Owner: The Expectant Father URL:http://expectant-father.7879designs.com/ Join Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 10:27:22 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: The story of a man expecting to become a father Site statistics:Click here
It’ll All Be Over Next Wednesday (or 48hrs thereafter) 2007-07-19 16:25:34 Yes, so Mrs C is going to be induced next Wednesday
(just 6 days away) if nothing happens between now and then.
As I write this I think it’s fair to say that the both of us are hoping with all our energy that something will happen before then but possibly for slightly different reasons though.
This pregnancy is well past it’s sell-by date with Mrs C. She’s tired of being 2 stone heavier, not being able to get comfortable (no matter what she does) and tired of being assaulted from the inside. I’m fairly certain she just wants the baby out as quickly (and as painlessly) as possible right now.
I, on the other hand (in a mildly selfish way I suppose), am concerned that going up to Burton (and the perfectly decent Queens hospital regardless of how it compares to the Samuel Johnson) is not going to be as convenient for us - The SJ is only 10 minutes round the corner after all. But it’s not our first choice either which I think makes the whole affair a little mo
The Expectant Father Store 2007-07-22 15:32:44 Just a quick blog about blogging and a shameless promotion all at the same time.
I have changed the Expectant FatherStore
to show products from Amazon.co.uk. This makes it far more convenient for my UK readers to buy thousands of pounds worth of baby gear.
I’ve also changed some of the other adverts on this site which I’m informed are supposed to show products relating to the content. So far that doesn’t seem to be true but maybe you’re browsing this site and think: “I do want a Braun Tassimo Freshly Brewed Coffee System”. Who knows.
Anyway, back to the shopping.
Cheers, Ian.
Will This Waiting Never End? Of Course It Will… 2007-07-22 15:26:13 So another day passes with out any baby action. We have had two bits of useful information today though.
Firstly, at Bernard’s puppy class today, we chatted to a Mid-wife who advised against settling for an induction and told us to try another sweep. As Mrs C knows what a sweep feels like and imagines that this will be so much very less bad (terrible grammar there I know) than being induced she’s booked herself in for another one tomorrow morning. Maybe we will crawl in under that Wednesday morning deadline.
The second piece of interesting information was from Mrs C mum, Big Ma A (as I have just christened her). She told Mrs C that Mrs C and her brothers were all 3 weeks late and all had to be induced. Had she mentioned this a few weeks ago all this waiting around might not have felt quite so excruciating.
Oh well, at least we know that baby’s coming out sooner or later. Read more:Waiting
Do Old Wives Tell Lies? 2007-07-22 06:27:59 I’m sure we’ve all heard of them. Or we’ve heard of some of them at least, but here’s a few popular Old Wives Tales about how to induce labour:
Raspberry Leaf Tea
Caster Oil
Hot Curry
Long Walks
Reflexology
Sex
If I’m honest, in the early days of pregnancy I would simply have laughed these off as ridiculous and any results are purely coincidental. But as we’re now getting to the point where Mrs C might be induced in hospital, I’m more inclined to give them a go. And we have. Here’s how each one is supposed to help induce labour and our experiences:
Raspberry Leaf Tea
Raspberry leaf tea is thought to help soften the cervix and reduce the length of time women are in labour. As Wendy Hoyland explains on the Baby Centre Web site:
“In a study carried out in Sydney, Australia, 192 first-time mums were given at random either a 1.2g raspberry leaf tablet or a placebo twice a day from 32 weeks of pregnancy. The herb had no harmful effects
Is This The Start? 2007-07-21 16:04:11 Still nothing to report really except that Mrs C has been having twinges for the last couple of days which I’m hoping are signs that natural labour is not too far away.
If I remember rightly, this is what the Midwife described as the cervix thinning after Mrs C had her sweep.
I’m praying that it is, and Mrs C will make it into natural labour before Wednesday and the induction.
Fingers crossed. Read more:Start
Finally… 2007-07-25 04:31:06 After being 12 days late, and a VERY long labour, our son Peter Joseph was born.
Here he is, 2 minutes old, in Mrs C’s arms:
Read more:Finally
An Apology to the Mumsnet Membership 2007-07-23 17:28:13 I received this e-mail today from Mumsnet:
Hi there,
Congratulations on the imminent arrival and good luck with the next few weeks and months.
We’ve noticed you’ve been a bit prolific on our boards with regard to encouraging members onto a specific website - this is known as spamming and we’d be grateful if you’d not do it anymore as it irritates the membership.
Thanks for your understanding.
Yes, I have prolifically posted 3 times on 1 topic (which I confess, I did start) in 2 days asking whether it was common for husbands not to be allowed to stay with wives when being induced.
At the bottom of each of the 3 post I included my name and a link back to this blog. This is spamming and it makes me a very bad man.
