So, I ask all the Dad’s out there for a bit of adivce. I’m a dad n 3 months… any tips? And yes i’ve got the, " get ready for no sleep for the next 2 months" shite. Just any tips, or stories. Really would appreciate anything… nightcap.

I’m not a parent, so I really can’t give you any advice, but I would like to offer my congratulations. I’m sure you’ll love the baby dearly and that’s the most important thing. Oh and from what I know of my friends who are parents, it’ll be a lot longer than 2 months sleeplessness…

thanx toffee… how about i plan to not sleep for the next year.

Congratulations! I have 4 children and I can tell you that the no sleeping thing varies greatly from child to child. Parents and family are the best for tips and advice, in my opinion. But I will tell you that it is going to be the most awesome experience of your life.

Congrats… Go with the flow, be relaxed and baby will be relaxed. Remember, the child fit’s into your life, not you into the child’s… Fatherhood is a wonderous thing, a true gift. Enjoy every second, each one will pass quicker than you can ever imagine. Before you know it, you’ll be buying the first school uniform…

No children nor likely to ever have any, but wanted to say congrats to you and mom!

Thank God that’s an expense we can avoid in Canada! ( uniforms)

Congrats. The best advice I can offer is to say there is no owners manual. Every kid is different and if there was a book 99% of the time it wouldn’t give the right advice. Grandparents are wonderful resources, but you will learn to adapt to your child. As long as he/she knows they are loved you can’t screw up to bad.

Congrats! The fact that you are asking for advice 3 months in advance shows me that you will be a great and caring father!

Congrats! I have 4 children, 9 yrs and under. It is a wonderful thing that you are embarking on. I will not bother you with the age where they can talk. The early years are so wonderful. All I can say is, take the TIME to enjoy and see them discovering their new world. You can NEVER get that time back or buy it if you wanted to. Realize that little feller is just like you in so many ways and how many things had to come together for him/her to enter the world…amazing. Introduce them to the simple, good things in life. I raise a pinch to you, Nightcap!

thank you to everyone…

Congrats man! I was in your shoes about 2 1/2 years ago…don’t really have any advice, just reassurance…everything will just kind of fall into place. I still freak occasionally over little things, but everything will come naturally , like you’ve been doing it your whole life!! Well, I do have one word of advice…don’t be fooled when those first few poops don’t stink! I thought I had hit the jackpot with a ‘no stink’ child. Trust me they eventually begin to reek to high heaven! =)

That’s what I’m talking about FischTix. stuff like that!!

I have little advice to give, but congrats! I spent a lot of time babysitting my nephew when he was a toddler, though, and I can tell you that a young child will look deeper into your soul than you can ever look into his/hers. It can be a humbling experience, but it can also be an enlightening one.

Come to my house sometime, and you can learn what not to do. Congrats

Congratulations! Got a not-quite-2-year-old and another one due in August, myself. I can tell you that yes you won’t sleep for a while, yes you will have vomit-epaulets on every shirt you own, your free time will be severely dwindled away, and the price of formula closely mirrors that of a 1980s coke habit. But most importantly, it’s the most wonderful thing in the world and worth every damned minute. Nothing will prepare you for that, it will hit you between the eyes. You will have the worry, the “what the hell am I doings,” but as everyone else has said, you’ll find you become a natural in no time. Remember that despite the ton of parenting books out there that nothing replaces intuition, and failing that you got us too! Being a dad rocks!

just remember you’ll fuck up horribly everyone does. Cause we are all human. Though if you mean well and aren’t a complete idiot the kid should turn out pretty well. My biggest advice is to remember people did this before we had any thing like writing doctors or grocery stores. Which is to say you should have some idea about what to do buried somewhere in your insticnts. Congrates.

most important no snuff for the kid untill they are at least seven.

Congratulations!!! What an awesome part of your life is beginning. You can’t begin to imagine how this is going to change your whole outlook on everything; when you hold that baby and realize how utterly dependent he or she is on your for her wellbeing, it’s a totally life-altering experience. A wonderful one. You’re going to love being a father; there’s nothing else like it. Nothing else like changing diapers, either.

