at least $100 then...
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Three Four things.
1). Diaper Genie.
2). Take every second off of work that you can once your daughter is born.
3). Splitting the night for baby changing/feeding duty works reasonably well.
4). This is going to sound granola-crunchy, but if you can get a birthing coach / doula, the right one will be worth her weight in gold (the one we had was also a registered nurse, which was very handy). My wife had gone into labor a month early and had high blood pressure issues, so we didn't do any of the exercises or activities you're supposed to do - but the doula was still able to translate from Parent to Doctor and back to Parent, so we knew what the heck was going on at all times. I paid her full fee with a smile.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
I'll have to remember that Diaper Genie - think someone else told me to get that too, so it must be good. We don't know whether it'll be a boy or girl yet. I'm going to join you in being a stay at home dad because, like you, I married well above me :)
I have to look into the birthing coach, haven't heard about that yet.
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* A surprising amount of childrearing is simply what we call "looking directly into the baby."
* Essentially, you can do anything you like - as long as you can do it in fifteen minutes, or in fifteen minute increments. First person shooter video games become invaluable in this context.
* A "room-a-day" cleaning schedule is probably your best bet for keeping the house in order.
* Learn to cook, if you don't know how.
* My wife and I have evolved the practice of she gets one weeknight off to do whatever, I get one off to do whatever, and one weeknight that's absolutely, no fooling, date/family time.
* You get over the poop thing fast. Not that you have any choice.
* You will get more "Hi. I'm interested." signals from women when you're accompanied with a baby in a stroller. I have absolutely no freaking idea why; it seems completely counter-intuitive. I'd think that I was just imagining it, except that I've heard other guys report this, too.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
Thanks for the tips, at least I've got the cooking thing down - I don't we would starve if my wife had to cook regularly, but I'd sure get sick of Mac & Cheese every night :)
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after the twins were potty-trained. I was the designated keeper of the Genie, and I hated that thing. It sounded like a good concept when we bought it, but the refills were a hassle, and that long, stinky, white snake of diapers just ain't right. When my third baby came along, I started using plastic grocery bags (Target bags are the best) and a little trash can with a tight lid for disposal. Worked out better and cheaper for us, but YMMV.
BTW, you will never get accustomed to changing poop diapers. You may get good at it, you may get fast, but you will still try to make yourself scarce and hope your wife finds the bomb when you smell the familiar smell. Your wife will do the same to you, and never a word will be spoken about it. It's all in the wonderful game.
Moe is absolutely right about taking all the time off you can to be with your baby. I have a SuperWife too, and took the ultimate time off two years ago. Now she is jealous of me.
Many congratulations on your blessing:)
The Diaper Genies are much improved now. Very much recommended.
Now also found at The Minority Report
After six months, I called that old contraption the Diaper Devil. A couple of years later I was in a race with a co-worker--whose child was born about the same time as mine--to see whose punk would be potty-trained first. I won with my girl twin, but he got me back when his son came in second. I came in to work one day to find a Diaper Genie and a pack of new diapers on my desk with a note that said, "You can have this [stuff] for Ben(my boy twin). I'm done with it!" I told him thanks for the diapers, but said I did not want the DG. He said, "I'm not taking that[freaking]thing back home!" We ended up hoisting coffee cups and tossing it into the trash compactor.
and I will admit that diapers are a loooong time ago for us, but... for both of our kids (1990-1991 and 1992-1993), we used cloth diapers delivered by a diaper service. They were great. We dumped the poop in the toilet, threw the dirty diapers into a plastic-bag-lined pail provided by the service, and put 'em out for the delivery guy every week. We used "diaper wraps" to hold the cloth diapers, so they were basically just as convenient as the disposables. We used throw-aways when we traveled, but cloth at home.
I feel like the cloth ones were better for the babies and it made it easier to potty train them, as they didn't care for the feel of the wet diaper...disposables are so efficient in drawing the liquid away from the baby's skin that they don't care whether or not they pee in their drawers. And one of my kids had issues with his hip joints when he was born, and the extra bulk of the cloth diaper was actually better for him.
YMMV.
(I will note parenthetically that the period when my boys were babies - 2 and under - was my absolutely, positively favorite age for them. We should have had another one...)
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1. Arm Chair with easily removable arms. It just doesn't look good to keep the ones you have clawed the upholstery off on.