I would like to sincerely apologise to all the irritated membership (Missus!) especially to the 240 members that chose to click through to my blog (as they’ve had to read this rubbish).
Sorry. Read more:Apology
, Membership
First Night at Home 2007-07-27 16:48:05 Just when you thought the worst was over…
Our first night at home began OK. Mrs C went to bed at about 9 and took Peter with her. She placed her in our Moses basket at the side of our bed. At 10 he started crying.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take him down stairs with me while I watch the tele. You get some more sleep.” I kindly offered.
So, there I was watching the new Matthew Perry show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (could that show be any better?) with Peter fast asleep on my shoulder.
Lovely.
At 11 I went back upstairs, Peter still sleeping. I put him gently into the Moses basket and:
“Wahhhhhhh!”
He started crying. We tried to sooth him with “sshhh”s but to no avail. So I picked him up and put him on my shoulder and off to sleep he went again.
Hhmm, no I have a conundrum. If I have him on my shoulder he’ll sleep but I wont or I put him in his Moses basket and maybe we both sleep. Yes, option 2 please.
Sadly, I put him in his Moses Read more:First
, First Night
, Night
Labour Day 2007-07-27 04:09:21 I think it’s fair to say that the last 48 hours of Mrs C’s pregnancy were the longest, most tiring, horrendous, frightening and, in the end, wonderful 2 days I’ve ever had.
After the disappointment of the sweep, we were resigned to going to Burton for Mrs C to be induced. However, at our first puppy class for Bernard we happened to meet a midwife (with a Hungarian Vizsla). She told us (I’m having to paraphrase here as my sleep deprived brain can’t remember properly) “Don’t be induced have another sweep!”. So straight after the class we went to the Samuel Johnson and booked a sweep for the following morning.
Early Labour
At about 2:30 that night, however, things started to happen for Mrs C. She started to get cramps every 10 minutes but she had the decency to wait until 4:30 to wake me.
“Good. Wake me again at 7″ were the reassuring words I managed to come up with.
The midwife came did the sweep and told us “I’ll p
Baby Smells and Smelly Babies 2007-07-30 09:37:19 New babies have a certain smell. It’s a bit like the smell of a new car or a new carpet. It’s reassuring and makes you happy with your purchase; all-in-all it’s a very satisfying smell. Note: Babies
don’t actually smell of new cars or new carpets they smell of, well, new babies and nor should did we purchase our one.
Little P (as apt a nickname as there is at the moment for all the nappy changing action there’s been) has the new baby smell. But I’m not too satisfied with it; in fact, I just don’t like it. I think my brain is still associating the smell of the baby with the smell of the hot delivery room (blood, urine, faeces, that sort of thing) and it’s faintly off putting. Plus his umbilical cord stump is smelling pretty disgusting - as rotting flesh tends to do. And on top of that, there’s the smell of dirty nappies.
When I hold him close to me I still have a wave of affection pass over my body as I know that this my son and I do Read more:Smells
, Smelly
Coming Home and Coming Down 2007-07-29 08:03:39 Coming home from the hospital on Thursday was a massive event for us. Finally the pregnancy is over no more wondering when he was going to pop his head out. And the horrors of the labour and birth were behind us too. We just wanted to get home and get on with our new life.
It’s to be lovely: an adorable baby sleeping peacefully, a doting dog at his master’s feet, our beautiful house transformed into a wonderful home.
5 minutes after we got home though, the adrenalin that had been getting us through the previous few days finally gave way to tiredness and we realised: this is it from now on.
And the baby started to cry and the dog ate my slippers then pissed on the floor.
This is it from now on… Read more:Coming Home
Skin Flints No More 2007-08-02 16:01:46 When I read a few weeks back that Parents spend on average £2,628 on their child’s nursery, I threw my head back and let out a big self-satisfied laugh:
“Ho-ho, we haven’t spent anywhere near that!”
That’s not just because we are supremely tight but because we have no qualms about accepting 2nd hand things from people (also Mrs C’s parents bought most of the nursery furniture).
But back to 2nd hand things. The most expensive item that we got 2nd hand is a really nice Mama and Papa’s Freestyler Travel System (or pushchair come pram come car seat to you and I). Had we actually have paid for it, I would have cost us a fair chunk of that £2,628 that we saved on the nursery. But we didn’t pay for it so we were very happy. Except…
It doesn’t really work as a pram. Little P could easily slip out of the bottom if we hit the curb at high speed. There’s no way you can configure the Travel System so he will face you either. He&
Little P’s First Week 2007-07-31 16:33:49 Well, after all the waiting I can hardly believe it but Little P, Mrs C and myself have all made it through a complete week!
