first-time-daddy in 2011

 

 
Wow, what a crazy 2011 we have had here at first-time-daddy. As 2011 arrived, we already knew we were expecting our bundle of joy. We had told our family our news, but kept it a secret from everybody else. Although I'm not a superstitious person and I knew that telling people before 12 weeks had passed, wouldn't have made a difference, we waited anyway. We had our first scan on 18th January and it was truly amazing. To see that little heartbeat on the screen for the first time was amazing and as we left the hospital holding the first of many many pictures of our little baby boy, we couldn't help but look at each other and smile. I also made a very wise decision in January, to join twitter under the user name father_2_be.

After having the scan on the 28th, I went into work the following Monday with a very big smile on my face. I had worked with the same people for a long time and they knew how much becoming a daddy meant to me. If I remember correctly, I told my boss in a very nonchalant way, that I might need some time off in the coming months for DR and antenatal classes.

March came and went and then April followed soon after (As it does). April is an important month. Not only did we have our 2nd scan, but I started this here blog. This blog has brought me many things. It has been a place to 'Brain dump' allot of my thoughts. its a been a place for me to make friends and gain advice. It has also brought me into the 'Blogosphere' where I have found other amazing blogs and I hope one day, somebody looks at this blog and thinks the same. the 20 week scan was very important. We waited till the 12 weeks scan to tell people and we waited until the 20 weeks scan to start buying 'stuff' and decorating the nursery.

Looking back now, May and June flew by. It didn't feel like that at the time, but when your waiting for such a big deadline, it feels like it's dragging!

Then July came and we all know what happened then! BB arrived 5 weeks early. Brought on by a Carbonara and a dose of heartburn. The day is etched into my memory and I hope I never forget it. I sit here now and that feeling of pride I had for my amazing wife and the joy of seeing my beautiful baby boy, healthy and safe in his mummy's arms.

The months that have followed have been awesome. What seems like something happening every couple of days or so. BB has already changed so much. He has really found his voice and is really strong on his legs. Although of course he didn't understand what the hell was going on, he had a great Christmas, getting lots of presents from family and friends.

I cant wait for what 2012 has to bring. I am sure there will be the occasional bump in the road, but I also know that whatever happens, with my family behind me I will try and become a better husband and father to my beautiful family.

As always thanks for reading and I would like to wish you and your family a very happy 2012.
f-t-d

BB’s first Christmas.

We knew it would be a calm one. We knew that this year and possibly next year, would be the calm before the storm that is a REAL Christmas.

I have never really been a Christmassy person. I always thought it was just for kids and I didn’t have any kids, so never made much of an effort. Now BB has arrived, I think that will all change, not this year, maybe not next year but the years after that, I am really going to have to stop being such a Bah Humbug!

Even with BB in tow, this year went pretty much the same as the past few. We got up and had breakfast, I went to the crematorium (Do this every Christmas to light a candle for those who aren’t with us), then we set-off to the Grandparents.

But before we got there, we made a little detour to my sister’s house. We wouldn’t normally  see my Brother-in-law as he usually works Christmas day, but due to a change in job he could relax for once.

After a quick drink and plenty of baby cuddles, we set off to Christine’s Mum and dad’s house where we were to have Christmas Dinner and BB would get spoiled.

And spoiled he did!

We seem to have started a little Christmas tradition over the past few years. We spend Christmas day with Christine’s family and Boxing Day with mine.

So on Boxing Day, My sister, Brother-in-law, Brother and Nephew all came to our house, where we laughed, drank and ate far too much! Oh and we had a little dance too. Me dancing to Lady Ga Ga is something nobody should see!

As low key as it was, we think BB had a great first Christmas and by the looks of it, we are going to struggle to put all of his presents somewhere!

I hope all my readers had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, holidays, whatever it is you celebrate!

Here’s looking forward to 2012!

This time last year..

There was 3 of us in this picture!

This time last year, everything was different. We were flying back from our holiday in India. We had spent 2 amazing weeks seeing what such a beautiful and very different country India could be. From the beauty of the Taj Mahal, to the pair of soiled trousers simply left in the middle of the path for all to see.

The first week, we travelled around what some call the golden triangle; Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. We had a great time and would recommend it to anybody! The second week, we spent in a hotel, soaking up the sun, drinking too much and eating even more. It was during the 2^nd week that we noticed THAT time of the month hadn’t arrived and we laid together on an evening talking about “What if?”. What if, we went home did a test and Christine was pregnant?

We speculated and speculated, talked about how we would cope, would we be good parents, all the usual things people think about in these situations. We decided that we wouldn’t test until we got home. There were places we could have got a test from but we felt it was best to enjoy our holiday and wait till we got home. Still, just incase, Christine made her excuses and avoided any alcohol.

