First dispatch from the nappy trenches
I’m a Dad. Here’s my first report from two weeks of nappies, feeds and broken sleep…
So, I'm a Dad. While the rest of the world was glued to the Olympics opening ceremony, I was glued to the sight of my wife going throught quite unnerving amounts of pain, as my baby daughter entered the world. Two weeks later, I'm finally beginning to take stock. And I've discoverd two things:
- Babies are quite extraordinarily boring
- They're also the most fascinating little creatures on the face of the planet.
There's an awful lot of just sitting/standing/walking around holding the little one. My Kindle's seeing action as I sit on the bed holding her while she settles down to sleep - my, uh, broad chest and lack of a milky smell seem more condusive to settling her down than Mum's - but sometimes, while I'm walking and patting waiting for a burp to come, it's pretty dull. I have a feeling I'll be using this time for podcast and audiobook listening in a few weeks' time.
And then, out of the blue, she'll fix her eyes on mine, and just stare at me. And I'm utterly rapt. The whole world falls away and its just me and my baby, and that's awesome. I lose chunks of time just watching her sleep, too. It's like a wierd fugue state where you just stare at her, losing all sense of time or place, and just revelling in parenthood.
She has her hooks in my brain - and she's not letting go.