In many way’s it’s flown by and in some others it’s dragged like hell. The night he was born was so very long, despite being born at 9:42 I didn’t get home until 1:30 and was then too excited to sleep. His first night at home was also a pretty long one but we survived.
We are all settling in to a (sort of) routine; feeding, sleeping, nappy changing, feeding… etc. We’ve got used to it quite quickly. I heard again today someone say “The first 6 weeks are the worst”, well, either we’ve been very lucky so far or something changes dramatically at 6 weeks (sleeping through the night maybe?) but apart from that first night, it hasn’t been too bad (is that tempting fate a little too much?).
We have that new parent anxiety, of course. We phoned up the hospital to ask if Little P’s stump should be so smelly Read more:First
Baby Soft Skin 2007-08-03 06:35:14 Avid readers of this blog will know that when Little P finally popped his head out into this world he was 12 days overdue.
That meant he’d been been inside the amniotic fluid for just short of 9 and a half months. And just like when you spent a bit too long in the bath it made his hands and feet all wrinkly like prunes. We thought this was very adorable indeed - a little Californian Raisin of a boy.
As his skin started to dry out, however his hands and feet have turned into those of a hardy Norwegian fisherman’s. The cracks on his feet were so deep I thought they might actually bleed. They didn’t, of course; and now the cracks have gone to be replaced by flaky skin. A quick bit of research on the internet tells me that this is normal in babies and goes after (the ever ambiguous) “a few days”.
Well, it’s been 12 days and Little P’s skin is still so flaky (all over his body) that he is essentially a living, breathing flake of dandruff. If ever t
First Day Back at Work 2007-08-07 16:28:37 Sadly, today was my first day back at work after two weeks paternity leave. More scarily (for her at least) it was Mrs C’s first day looking after Little P and Bernard by herself.
I wasn’t looking forward to going back as I had just got used to staying at home and sharing the responsibility of parenthood (i.e. I was just getting into the Jeremy Kyle Show). But I was also not looking forward to going back as I have a dead-end job that I take no real pleasure from, ho-hum.
Mrs C wasn’t looking forward to me going back because she’s worried about coping with a baby and the Tasmanian Devil by herself. This probably wouldn’t have had been too bad a week ago, Little P was sleeping soundly all day long giving Mrs C time to spend with Bernard. However, she’s taking some antibiotics at the moment and, thanks to the magic of biology, these are upsetting Little P’s stomach (or so says the Health Visitor). He now whiles away the hours screaming Marilyn Man Read more:First
, First Day
Thank the Lord, the Smell Has Gone! 2007-08-05 15:56:33 Yes, the putrid stump has at last fallen off and with it has gone the foul smell.
Whether it was simply to make us feel better or not, the midwife told us on Friday that she had never known a stump to hold on for so long, nor one to smell quite so bad. This was some relief as Mrs C and I had started to wonder whether we were simply over reacting to the stench. She advised us to smear some Vaseline on a piece of cotton wool and place it over the stump. This should soften up what was there (and hopefully mask the smell a bit).
The momentous occasion came when doing a nappy change on Saturday evening. It was there stuck to the cotton wool and beautiful little belly button beneath.
Oh, how Little P smells so much better! Read more:Smell
, Thank
A Few Changes 2007-08-10 16:34:16 As some of you may have noticed, I’ve made a few changes to this here blog (sorry, I forgot to warn you: This post is blogging about blogging!).
I have finally got around to coding up a replacement for the “Fatherhood Expected in” countdown timer. Yes, I now have a cumbersome and clunky “Fatherhood Maintained For” count, er, up timer. I’m happy to share the code, if anyone wants it. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Well, on the off chance that you want it, leave me a comment and I will mail it to you.
I’ve also changed the graphic in the page header. For the benefit of newcomers or those with very bad memories, before it showed a man and a pregnant women. Now it shows me and Little P. Before the colour combination work really well to pick out the man and the woman. Now it has a radioactive man holding a radioactive baby.
Some more work is needed, I think.
I’ll get round to doing a complete blog redesign so it doesn’t look quite so amateur
Little P’s New Best Friend 2007-08-08 16:30:48 Here’s a picture of Little P’s new best friend:
After being brainwashed by the Blooming Marvellous catalogue given to us, we decided Little P’s vision needed to be stimulated and the blank side of the Moses basket wasn’t up to scratch.
So we bought this and he loves it - stares at it for ages.
His vision is now being stimulated like never before. Read more:New Best Friend
Breast Feeding Mums 2007-08-08 16:14:38 Ooh, will it never end? Another shamelessly self promoting blog entry. Sorry.
Sinead from BreastFeeding
Mum has been kind enough to admit to enjoying my Labour Day post so much she wanted to republish it on her very interesting and informative breast feeding site.
I was very humbled to be asked and only too pleased to agree. Thanks, Sinead.
