Wednesday, August 16, 2006

nights to remember

staring out into the future..

I'm gradually getting used to the sleepless nights since junior arrived home. Its been pretty exhausting but kudos to the wife as she is bearing the full brunt of junior's antics at night.
We've been told it's a phase and in a couple of weeks he'll adjust to sleeping through the night. (I can't wait)

Its still a strange feeling knowing there's an individual out there with my genes. I'm gradually bonding with him, its easier for the wife i suppose he sees her as his only source of nourishment so they're pretty much glued together.

I was the first person he saw when he opened his eyes. He was handed over to me the night he was born by one of the midwives (while the wife was heavily sedated) and she said something along the lines of 'congratulations here's your son'. I was surprised that i didn't really feel anything, it was like someone introducing me to a complete stranger. However by the next day i was in full fatherhood mode, i suspect it took a full night's sleep for my brain to fully understand the implications of what happened the night before..

so 2 weeks later i'm still coming to grips with life as a dad while junior is changing and growing by the day, the other day my mum said he looked just like me, which is kind of strange considering he seemed to look like the wife when he was born.
I suppose the jury's still out on who he looks like


"It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was." - Anne Sexton
for my dad (aug 16 1938 - apr 19 2004)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on being a new dad! I like your honest description of what new fatherhood is like...
Question: is it true that witnessing the birth is actually a turnoff for most men (b/c of how gruesome it is?)

ijebuman said...

Thanks.
I was lucky as i didn't see the 'gruesome stuff' but i could definitely understand why it would be a turn off. I believe there are some things you don't really want to see if you want things to continue the way it was before. But kudos to all women i never knew child birth was so messy and dangerous.