The delights of being a father

I have spoken in the past of my delight at becoming a father for the first time, but I have so far held back from a regular blog or even just a small update.  The temptation to write a cliché filled “new dad” blog, full of stories of being pooed/puked/peed on (or all three) and suffering with sleep deprivation could be too much.  This has been done countless times.  But, becoming a parent is a unique and different experience for each person.  Ultimately, parents to be will always appreciate any helpful advice – I know we did.

Rhys is now coming up to 7 months old and after appearing 5 weeks earlier than planned, he is showing no signs of being a premature baby.  In fact he probably looks a bit older than his age!  A gardener doing work for my in-laws commented that his dad must be a rugby player.  That’s his five foot six inch, nine and a half stone dad.  I would be torn apart if I attempted a game of rugby.  So must be something he has got from his mummy.  I gave him my looks - the poor little thing.

With this size, comes a large appetite.  He definitely doesn’t have a problem eating and is now enjoying solids.  As parents, the wife and I have agreed to a healthy and less lazy option.  He doesn’t have baby food jars, we cook meat and veg and are trying to instil a healthy lifestyle in him.  In fact, when we were in Manchester for the marathon, we gave in and used jars as we couldn’t cook fresh food for him and won’t trust restaurants to leave added salt and sugar out.  Problem was, Rhys has become used to good fresh food, and actually turned his nose up at the goo we tried to feed him.

What shocks me is that there are parents out there who don’t care what they feed their babies.  Laziness takes over, which is pointless as we just cook a little extra for Rhys when cooking our own food (remembering to leave out salt when boiling pasta, rice and veg). I know of one parent who, in the last couple of weeks, has fed their 11 month old baby a MacDonalds and a Chinese take away!  Now I know being a runner I can be a bit “over the top” with eating healthily but common sense tells you that isn’t good for a baby.

Now, what I am about to write, we make us instantly hated by a lot of other parents.  Rhys sleeps through, and rarely wakes up.  I know, it’s just not fair.  He usually settles down about half seven and won’t wake us up till around half six in the morning, when I am just going out for a morning run.  Occasionally, if he is suffering with a cold, he will wake up in the middle of the night and come in with us, but this is very rare.  And he doesn’t scream or cry, just baby talks - which is very cute, just not so much at four in the morning!

My favourite moments are when I come home from work, or from a run and his face lights up. He smiles at me and holds his arms out for a cuddle from daddy.  Of course, the flip side is when I leave for work and he looks quite sad to see me leave.  At that age he can’t even begin to comprehend the importance of working to feed and keep a roof over our heads.  But as other dads will testify, it still makes it very difficult.

Now though, it is all about movement and exploration.  He can roll on to his tummy and has started to try and crawl.  To be honest, he hasn’t quite grasped the art of crawling as he uses his head and not his arms to drag himself along.  But he doesn’t get upset, so we leave him to develop the skill himself.  Until frustration gets the better of him and he has a small temper tantrum.

Being a dad is a very rewarding experience.  It is a challenge trying to juggle work, running, writing and being a husband.  But I have the greatest wife, who makes it work for us.  Though I always have time for my little “baba”, which is why I will be posting this blog with nothing more than a quick glance, so I can go and feed him!