Hello from a dad-to-be

[tigerminxy]

Hi,

This forum seems intimidatingly biased towards women but I thought I'd join up anyway.

My wife's only 5 weeks gone so it's early days yet but I'm just trying to get lots of advice and support so that I can be as helpful as possible to my wife. Hopefully I'll be welcome here despite not being a mum-to-be!

 

[Sarah&Braydon]

course u r. i am biased as my ex is not very nice lol, but i think its great ur on here for advice n to help for ur OH

congratulations

 

[Jaidy]

Hey!! Congrats on your partners pregnancy

 

[Urchin]

Hiya!

It's great you have decided to join us...I wish there were more dads and dad's to be on here.
Let us know how we can help! (this will probably be mostly reassuring you that mood swings, frequent trips to the toilet and impulsive spending are all a healthy part of being pregnant!)

Congrats

 

[rach]

hya and welcome its nice to see a man taking an interest and im sure you will be welcomed by everyone hope your wife is feeling well and congratulations to you both hope you have a happy healthy 9 months xxx

 

[tigerminxy]

Hi all,

Thanks for the welcome and the congratulaions. I suppose I've been lucky so far (mind you, it's only 5 weeks gone so far) and there's nothing overly worrying to me just yet. I'm just getting used to the fact that my normally high energy wife is sleeping so much at the moment! The cats seem to like the fact they have a sleeping buddy to curl up next to though.

Any tips on what would be particularly appreciated from me at this stage?

 

[Urchin]

Any tips on what would be particularly appreciated from me at this stage?

Show her you're excited.

Oh yeah, and bring chocolate

 

[Jaidy]

Lol...like that one Urchin!!! Im not preg yet but I would definatley say lots if cuddles...all women love cuddles especially when they are tired and not feeling 100%

 

[nicki]

Any tips on what would be particularly appreciated from me at this stage?

Hi and welcome,

In my case I just wanted my hubby to be just as excited as me about it all & talk about it. I also would have liked him to gone out and bought pregnancy/baby magazines (and read them himself!) so it showed he was interested & keen to learn (as its his first kiddy too).
Also offering to do things around the house would have nice and to have a proper healthy meal cooked for me would have been wonderful, still waiting though!

My advice would be to be there for her & ask her what she would like you to do, oh and Urchins right, chocolate is a must!!

Nicki.

 

[Wobbles]

Also offering to do things around the house would have nice and to have a proper healthy meal cooked for me would have been wonderful, still waiting though!

Sounds like your man & mine need their heads bashed together Nicki! The fact I wasn't carrying the baby normally made me I have made him promise he won't be like that if we try again so let's hope he keeps to it on the other hand welcome to the forum tigerminxy & congrats to you both & I'd follow Nickis advise

 

[tigerminxy]

Thanks for the tips. Thing is, I am excited about it all so it's not too difficult in that respect. We had a visit to the bookshop not long after finding out and must have come back with a whole library of stuff, including a couple of books specifically aimed at men.

I cook most of the time at home anyway so the meals aren't a problem. I definitely need to work on the being tidy thing though...

 

[Cloughie]

We had a visit to the bookshop not long after finding out and must have come back with a whole library of stuff, including a couple of books specifically aimed at men.

Is one of your books called "The Bloke's Guide to Pregnancy"?
If not, I really recommend you go out and buy it, my husband called it his Bible and insists on lending to other fathers-to-be, whether they want it or not!

 

[tigerminxy]

Cloughie - Yes, one of my books was "The Bloke's Guide...".

It's been a really interesting read and I like the light-hearted yet informative tone. Only problem is, the numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes puts me off giving it a full recommendation because the lack of proper sub-editing and editing makes me question the content sometimes. I'm a bit funny like that.

 

[Urchin]

Cloughie - Yes, one of my books was "The Bloke's Guide...".

It's been a really interesting read and I like the light-hearted yet informative tone. Only problem is, the numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes puts me off giving it a full recommendation because the lack of proper sub-editing and editing makes me question the content sometimes. I'm a bit funny like that.

Totally with you on that, I HATE poor grammar and spelling. I'm not perfect myself, but OBVIOUS mistakes, ie. there/their/they're drive me nuts!

 

[Simon]

I’m definitely an advocate of showing excitement and lots of interest. That’s when I see my wife’s eyes light up. But you may struggle when you start looking at “equipment”, and oh…..is there some equipment out there! The first 15 minutes of checking out prams was “ok”, but 1 hour 45mins plus into the experience……and I was struggling…..with both interest and intellectual capacity! I just couldn’t get my head around the terms and how these things work, or more specifically, morph into all manner of transportation devices. When I said to the Mamers & Papers assistant; “What’s an Infant Carrier?” she looked at me like I’d just arrived on the planet! My wife turned red and glared at me, so I sidled off to investigate them for myself. What a mistake. After a few cursory pushes of a chair or two, I found an impressive looking beast and discovered the amazing ‘one button fold feature’ but COMPLETELY FAILED to find the ‘one button unfold!’ After 5 minutes of ‘what if I pull supposing I push’ and a respectable amount of unsympathetic stares from the other blokes and gleeful sniggers from their amused partners, I left the pram in a crumpled heap and sheepishly crept back to the wife…..WHO, whilst being left unsupervised, had selected a SIX HUNDRED QUID package!!!! That’s more than I paid for my first car!
So….all the ladies are correct; be enthusiastic, be interested, and be part of the whole experience (nothing will mean more to your wife). But when you go to select equipment, don’t leave her unattended with the debit card!

 

[Yvonne]

Hi Tigerminxy and welcome.

Big conratulations to you and your partner.
I think this forum has hosted all problems and experiences possible so if you ever have problems i'm sure there will be a topic on here to cover it

 

[emma1976]

It's great you men have joined. Those who know me on here know what a complete B****** my ex was when I was pregnant (hence I left him at 25 weeks he's not much of a father now) and it's really really nice to see men making the effort to learn more and want to be there for their wives/partners etc. I think you're great and if you say you had joined the pregancy forum I'm sure they would be over the moon to know you had done something as sweet as that. My ex thought I was a freak for joining a forum and gave me loads of grief but everyone one here helped me through my pregnancy and I don't know what I would have done without them, we even post when we are in labour some of us to let everyone know. I've met some fantastic friends as well. We're all here to help and anything that you need to know or are going through you'll find more than one person on here that has had the same an similar experiences or is going through it at the same time.

Good luck anyway and your partners should be proud of you for being so sweet and caring and showing a large amount of interest.

Make sure you keep us posted on how things are progressing

xxxx