Pleh

My friend and cow-orker, Grumpy and his wife (Ms Grumpy?) had their first child yesterday. Congratulations to you both and welcome to parenthood.

Enjoy the rest and help while you can at the hospital and with your families around, because once you get home and it’s just the two of you staring down into that tiny, beautiful, precious little face, you are so in for it. I love being a dad, but until you’re in it, it’s just impossible to comprehend how completely it takes over your life. It’s like a freight train and your previous lives just got creamed.

There’s a lot I miss about my old, pre-G life, but I wouldn’t want to trade even one bit of what I have now for what it was like then. It’s amazingly hard work, but amazingly rewarding too. (I’m told that I might rethink that once G’s a teenager, but I’ll enjoy what we have now.) As G approaches three, I can honestly tell you, it just keeps getting better. (Apply above teenager disclaimer here too.)

These are my notes:

• Enjoy rest whenever and wherever you can
• Pay attention to signs of postpartum depression. From what I’ve read, a lot of women get this and try to hide it out of shame or fear of being seen as weak.
• You’ll get used to dirty diapers. Puke on the other hand…./me shivers
• There will be plenty of both.
• No matter how tough it seems — especially at the beginning, when it’s the middle of the night, the baby’s crying, but not eating and you’re both half-crazed from sleep deprivation — it will get better.
• Oh, and take lots of pictures.