The First Three Weeks of Fatherhood
Anonymous writes "The First Three Weeks of Fatherhood
Egon Engelbert
Here I am, (tada!) exactly three weeks after becoming a father for the first time. For a little over 31 years, I have been preparing myself for fatherhood, with countless hours of training, practice, and anticipation that I hoped to make me a better dad.
Okay, maybe I didn’t spend 31 years actually doing anything besides wonder what it will be like, but I did spend many hours over the last few months worrying about how I will do as a dad. I experienced the hopes and fears I’m sure every man does prior to the birth of his first child:
Who’s going to change the baby’s diapers?
What am I going to do when the baby cries?
Who’s going to change the baby’s diapers?
How are we going to pay for all the baby stuff?
Do I really have to change diapers?
Well, I can honestly tell you that the answers to all of these questions and more are the same: Yikes! Within the months before and now three weeks after the birth of our baby I felt so overwhelmed at times that I had to wonder how, with all of this stress, anyone anywhere had ever decided to have a baby, let alone more than one. (This was especially true after witnessing the birth. Although an intense and beautifully-ending experience, anyone who looks forward to the event is crazy.)
Now that I’ve survived 21 days and nights of crying, diaper-changing, feeding, holding, sleep-walking, nipple-washing, head-cradling, and giving the Walter Payton stiff arm to anyone with a sniffle who even thinks about moving into a three mile radius of my kid, I can honestly tell you that my expertise in child rearing has increased by a number smaller than the girth of a pigmy ant.
Meanwhile, my wife, God bless her, is running circles around me. She can multitask in a manner that makes her seem like an octopus, and never seems to worry. It’s a good thing for our daughter that my wife is on this team, because otherwise I would have fed the baby the diaper, lost the formula, and right now be on my way to take the dog to the pediatrician. My wife is the all star on this young team, and I envision myself as the coach that the fans boo and demand to be fired, yet somehow the owners ignore their cries and I keep coming back year after year.
What I do have, however, after 21 days of fatherhood is practice. I get up to check on the baby, feed her, hold her, and even, at times, I change the filthy diapers, and slowly the worry changes. It changes from “how will I be as a dad?” and “who’s going to change these diapers?” to “how am I going to kill anyone that ever hurts or disappoints my little girl?” and “who can I hornswaggle to change the next diaper?” My girl is taking over my every thought, and I can honestly say the change I’ve gone through to become a dad has been worth every bit of stress it’s caused.
(This probably sounds like small potatoes to any woman who has ever given birth. To them I say pass the potatoes! God bless every one of you who decides to brave the toils and pains of pregnancy, labor, and childbirth. If it was up to us (I’m sure you’ve heard this before) the human race would have died after Adam and Eve’s first baby. Can you imagine? Yikes!)
Father’s Day is coming up soon. My wife asks me what I want from my daughter and I honestly believe that I already have the greatest gift in my daughter and my wife. Besides, at this point in the game I haven’t done much. Not nearly as much as my wife has done for her first Mother’s Day.
Maybe my gift could be a whole day without changing a single diaper…"
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The First Three Weeks of FatherhoodTuesday, 13 January 2009 The First Three Weeks of Fatherhood Anonymous writes "The First Three Weeks of Fatherhood Egon Engelbert Here I am, (tada!) exactly...
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