Doing it Dads way.

Hi Everyone. My name is Marcis, I am the biggest geek you will ever meet. I have an apple tattoo, have worked in most of the large IT companies in the world and I am the happiest Dad of a little man called Xavier. Funnily enough, I had picked Xavier’s name close to 10 years before he was actually born, he is the only boy with the family name, so I am very happy that he decided to grace my life.
I thought as a guest post I would go through some things I was never told, had no idea about and how I do things differently to my partner.

Things I was never told.

I had no idea how much puke you can get on you in a day, I have changed shirts 7 times in one day! Luckily I didn’t have to wash them all *tongue in cheek*.

I had no idea how easy it is to change a dirty nappy. I have always said to everyone, “I will never change a crappy nappy,” but now I realise it really is not that bad. They do lower you slowly into the smell though, so you do get an adjustment time.

Things I had no idea about.

How much sleep I would be going without. Seriously, even though I was sleeping on the couch so that I could get to work in the morning, I was exhausted when I got home every day. Several times I drove to work and could not remember having driven there! In the middle of peak hour Melbourne traffic!

How much a single smile can fix everything. The second Xavier smiles, no matter what has just happened, whether he has just inflicted me with the abyss that is the crappy nappy or has just pulled a handful of hair from my chest, I find I am smiling and totally happy with everything. It is quite addictive to be honest.

How much everyone wants to hold your baby. Xavier is a big baby, in the 99th Percentile for most measurements. The second anyone finds out that he is 4 months but looks like a year old baby, they want a hold. Random people on the street to people you never thought would be interested in holding him.

Things I do differently than my partner.

Unfortunately, when Xavier was 10 weeks old, his mother became very sick and ended up staying in Hospital for 10 days. I became the sole carer and by Jeebus, it was scary. I got help from the Mother and the Mother-in-Law but it was still down to me. During this time though, we found that Xavier could self-settle to sleep, but could only do so when he was on his tummy. Yes, I know that we are told not to do this, but up until then Xavier would only sleep for 90 minutes. Now he sleeps for up to 5 hours!

But the side effect of finding this out, my partner was uncomfortable putting him to sleep as I was the one who could do this magical thing. But I love doing it, when I lay him on his back, he looks up at me, gives me a smile then flips over for a well-deserved sleep.

We have also got our own style for the night feeds, I am a morning person, my partner is a night person, so she gets up for his midnight and 4am feeds, I get up with him at 6am. This works for us and to be honest, I love my little time with him.

Well I hope I have given some insight into how the male side handles with the baby thing. I won’t say that it has been easy so far, but it has been worth it.