Im officially a Dad!! :D :D

[pollaxe]

Big congrats!

[roorooroo]

Congratulations to you.. All the best, Roo

[pipTheGeek]

Congrats. I have 2 sons and one daughter, can everyone stop with the horror stories of teen daughters please I am not looking forward to it, thankfully she is only 4 so I have a while to enjoy first.

So now its waiting for her to smile, hold her head up, roll over, crawl, puke on best suit, stand up, push your expensive tv off it's stand and feed you DVD player a Jam sandwich.

Lastly, enjoy every minute of your time with her, even if you aren't doing anything special. A friend of mine's daughter is seriously ill, she is 5 and it doesn't look likely that she will survive.

[AledJ]

So now its waiting for her to .............. to puke on best suit, stand up, push your expensive tv off it's stand and feed you DVD player a Jam sandwich.

Is that a personal experience lol ?

[Andeh13]

Thank you everyone, read all your comments & i appreciate them all hugely!

Iv always wanted to be a young father (so i can relate to them/my parents were only a couple of years old when they had me) so as early as she is by a year or 2 there are far far worse things that could have happened to us! Wouldn't mind another one in a few years, hopefully a boy to round things off but it would nice if we prepared for it this time!


As for now, baby & mother have both arrived home safe & sound and everyone is relaxing a bit whilst the baby sleeps (she has been as good gold), dad here is feeling happier & happier as he gets a rough idea of what's going on, sorting nappies like a professional and iv got the nack of calming her down so chuffed to bits all round!

Thanks again everyone, its one hell of a way to make life more interesting (for the better!). Will take down my e-mail address when this thread has run its course but until then id love to chat to anyone expecting/been there done that, will be online more in the next day or two when my feet have found the floor!

edit; will try and get a picture up over the next day or too (will again take it down once the thread has run its course), she is looovely!

[pipTheGeek]

Is that a personal experience lol ?

All the good bits are. As for the less nice parts, I have been puked on on several occasions, but I don't own an expensive suit. My wife (when younger) fed her parents VCR a jam sandwich and my friends daughter has just got tall enough to become a threat to their TV. All the TV's and monitors in my house are still CRT. Mostly to make them more immune to small fingers... And tounges, all the kids have licked the TV at some point. Sometimes they have been licking stuff off that they had just wiped on.
I have had to interupt a phone call to my dad with the line "Hang on a minute, Andrew just poo'ed on the hallway carpet". We have also had a few accidents where a boy gets up at night to go for a pee and, while standing, realises that they should have been sitting. That is messy.

Iv always wanted to be a young father

I was 22 when we had Adam (my eldest, obviously), and although it was a bit of a suprise, (okay, we did have the traditional 9 months warning) I was happy to be a dad.

hopefully a boy to round things off but it would nice if we prepared for it this time!

I was glad that our third (and last) was a girl, despite my dread of her teens, part of the reason for a third was my hope for a girl.

dad here is feeling happier & happier as he gets a rough idea of what's going on.

I remember a distinct feeling of "so what do we do now" when we got Adam home for the first time. He was just laying looking at the ceiling and it's like "shouldn't we be doing something?"

[Knoxville]

Congratulations dude

[ixos]

(so i can relate to them/my parents were only a couple of years old when they had me)

Waw, they were young!! Must have been in the guiness book of records!! lol

[Andeh13]

haha, my mistake! They were a couple of years older*

Iv been told girls are easier to raise then boys, so despite me being desperate for a boy initially cant help I might have dodged a bullet!


Survived our first night, she woke up more or less every 90mins for one reason or another, but I was allowed a lie in when her mum took her downstairs this morning (i stayed up with her last night).

Quick question to those with children, anything i should be eyeing up in the next few weeks? Do they ever get into routines in terms of feeding/waking up at night? How long before they start sleeping a bit more at night & becoming a bit more hardened against waking up due to trapped wind/heat changes?


thanks

couple of pics, ill take them down in a week or so just to be in the safe side;

**pics taken down for privacy etc**

[GoNz0]

very cute, no wonder your so chuffed

[pipTheGeek]

Cute pics. If I remember correctly some sign of a routine could show in a few days. Hopefully this should be fairly established after a few weeks. I am sure you will hear this alot now but I have to say it. All babies are different. (Sorry) None of my three slept through the night for the first few years. After some months they were only waking up once, but wake up they did. Other people we know have had kids sleeping through the night after only 5 or 6 weeks. On the up side, ours ask to go to bed when they are tired, which my friend thinks is a great trick.

[pauldarkside]

Iv been told girls are easier to raise then boys, so despite me being desperate for a boy initially cant help I might have dodged a bullet!

I think you'll have your hands full either way. My friend's 3 year old girl can be a right little bossy mare at times and my nephew at that age was easy as pie. They all have their moments though and hopefully you've got many of both to look forwards to.

Looks a cracker dude, well done to you and your other half

[sammyc]

She looks the business in that tiggersuit ... all you need now is http://clothing.cafepress.com/item/h...eeper/13184394

[Moby-Dick]

Mine has started to settle into a bit of a routine and lets us get a fair ammount of kip at night - are you bottle feeding or going for milk on draught ?

[Lee H]

Congrats

What weight was she if you don't mind me asking... the baby, not the missus

I'll add your MSN later when I've got a spare 2 mins to get online as we're just getting everything sorted out for our arrival soon.

[0iD]

There is no rhyme or reason in how long it takes your lil'un to get into a sleeping routine. Out of my four, the best was a couple of months, but then the worst was 4 years before they slept through. You have to play it very much by instinct, as everyone has their own theories about what does & doesn't work. You will develop a feel for what they're crying about, whether they're hungry, dirty napy, cholic etc. Breast pumps are ftw if you're feeding that way & you can store any excess in the freezer. Opinions even differ between individual health visitors and they will baffle you. Don't fret about the growing charts, kids do their own thing so some will follow the average line, others high or low.

And it will probably seem like the longest 6 months of your life

Having daughters is definitely cool