So after a whole week of ifs and buts, we made the VERY long flight home. (We were in premium cabin, so we managed lol). We landed, made our way to car park and set off on our way home.  There was an ASDA on the way, so we nipped in and went straight to the medicine aisle.

It took us 10 minutes, just to decide which test to buy! There’s Digital, analogue, those that tell you how long you’ve been pregnant, those that just show you some fuzzy lines and many many more!

We chose one and headed to the tills, always watching for anybody we knew, so we could run and hide.

We got home and went straight upstairs. After reading the instructions Christine went to do the needful. Before she had even pulled up her pants she waddled to the door, opened it, passed me the test. You would expect the wait to be long, but about 2 seconds after she passed it to me, it displayed what we had hoped for “2-3 weeks pregnant”

You know how the rest of the story goes, but we don’t know how it will end, but it’s gonna be cool finding out.

What a difference a very happy year makes!

And Yes, we did do another 2 tests...lol

Who let the dads out?

Well who would have thought it? Little old me, a published author!

Nope me neither, but thanks to Mr Tom Briggs and Mr Tim Atkinson I can tick something off my imaginary bucket list!

Exactly a month ago today, Tom, posted a blog over at ‘Diaryof the dad’, calling on all dad bloggers for a little challenge he had set himself. I have paraphrased the post below….

“I've committed myself to an exciting project with a rather tight deadline and time, as they say, is of the essence. To cut a long story short, I had an idea for a book ages and ages ago and promptly forgot about it until I bumped into Tim Atkinson at the MAD Blog Awards. Talking to him about his excellent book, the idea popped back into my head and I found myself blurting it out.”

“So I guess what I'm asking in a roundabout sort of way is for dad bloggers to submit their favourite posts – and, ideally, they need to be about being a dad/what your kids get up to”

Not only was it a very cool idea, but he gave himself a very short deadline.

Well he achieved it with time to spare and a couple of days ago, the book was officially available to buy! …It’s called ‘Who let the dads out?’and the best thing about it is…I’M IN IT!

 

OK, I realise my contribution may only take up 1 of 62 pages, but it is still 1 more page than I had published before and I am proud of that page!

So, if you randomly find yourself with £5.24 in ya pocket, click on the picture above and get it bought.!

 If you want a signed copy, send it my way lol Either way, let me know you have bought one!

Thanks again to both Tim and Tom for their efforts towards getting this book out.

Thanks for reading

F-T-D

Weight Watching

Take a weight off...

As I have no doubt mentioned in a previous post, I am a fairly big bloke.

I keep being told, I don’t LOOK that fat (Bless em), but I know how I feel and I know what the scales tell me. When going out for a meal, the first thing I think of as the waiter sees us to our table is “Will that chair support me?” Before sitting on a picnic bench in a beer garden, I check that other people have already sat down to counter my weight on the other side.

I have always been a big guy and that was made worse when my mum died. I moved to live with my dad and if I have ever been close to being depressed, it was then. Due to me generally hating everything at that point in my life, I drank...ALOT. It sounds crazy now, but like most people I took a drink to bed with me, just in my world, that was a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka. Along with the drink, I ate alot. My dad’s wife used to cook absolute crap on a daily basis, so I would try and avoid it as much as I could. This meant eating takeaways, microwave meals and any other rubbish I could get my mouth around!

So slowly, the weight crept up, then I got together with Christine, then the weight crept up a little more and with being happy and content, the weight continued to creep up.

So now I am gonna make a change! I don’t eat a great deal of crap anymore. Some people binge drink, I binge eat.  So to make a change, I need a plan.

While having a conversation with a colleague at work, she was telling me how much she wanted to lose weight but never had any encouragement or motivation, so I agreed to try and lose weight with her. Then while reading Twitter, I saw that Bob over at Only Dads also had the same idea (Albeit with a different target)

The Plan:

The plan is to lose 1.5 Stones before Easter. That’s 123 Days or 17.5 weeks. To lose 21lb in 17.5 weeks I will need to lose, on average 1.2 a week.

Weigh day will be every Friday Morning and I will update the Weight Page with my thoughts and progress.

As always, thanks for reading

F-T-D

I worry about worrying.....

I am a bit of a Schizophrenic  worrier. Sometimes when a
something happens that most people would normally worry about, it doesn’t faze
me. I take the view that what will, be will be and worrying will do nothing to
help the situation. However when I am confronted with other situations, the
possible repercussions run around my head for days and I lose sleep, sometimes
over trivial things.