I Think the Baby’s Hungry 2007-08-12 15:45:33 New born babies have only a few things that they really like to do; sleep, poo, wee, stare and eat. Some of these things that they love doing are also accompanied by the scream on the Banshee (those are: poo, wee, eat).
The worst scream that Little P does is his “I’m really hungry” scream.
Thanks to our experiences over the past (let me check the new counter) 19 days we have started to predict when the screaming is going to start. Not that we can actually stop him screaming, of course.
So we cradle him in our arms, give him a little hug and gently swing him back and forth until Mrs C is ready to dish out the rations and the screaming slowly but surely turns into snuffling.
Yes, Little P makes noises like a boar snuffling for truffles when he’s snuffling for a nipple.
Now, they don’t mention that in the books. Read more:Hungry
Just a Quickie 2007-08-26 15:05:54 Just a quick post to assure you all that I haven’t forgotten about this blog and that as soon as I get time to breath I will be back posting again… by my guess that should be sometime in 2023.
See you then… Read more:Quickie
Sleeping Like a Baby 2007-09-25 15:35:38 Right, so I thought I’d get back into blogging with a post about my favourite subject: sleeping.
Every parent I spoke to in the weeks leading up to Little P’s birth said, in essence, the same thing: “Kiss goodbye to sleep”. And, in a way, we have done.
The first few nights with Little P at home were deceptive, he was feeling the effects of Mrs C’s drugs binge and had chosen to sleep off his hang over. This gave us a false sense that Little P would sleep from 11pm until 6am from day one and that our lives would be full of joy, laughter and most importantly sleep. Oh but how wrong we were.
Peter decided that once his head had cleared he liked food. Yes, he liked food oh so very much. And he didn’t care whether it was day or night he want food.
So our nights were broken with feeds at 11pm then at 2am and again at 5am. But it seemed to be a routine and we didn’t mind so much. We had a system, on work nights (Mon to Thur) Mrs C would do the change a Read more:Sleeping
We’re Back in Business 2007-09-24 15:35:13 OK, so Peter’s now 2 months old today (checks timer, yep, still working) and I thought that it was about time to start writing this blog again on a regular basis.
Tonight was going to be the first *proper* entry but I’ve just been up and down the stairs for the 5th time tonight (a very agitated and sleepless baby tonight) and to be honest, I can’t be bothered to write much.
So just to say, over the coming weeks I’ll be playing catch up with the last 2 months as well as telling you all the hilarious things Little P does on a daily basis (”…and then he just stared at me for hours. How brilliant is that?” etc).
It’s nice to be back and I hope there is still the odd reader out there.
Cheers, Ian. Read more:Business
Mango is Off the Menu 2008-07-16 08:13:02 For the first 6 months of a baby’s life no solid food is supposed to pass their lips.
By the time P got to 5 months he was showing a lot of interest in solid food. And by “a lot of interest” I mean watching the food Mrs C and I were eating like a hawk [...] Read more:Mango
The Perpetual Cold 2008-07-07 08:51:13 I’ve always been fairly healthy.
I eat well, do a bit of exercise, never really had anything major wrong with me - you know, apart from the obvious.
But that all changed about 3 months after P (I’m officially dropping the ‘Little’ as I nearly put my back out trying to pick him today) was born. Since [...]
Norman Fowler: Stay at Home Dad 2008-07-07 04:16:33 Norman Fowler and I have a lot in common.
We’ve both quite high profile jobs beneath the glaring spot light of the media whilst serving in Maggie Thatchers final Government.
On second thoughts, maybe we’ve not got so much in common.
Still, here’s an interesting piece from Saturday’s Guardian about Norman putting his family before his job. Read more:Norman
Back in Business… Again 2008-07-04 15:47:57 Hello and welcome to the new Dad: About the Boy!
Some eagle-eyed readers might think that the content of DATB looks a little familiar. Almost as if it’s been copied from somewhere else… well, that’s because it has been.
DATB is the new home of the my previous parenting blog “The Expectant Father”. Despite the obvious flaw [...] Read more:Again
, Business
Sleeping Like a Baby 2007-09-25 15:35:38 Right, so I thought I’d get back into blogging with a post about my favourite subject: sleeping.
Every parent I spoke to in the weeks leading up to Little P’s birth said, in essence, the same thing: “Kiss goodbye to sleep”. And, in a way, we have done.
The first few nights with Little P at home [...] Read more:Sleeping
We’re Back in Business 2007-09-24 15:35:13 OK, so Peter’s now 2 months old today (checks timer, yep, still working) and I thought that it was about time to start writing this blog again on a regular basis.
Tonight was going to be the first *proper* entry but I’ve just been up and down the stairs for the 5th time tonight (a very [...] Read more:Business
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