Dude, You're Gonna Be a Dad!
Read Dude, You're Gonna Be a Dad! Online
Authors: John Pfeiffer
Tags: #HEALTH & FITNESS / Pregnancy & Childbirth, #HUMOR / Topic / Marriage & Family, #FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Parenting / Fatherhood
You’re Gonna Be a
DAD!
How to Get (Both of You) Through the
Next 9 Months
Avon, Massachusetts
To Kaitlyn, Lindsay, and Zoey:
Find out what you are passionate about, and chase it with everything you’ve got. And know that we will always love you more today than we did yesterday.
Introduction: The Evolving Dude (er, Dad)
Chapter 1: And We’re Off
When Conception Isn’t a Piece of Cake
When and How Do We Spill the Beans?
Time to Talk: Conquering Fears, Being Supportive, and When to Say Nothing
Morning Sickness: Like a Really Long Hangover
Helping Her Appreciate Her New Body (Lovin' the Curves)
What Kind of Health Professional Does She Want?
The Lowdown on Doctor’s Office Visits
Which Appointments Do I Attend?
What Do I Do If Something Goes Wrong?
Chapter 4: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Chapter 5: Baby Stuff
Chapter 6: Getting Ready for the Delivery
Getting Your BS Degree (Baby Safety, of Course)
Chapter 7: Things to Squeeze In Before the Baby Squeezes Out
Making Sense out of Every Dollar
Do I Really Need to Buy Her a “Push” Gift?
Dissecting Advice for New Dads
I Saw the Sign, and It Opened Up Her Cervix
Post-Birth Hospital Dos and Don’ts
Chapter 10: Taking Junior Home
Letting Grandparents Lend a Hand
The Evolving Dude (er, Dad)
Pregnancy: the final frontier. It requires a total rewiring of your male thought process, which has been programmed since puberty to remind you to have sex responsibly and
not
impregnate your partner. So now that you’re having sex to
try
to impregnate your partner, it’s time to adjust to the idea of your life as a father.
As Dad-to-be, your primary job is to make sure Mom-to-be doesn’t see red during this stressful time of emotional and physical upheaval for her, and to do your part to make the pregnancy as successful as possible.
This next stage — after conception — is all about research, planning, and making decisions. It’s the way of nesting BMPs. What’s that? Not familiar with the term? Your BMP is your “baby-making partner,” that special someone you’ve chosen to embark on this journey with. And now that you have your partner, the challenge for you is to take an active part while all this gestating is going down. If you let it, the pregnancy game can swallow you up, leaving your BMP and her mother to make every decision. And you may think you’re doing the right thing, being supportive and nodding your head in a north-and-south direction to every question thrown your way. But this can soon become a habit and before you know it, “Yes, dear, whatever you think,” is your default setting. Until one day you wake up and realize you have a son named Percy and your wife is dressing him in a sailor suit. Your boy will already be off to a rough start — other babies will be plotting to steal little Percy’s lunch money. If you let it go that far, it’s extremely difficult to change things.
So the moral of the story is this: Give input right from the start. You need to carefully consider each decision. You have much to learn, grasshopper. Being informed and involved will make the process more fulfilling and less confusing, and of course it will help prevent the woman in your life from having to do all of the work. If creating a child takes two people, raising a child takes at least that many.
You need to stay on top of the ball and not get caught with your pants down — a position that’s perfectly acceptable during the impregnation phase, but not so much when you’re asked your opinion on critical issues like the color of the baby’s room, or if and when Mommy is going back to work after baby arrives. You need to score a name for your child that you like but that still pleases Mom
and
all the grandparents. There’s a lot being thrown at you and your BMP.
There are approximately 3,712 ways for a man to look stupid during the pregnancy, and I’m here to help you avoid (most of) them. Time is of the essence, and you need to prepare.
This urgency is caused by the fact that she’s arming herself, as you read this, with knowledge about pregnancy and everything it entails. She is nose deep in books you would never spend two seconds reading. She will be filled with facts and figures, while you’ll still be trying to figure out how Malcolm Gladwell gets his hair to look like that, and whether you could get away with that look.
If you don’t step up to the plate, it will quickly become apparent that you know nothing, and after rolling her eyes and exchanging knowing looks with her girlfriends, your partner will start making decisions for you. This will quickly lead to a pattern in which she’ll think that either you’re stupid and incompetent or you just don’t care about your child.
So although no man gets excited about getting a Brest Friend (it’s not what you think) or about choosing the color of the car seat cover, your BMP is excited about these things, and that’s what you need to care about.
So man up, get some knowledge of your own, and the entire process will go more smoothly for everyone. Arming yourself with this book was a step in the right direction. Now you have to finish reading it. If you do, you’ll be happy because you’ll know what’s going on and what mistakes to avoid, and she’ll be happy because her man cares so much about her and your soon-to-be-delivered boss.
Read, reflect, and evolve. It’s not just about you anymore. It’s time for you to turn into the leader of your pack. It’s time for you to try on a new title: Daddy.
It is much easier to become a father than to be one.
—Kent Nerburn
To be any good at it, you’ll have to grow and evolve, to change in ways that may not always be comfortable for you. As you experience these growing pains, you’ll gain knowledge and the parent experience will get a little easier. As the great Jim Valvano once said: “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”
The First Trimester
The first trimester is a good time for both of you to mentally prepare yourselves and begin adjusting to your new lives as parents. Your BMP will feel changes in her body as pregnancy hormones begin to take effect. Her uterus will grow during this time, up to the size of a grapefruit, in preparation for the baby’s growth. This little human comes complete with the DNA blueprint to form all of his or her body parts, from the halo atop her head all the way down to her toes. This baby will grow faster than your student loans: between day one and the ninth week of growth, the little fertilized embryo will grow to about an inch long. While every woman and every pregnancy is different, your BMP may begin to experience symptoms, including heartburn, headaches, mood swings, and morning sickness.