Even before BB was born, I was worrying;
 Could we afford it? Will I be a good dad? Will he grow up to be a fine upstanding member of society? (Which is becoming increasingly difficult to do in current society?)

After he was born, those worry’s remained. But they were now
joined by new worries; Is he warm enough? Is he too warm? Is he being fed
enough? Is he being overfed?
All these and more are thoughts I believe go through every parents heads. Then there are thoughts that are special and only apply to you and your child.

So what’s on our mind this week?
DEEP BREATH:

Is he getting enough food? Why his head is still a funny shape? Should his head have gone back to normal by now? If something says it’s suitable for 4 month old and he is 4.5 months old, is it suitable...even though he was born 5 weeks early? Will letting him stand up have an effect on his legs later on in life? Is he teething? Why has he gone from feeding every 4-5 hours to feeding every 3 hours? Is he rejecting the bottle or just upset? Are we gonna be able to manage once wifey goes back to work? Should I have really bought those new shoes? Should we try and move him to formula because breast feeding is becoming too demanding? When should we introduce “real” food? Why's he still bald? Why do I worry so much? When he stays over at Grandparents, how will they cope with a crying baby? Why do I worry so much? Can he tell I’m worried and does it affect his mood? He is 4 month old and hasn’t been sick yet, does that mean he will grow up to be a virus fighting superhero (OK, thats not really a worry, it would just be cool!) Am I a good husband? Should I be doing more? Is wifey happy? Could I tell if she wasn’t? And the one that will haunt me for years.....Am I a good dad?

In the days and weeks to come, I am sure some of these worries will either disappear or of course come true, all I know is, I will have more worries to come!

As always, thanks for reading my drivel, please comment below and tell me it will be alright :)

FTD

It’s been a while....

Forgive me blogger for I haven’t blogged. It has been 18 days since my last post.

Howdy ya’ll. Long time no type! As you can see from above, it’s been a while since I last released my own dose of boredom on the world and boy am I back with a vengeance!!...and a very long post.

Now for that are not in need for a cure for insomnia, I’ll make it brief. This is what’s happened since when we last spoke'. 

•  ·         BB has gone into 3-6 months clothes.
• ·         BB is so close to holding his own head.
• ·         We have organised our first night without BB!
• ·         Oh and nothing major, I turned 30.

For those that are bored counting sheep, let me rattle on a bit more.

BB has gone into 3-6 months clothes  – My little man is growing so much. Nearly every day I see something different about him. It might just be the way he smiles a little different, or makes a noise that he wouldn’t normally make, but every day is a new experience for him. Luckily, he is still one of the happiest little babies. Always smiling, always shrieking with joy and always having a kick about and play. He obviously can’t talk to us, but I am happy he’s happy and that’s the most important thing.

BB is so close to holding his own head  – The way I see it, the first major step in development is the ability to hold your own neck. You can drink from birth, you can see from birth, hear from birth but holding your head is the first thing you learn and master. All the stuff like standing on your own, talking, crawling, they all come afterwards. Well BB is close. Right now he mostly looks like a boxer ducking and weaving to avoid his opponents jab. We have discussed when it would be the right time to start weaning him off of mummy and onto ‘grown up’ food. Well, I think once he can hod his head and he is comfortable on a chair, that’s the right time.

We have organised our first night without BB – We have not yet had a night away from BB. I have had days/nights where I haven’t been able to have a cuddle or speak to him because he was sleeping, but I have never been far away. That will change soon. In November I go away for the weekend, but he will still have his mummy. That won’t be the case in December. As usual, December brings Christmas and therefore Christmas do’s! It just so happens that mine and Christine’s works do is on the same night. Unsurprisingly, grandma and granddad jumped at the chance to look after him overnight. I’m sure at the time; we will both be constantly messaging to check he is OK.

 I turned 30 – Well it’s been coming for about 29 years, so I can’t say I was too surprised! I had a perfect day. Did as little as possible and spent some quality time with the most important things in my life; BB, Christine and my Xbox360. Although Christine agreed with me that we should go watch shopping to replace my current watch, it was all a lie.  She had been scrimping and saving for months and I was delighted to find a new watch wrapped up for my birthday, so no need to go shopping.

We had a great meal on the Saturday night, just me, my family and my best friend (who might as well me family). That was followed a few days later with another meal with friends including another birthday boy.

All in all, it was a great birthday and a great way to leave my 20’s. Let’s hope the next 10 years brings as much happiness as the past 10 has.

If you’re still reading at this point, well done, that must have been hard. Thank you.

Hopefully, I won’t leave it as long next time.

As always, thanks for reading and take care.

Lewis