Week 6

So here we are, nearly six weeks into having a child, and no one has died yet. A few mistakes and a few lessons learned here and there, but so far nothing serious. Definitely a success thus far in my book!

So what have we learned? If I were to record them on here it would take not only pages upon pages, but days upon days. The good news is that I have stored away most (some [alright, a few]) of them upstairs. I suppose I'll share a few to lead into some pictures.

1) I got so tired of hearing people saying "Just wait. You'll find out" when they were 'preparing' me to have a baby. In all cases (I think) I accepted their ominous fortune telling as willingness to help. However, I reasoned that there was no possible way they knew what was going on in my noggin and my level of preparedness. Unfortunately, I was wrong. No matter what I was prepared for it seemed like something else would take its place. So to all of you that told me to "Just wait. You'll find out" then watched me nod in agreement as I secretly doubted you, I apologize.

2) Breast feeding is the only way to go. It makes being a Dad very easy. For example, I'll hold Ella and she'll spontaneously let out a few hollers. I try all of my tricks (i.e., tell her it's okay) then pass her off to her mother for feeding. You see, if Ella was bottle fed, this trick wouldn't work. Even better than that is the nights. There is very little a Dad can do when a breast-fed baby wakes up at night. I usually grumble something about I'll take her, or I'll change her, but both Tiffany and I know it's a sham. There is absolutely nothing I can do to meet Ella's needs when she wakes up at night.

3) I have a whole new respect for child-raising housewives. My realization started when Tiffany got placed on bed rest for the last four weeks of her pregnancy. I then took over nearly every household duty. My respect for the job was further increased by seeing Tiffany alter her schedule, day-in and day-out, during this last six weeks. As I previously mentioned, my job is pretty easy. Tiffany, however, now has an altered eating schedule, bathing schedule, sleeping schedule, etc. In addition, she takes care of the house and feeds me pretty well. It kind of makes my 8-hour day at work seem pretty immaterial.

That's all of the wisdom I'll share now. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days.

Ella has been working out her neck pretty good.


Tiffany is a very, very proud Mom.



My head got attacked by some vicious allergen. I have never in my life had allergies as bad as I have them right now.