sparky wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 9:19 am Congratulations, cakes. If all goes well, we may be sharing sleep deprivation stories over Elden Ring - our first sprog’s due in late March.

Awesome! I'd love to swap stories.

I can't speak for everyone's experience here, but the first week has been fairly easy, aside from my wife's recovery. Our little girl is super chill right now, not very fussy, eats like a champ.

Good luck and enjoy your time as a couple before the day comes and you transform into a family. It's an amazing experience that's hard to put into words.

Man, that first year is a roller coaster. My mantra the second time through was no matter how bad it gets, it will get better. No matter how good it gets it will get worse.

When you start getting sleep deprived for long stretches time gets weird. You start to think that's just what life is going to be, but it's not. Likewise with some smooth days.

The infant thing is magic and terrible, but it's very specific and relatively short. The toddler stage is so different and much longer.

I'd tell you to cherish it, but everyone says that and it's a dumb thing to tell someone. I'm sure you're soaking it up.

cakes wrote: Mon Dec 20, 2021 4:37 pm I officially joined the club on 12/14/21 with the birth of my daughter.

whoa congrats! This would have been surprising news from you 5 or 10 years ago but you seem game for this new stage of life. Enjoy, even thru the exhausting parts!

cakes wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 12:33 pm

sparky wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 9:19 am Congratulations, cakes. If all goes well, we may be sharing sleep deprivation stories over Elden Ring - our first sprog’s due in late March.

Awesome! I'd love to swap stories.

I can't speak for everyone's experience here, but the first week has been fairly easy, aside from my wife's recovery. Our little girl is super chill right now, not very fussy, eats like a champ.

Good luck and enjoy your time as a couple before the day comes and you transform into a family. It's an amazing experience that's hard to put into words.

Cheers! Great to hear so far that the experience has been relatively comfortable - may that continue. I am expecting is to be completely banjaxed in a way that will be impossible to conceptualise.

jimmy spako wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 11:17 amYeehaw

Note incoming, Beautiful Jim! x

So glad this thread made the jump to the new forum. I got so much out of the original.

In a few days, my daughter turns 6, which feels impossible - especially since I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, like 6 years ago the manager ran out, tossed me the keys, and said "I need to take care of something. You're in charge until I get back. Should only be gone for for a few minutes"... and then never came back.

So many of the clichés remain true: The first few months are a blur of exhaustion. I learn more from her than she does from me. The days are long but the years are short. All accurate.

I measure my life before parenthood versus after like when the Wizard of Oz switches from black and white to color, and everything -- highs and lows -- are more dramatic.

Salut, PRF parents and parents-to-be!

cakes wrote: Mon Dec 20, 2021 4:37 pm I officially joined the club on 12/14/21 with the birth of my daughter.

Congratulations to you all! Welcome!

offal wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 2:21 pm The days are long but the years are short.

This is so ironicallly true.

7 years ago on this day (Dec. 24) I announced the birth of my youngest here. Was a very interesting Christmas for me and Momma and has been ever since.

Salut! PRF parents!

^ It's hard when you don't know how to help and you don't want to cut in.

My wife interloped on a talk I was having with my daughter and it felt very judgy and undercut me (even though she had a good point). I don't want to do that, but sometimes you hear it getting off on the wrong foot.

My daughter read all of Go Dog Go for me this morning. It was awesome. She's 14.





(Just kidding, 5).