Flat Pack… Never again!!

7 Boxes!!!!

So, we are now down to 13 weeks til the arrival of our bundle of joy. 13 weeks til I feel like I am back in the Army and going through sleep deprivation exercises. I absolutely cannot wait!

First though, the house needs to be prepared. Yet another thing that I didn’t even think about. Yet more expenses, and more things to do. So, a week of my annual leave has been used, and we have one week to do all the jobs that’s necessary to ensure we are as prepared as we can be.

Apparently, we need a new fireplace installing, “it will give us more room for the pram and stuff”. OK, I can get on board with that, but this also means that the walls need a different colour to ensure it looks right. Now the skirting boards will need glossing as well, it wouldn’t look right otherwise would it?

That’s just the front room as well, we also need a bath installing. I’m really excited about this one, I cannot wait to be able to play with the little one in the bath, mainly because of all the cool toys I’ll have. We need new carpets fitting at the top of the stairs to replace the mess that the cats have caused scratching away to get in to our room, and of course we can’t get carpet to match the one that’s currently there, no one will notice though surely. We need to re-paper, repaint and re-gloss in other rooms, and all this before I start the job I am most looking forward to and dreading at the same time.

FLAT PACKING!!!

The nursery furniture, all seven glorious boxes of it, which has been taking up my dining room for the past week needs assembling. Now, if you’re like me, you will hate it. The instructions never seem to be right (it may be because I don’t actually read them), parts are missing and then worst of all, you are always left with a screw that you can’t seem to put anywhere. All is not lost for me though, I am incredibly lucky enough to have a friend who loves flat packing, for now at least.

All of this though is being organised by my darling other half, who by the way has made an excel spreadsheet detailing who is doing what and on what days. I can’t post it as she will kill me, but it is there none the less, and it will no doubt help. This is also the part that the mothers can’t really get involved with as much, due to not being able to be near paint fumes and such. So this is my bit, or at least it feels like it is. Plus, you have all the family and friends to help at this stage, and boy have they been great so far. You only need to ask and people are willing to come round and paint and help move furniture and help in any way needed. All of my friends and family have been great so far, and I’m hoping it stays that way after the baby is here, we need babysitters after all (hint, hint!).

Seen as this is the last week off for the both of us now until the baby is due, I am really hoping that we can get away for a day or two as well to have some time alone. It will be the last time we are off as a two instead of a three. Now that’s weird to say, a three!!

I’m actually quite looking forward to going back to work and having a break 🙂

Face Your Fears…

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Ah, the joys of parenting. Fun, stress, embarrassment and more importantly for today, fear!

No one tells you that it starts the moment you find out you’re going to be a parent, but it does. As soon as you see the positive symbol (or faintly make it out in my case) on the pregnancy test there are a million different things that go through your head. Am I ready to be a parent? How much is this going to cost me? and am I going to be good at it?

Dads also have the worry of their partner as well. I’m forever thinking about my wife in her pregnant state. I keep telling her to go and have a nap, stop what you’re doing, and worrying about what she is doing is affecting the baby. Of course, I’m being over the top, but it is my first and I want it to go well. 

I have of course mainly been thinking that I cant wait til I get to see my little human for the first time and hold him/her. But I have got to wait, either 4 weeks or 16 weeks. Let me explain why.

After our first midwife appointment, my partners blood test results came back. It turns out that she has a blood group which can cause problems. Now this I found incredibly weird. How can the mothers blood work against the babies? Crazy. It also turns out that she already has a high level of antibodies in her system which are potentially dangerous to the baby. If they get any higher, then we are looking at having the baby at 28 weeks. So now, we are waiting and worrying about these antibodies, and she is being tested every 2 weeks to see if they have risen.

It really is amazing though what the health care service can do. Did you know, that in Bristol, UK, they can determine what blood group the baby is by extracting the babies DNA from the mothers blood. Unbelievable!! 

You also have the fear of, will the baby be healthy? will the baby have any abnormalities? 

Deep down, we all have these fears, and it’s OK to have them. You shouldn’t have to feel bad just because you think like this. In fact, we should be talking over these fears with our partners. They will be thinking the exact same thing and by talking them over with each other, you will help to subside them.

Us dads also feel like we shouldn’t be asking questions or talking to other dads. We should be the strong ones, the people that our partners can rely on when needed. How can we be if we haven’t done it ourselves? Which when you think about it, it is ridiculous. There’s no such thing as a stupid question, ask as many as you need to, and talk to each other.

These 9 months should be filled with memories and happy moments, and I guarantee they will be. Enjoy them, don’t sit there worrying about things that might never happen, if you do get news that isn’t to your liking, then relax in the knowledge of the health care service will do everything it can to help. 

Of course, I’m saying all this and writing it down, I know I should be doing this, but I’m not going to stop having these thoughts. What I am going to do though, is talk through them and then enjoy the last few weeks of my life without a child. Go places that we want to and see things that we haven’t seen yet. 

After all, I’m not going to be able to afford to to do this later, am I?