Due Date Coming

It’s been almost a month and a half since I last wrote on this blog and I can’t say it was for good reasons.  I’d mostly blame laziness but also, a little blame would go towards not knowing how much I want to share.  It’s been 29 weeks since it was confirmed my wife was pregnant, 25 weeks since we announced to family and friends, 18 weeks since we found out we were having a boy and now here we are just over 3 weeks away from welcoming our son into this world.

Things are starting to pick up and before we know it we’ll be elbow deep in dirty diapers and messy clothes.  Just a few weeks ago I was starting to feel anxious about pretty much everything.  How was the car seat going to fit, what was the fastest route to the hospital, (because I do not want to get stuck on Lake Shore Drive at rush hour) and would I be a good father.  These were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to what was running through my head.  Luckily though my wife has helped me by being the strong woman she is and also signing us up for classes at the hospital.

The first one we attended was about what to expect when expecting.  This class was exactly what I needed when it came to understanding what we would need to do when the big day arrived.  We were given information, mostly for the fathers, about what to be watching for when the mothers would be getting ready to give birth and what to do when things started happening.  The instructor of the class even gave us a little bit of stuff to think about when it came to understanding the changes that were coming.

Another great thing about this class was the tour of the hospital’s delivery rooms and patient’s rooms.  This put my mind at ease being to see what we were getting into when arriving at the hospital.  The instructor of the class, who is also a nurse in the maternity ward, walked us through the process and stages we would be going through on the big day, even letting us know how to use the valet parking when arriving at the entrance.

This was a big reliever for me.  One thing I always want to know is the plan when things start happening.  This is why I think fatherhood is going to be tough for me at times.  You can’t always plan out children and if you try things just seem to go worse.  But knowing the steps of how everything will work once in the hospital gave me some relief from my anxiety for the time being.

Something else I’ve been doing in my spare time is reading books about parenting.  This can be good or bad depending on what is read and how it’s taken.  I knew early on when I read things I’d get stressed out and start worrying because I felt everything I was taking in needed to stay in my head.  But now as I read, I understand just because I want it to go a certain way doesn’t mean it will and just because I read a child was helped by parenting a certain way it doesn’t mean my child will.  I am pretty much ready to not know what is going on for the next 18 years.

Now that the due date is getting closer (June 8th) and it seems things are starting to happen I hope to post more so I can share my experiences and maybe join the conversation of living with and raising a child with other fathers and mothers.  I also hope to learn from others when I need the help and maybe, just maybe someone can learn from my experiences I live through.