I really have to begin by saying that I miss all you guys and Jane has told me several times that many of you have been asking about me. I’ve just put my ‘dad hat’ on and have put my nose down and have been working very, very hard. The free time that I do have, I spend with Monkey of course.
What a journey we’ve been on, huh?
From first finding out that Jane was pregnant and dealing with all the things you deal with when you have a pregnant wife and all the thoughts that I’m sure most soon-to-be fathers have about becoming a father. From Jane’s breastfeeding struggles and postpartum blues to her depression. Dealing with those VERY, VERY rough first few weeks – when I blogged at 2, 3, 4, 5 or whenever in the AM in an attempt to keep me sane. (Reading those past posts is WEIRD. I don’t remember writing 90% of those posts!)
It’s really cool that we’ve been able to share this journey with everyone – and as they say, “the party is just getting started!”
Before I go into all the Dad stuff I’ve been wanting to blog about, I first wanted to talk about my beautiful Jane – and how proud I am of her. She’s come SO far over the last couple of months. And she’s truly an awesome Mom. She’s so good with Monkey and one of my new favorite things in life is seeing her with him.
It’s strange. I LOVE holding and playing with Monkey. But I also LOVE seeing Jane with him. Earlier today Jane was on the couch holding Monkey and playing with him and she and I were talking. After awhile she asked if I wanted to hold him, and I was about to say yes, but then I realized how much fun I was having just seeing her with him. It was a strange feeling. I wanted to hold him, but I also just loved seeing her with him.
After a few minutes Jane put Monkey into my arms and I played with him, sang to him, talked to him, made him dance, walk up my chest, and made him ‘oooooo’ back to me.
Being a Dad is nothing like what I would have expected. It’s more calming (at least right now – knock on wood) than I would have ever imagined. It’s also 10,000 times easier than I though. Now that we’re through those tough few weeks – everything has been a BREEZE now. Monkey only cries when he’s hungry – which is only for a minute while we get his food ready.
He’s on a GREAT schedule that allows Jane and I to get a normal amount of sleep – which is VERY helpful to both our mental health!
And seeing Monkey smile at me is amazing. His smiles melt away any stress that I have. His smiles make me feel incredible. And his smiles make me love him more and more everyday.
It’s SO COOL to wake up in the AM, go see Monkey and Jane who are usually on the couch watching TV, give Jane a kiss and talk to Monkey. When he sees me he gives me HUGE smiles and just stares at me. I love, love, love that.
I also love how he sticks his tongue out at me when I stick mine out to him. He’s copied me doing that since a week or two old – and learned that a baby can do that on some DVD we watched. However, Jane wants me to stop doing that for awhile because all of the pictures of Monkey have his tongue sticking out because he now does it all the time at us!!! LOL!
Lately I’ve been “oooooooing” at Monkey and he picked that right up and does it right back to us with some big smiles at the same time. He’ll “oooooo” after I “ooooo” over and over and over. It makes me smile and laugh and we have a lot of fun doing it. Next will be “ahhhhhh” and see if he’ll catch on and copy me doing that. Then maybe I’ll start saying “mommy” and “daddy” a lot to him.
Truth is, I really don’t know how old children are when they usually start talking – and if I’m doing all this too early, but I don’t care. We have fun doing it and I get big reactions from him. And speaking of reactions… I LOVE hearing Jane read to Monkey every single day. Monkey LOVES it and becomes so vocal while Jane reads to him. He’ll look at the pictures and look at her and make all sorts of noises and get all excited and move around. Monkey loves his Mommy reading to him. I’m sure it’s his favorite part of the day – and I’ll admit, it’s mine too. I just love listening to Jane read to him. It makes me happy.
So yeah, things are easy. Diaper changes are not as bad as I thought they would be… so far anyway. I guess once we start Monkey on solid foods, Jane and I are in for some BIG surprises, BIG smells, and BIG messes!
And what’s crazy to me is that Jane and I are in a fairly solid routine everyday. Since we met we’ve never been on any routine. I’ve never been one for routines and have always had troubles sticking to any routine, but we had no choice but to get into one for Monkey. And you know what? It’s been great. Granted with me working a lot for the last couple of months Jane has been doing a lot of the ‘work’ during the day with Monkey. I appreciate that so much. We’ve got a great system going – and all is good.
So is another baby or two or three in our future?
Well, I know Jane wants to have four… yes, FOUR kids. Ummm… I can’t imagine that. I’m an only child – and honestly can’t imagine how in the heck we’d be able to do two… three even… and four – how in the heck would we ever sleep, eat, bathe, breathe!?
As long as Jane does not forget to take her pill this upcoming Halloween (which is how we became parents last year!) I think we’ll be waiting for awhile before talking about the next one. Having a baby Jane would be cool – I’ll admit that though. :)
But… that’ll be a ways down the road… at least that’s the plan anyway.
You might also want to read:
- Baby Throwing Up: Monkey Throwing Up Formula Last Night. We Were Scared.
- At roughly this exact time last year, we made a little Monkey.
- An open letter to soon-to-be Dad’s and new Fathers: MAN UP you lazy #&%$. Seriously.
- 10 ways our baby has told me how much he loves me and how to tell if your baby loves you!
- 5 weeks pregnant: To tell or wait
Thanks guys! Sorry for the delay in the follow-up post as mentioned in the above comment. Been quite busy, but will get it posted as soon as I can. :) I also have a funny Monkey story to share!!!
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