2. Wooden baseball bats. Aluminum makes a nice ping sound but wood is more intimidating.
3. If you are embarrassing her you are doing things right. If she isn't completely taken aback at your being around something is wrong.
4. While you may dread the word shopping now, it will take on entirely new dimensions.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Whatever you do, make sure you are there for the birth. That's a unique experience that every father needs to have. That was, to me, the most life changing moment.
It didn't work out too well, but early on I explained to my daughter that she wouldn't even be dating until she was 35, so forget about the boys.
Her mom let her off the hook, dang it.
same way again....it is the total loss of control...you will worry when they are tiny and as a mom of 2 young men you will worry just as much 23 and 20 years later....but the ride is exciting and it is the best life ever when you add a child to it! I cannot imagine my life without my kids, the thrill of teaching them to read and than ride bikes and oh my teaching them to drive...it has been a pleasure. I thank God everyday for my guys ;-)
Freedom of Religion NOT Freedom from Religion
It feels so far away still, but I'm sure it'll probably go pretty quickly.
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Man are you in for the ride of your life!
Psa 127:3-5
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
God bless you man and may this be the first of many!
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Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.--Ronald Wilson Reagan
Just a typical, small town, British-American girl...
All of the diaper changes and sleep interrupted nights are immediately forgotten when your little girl debuts at her first class play or sends the ball in for a goal or brings home a bunch of big fat A's in everything! Or he makes that first tackle, hits a home run or brings a model of the entire Solar System for kindergarten show-and-tell.
The walk for the first college degree makes all those old worries disappear!
Then, if you're lucky, you may become a grandparent! That's even better!
Being a dad is the best thing in world. My son's two and you'd be surprised how satisfying pushing a awing in the playground for hours is incredibly satisfying. May it be the first of many!
"My worst fears had come to pass not in Georgia, but in Washington, D.C., where I was being pursued not by bigots in white robes but by left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony."-Clarence Thomas
Kill the terrorists.End the NewTone.Punch the hippies
Lots of great advice listed above, I'd like to take the liberty of giving you one more piece:
Swaddling.
Learn it. Live it. Love it. You will have to find some bigger blankets than are normally available as baby blankets (you want a thin blanket at least 3 feet x 3 feet).
We swaddled and both of our kids (now aged 4 and 3) and both were sleeping through the nite by 10 weeks.
And you'll enjoy being a stay at home dad. It beats the heck out of working for a living.
Fortuna Favet Fortibus
would have a mega-hit if they wrote a good song that tapped into the "stay at home dad" movement. I had no idea there were so many of us out there, especially here at RedState.
"I'm doin' what I love, and boy, am I gettin' paid..."
Ny wife thinks I should write a how to book. I put together an outline, but don't have much experience in getting published. And, since I'm a stay at home dad, time to sit and write is more than a little hard to come by.
But you're right, there are growing numbers of us who can recognize a good deal when we find it.
Fortuna Favet Fortibus
sleep nights.
In Vino Veritas
and the nurses at the hospital should be able to teach you how to do this right.
McCain for POTUS so the left can't ruin SCOTUS.
family" here. A good friend of mine got the ultrasound of her newest grandchild and swore the little boy looked just like his mom. He was four months along at that point. So who does your little one resemble? :-)
Congratulations! Try and take a good vacation before the baby
is born as traveling is never as simple afterwards. But getting one of those gummy little grins babies give you, or his first real belly laugh in particular, is better than any vacation you could ever have.
Watch what you say when you're in the room with the baby Monitor, especially if there are neighbors nearby who also have infants. You may hear some interesting things on your receiver.
ours used to get some conspiracy theory radio station. It was good for a chuckle until it started waking us up at night.
McCain for POTUS so the left can't ruin SCOTUS.
at night while we worked in the garden, but got tired of all the false alarms from neighbor babies--half the families in our subdivision had babies in 2000-2001--so we started using our cell-phones.
all the best to Mrs. H
" Got to love the Lord for making things like that."
Morally Compromised
You'll be great at this!!!
I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful 100 percent.
your life is now officially over ;)
My advice as a father of four is, for the next 8 months, to 1) get as much sleep as you can; 2) enjoy the benefits of the designated driver role your wife is now consigned to as much as possible; 3) Agree with everything she says and wash as many dishes as possible.
But seriously, congratulations, fatherhood is a blast.