Thoughts from the Fatherland

A post from Stewart (aka: Dad)

Becoming a father.

Last Saturday morning I attended a class called "Becoming a father" at Holy Cross Hospital. The class, more of a group discussion really, consisted of about 10 first time fathers and a single nurse named Karen Sullivan who ran the event. There were also two 'guest dads', previous grads I believe, who came to add to the discussion.

The first hour was an introduction where each dad gave their name and what they wanted to get out of the class. I mentioned that with baby sitting and Eliza, I wondered if I was too confident and didn't realize all the things I didn't know. Most of us were there because our wives signed us up for it. Actually all of us.

The conversation sort of took it own course and the guest dads chimed in a lot about things to help out your wife and what supplies were most useful. Things like how to wash the umbilical cord and what products to use and to avoid. We laughed a lot and everyone had a 'you can't believe a grown man could be this dumb, but...." story.

1. Bring a gift for the nurses.
2. A push gift. A little something for the wifey.
3. The first few weeks will be the longest of your life. Get over it now.
4. Take off a least two weeks of work if you can.
5. It's worth every bit of pain and trouble.

We finished with hands on training. Swaddling. Diaper changes. I gave my bit about putting a spare under the child's head to wide acclaim.
Go me.

Well worth the few hours.