Congrats mate I’ve got 3 myself now my advice is that after giving them a bottle stand well back for a good 1/2 hour baby sick can travel far and fast.And dont make the mistake I did when I thought my daughter was smiling she actually lured me in and then puked all over me lol

lol… no snuff until 7 years old… your going to get me killed with advice like that!

Congrats nightcap! I can’t offer you any advice, but it’ll definately be a life changing experience for you. Good luck with it. One thing I know from my friends who are parents is make the most of the early years, cos once puberty hits God help ya lol. Hope all goes well. Stefan

Ya… Puberty… Thanks… There goes my Friday…

Lol anytime Stefan

I’ll give you a call in about 13 years and let my kid talk to " good old uncle Stefan". Then you’ll regret you last post!! lol!

Lmao no worries. Stefan

I’m going to second bob with this one: no snuff. Unless you want the inside of your vacuum cleaner to smell nice, keep snuff out of the reach of children. That said, congrats nightcap. Being a father is challenging but so rewarding. A pinch to you, sir.

Congrats! My son is 2 and he’s the best. One word of advice is be carefull what you buy. You dont need the most expensive stroller just because of a name like mclaren… they should stick to just making cars. Oh and stupid things like wipe warmers. We used the wipe warmer once and that was it. Too much hassle. Too funny also is every year there are new studies what’s good and bad for babies. One year they’ll say baby powder will cause your child to be addicted to crystal meth in their teens then the next year its use will raise their IQ points.

@Matsnuffs The evidence for this is the patch on my fathers carpet that will forever smell of SP100. Luckily for my son, his grandad saw the funny side X-)

Congrats, my son’s are 32 and 28, Great times as they were growing up. They were great kids while growing up some Bumps during their teen years. Haven’t seen the oldest since Thanksgiving, see the youngest about every other week. Just keep involved in their life and things will usaaly work out. until someone else gets involved like daughter in laws. sorry to be such a downer. edm

these are great stories. thanks guys

breastfeed

LOL

I’ll get on that!

July 6th 2:16 am After 21 hours of attempted natural labour, then a C section I was blessed with my beautiful boy. Haimish Lynn Barr Hunter. 7 lbs 9.5 oz He’s got a set of lungs like a Banchie’s Bagpipe!

Congratulations!

congrats … beautiful boy!

Congratulations! And the lad can’t go wrong with “Barr” in his name

Yayyyyyy!

Congratulations!

Congratulations Nightcap! Stefan

Congratulations!!! As from now, you may take a pinch in public.

thanx everyone! just finished giving 'Mish his 1st bath. He’s off to bed and I’m not far behind!

@PieterClaassen Dit sal net werk as die vrou is nie rond!..

Lovely! God bless you.

Congratulations, and I hope you get a good night’s sleep. Most likely it won’t be long before those are in short supply.

Hamish is a masculine given name in English. It is the Anglicised form, of the vocative case, of the Scottish Gaelic Seumas: Sheumais. The Scottish Gaelic Seumas is the equivalent to the English James. Long live Hamish!

Congrats sir.

@Juxtaposer: Do you mean Seamus a Caca?

Hey, I might be related (hominoid), but the kid is not mine!

Nice job, Nightcap… and good luck on your future as a DAD!

Congratulations! Mine are both grown up. Its easy when they are small, they just need a lot of love and security. The challenges come later. From my own experience; don’t work too hard on making them turn out a certain way. All you can do is demonstrate the right values at home but there is a whole bunch of peer learning and their own experiences going on and its easy to forget that, because they generally won’t be sharing it with you, whatever you think. Despite the fact we were all kids once, parents on the whole do a good job of acting as if they were born at 30. Let them make a few mistakes but always be there. My son, 19, just went travelling in Europe for the first time with friends - the temptation to get over-involved was big, but he came back tanned and happy. I realised somehow we brought up a smart and capable kid.

Most practical advice I can give. Get plenty of cloth diapers/burp cloths. I mean use disposable diapers fine but these are great. Best use for them that no one tells you, if you have a boy, one day while changing him you WILL get hit by “the fountain”. While changing him lay the burp cloth over that area as piece of mind and you may avoid that incident. I did, and I have three sons. Congrats, it is a great journey. Oh and some other advice. You will screw up, that is just a fact, every parent does in unpredictable ways, so you can stop being neurotic about it if you are that type. Ken

Well we’re @ 3.5 months, or so, into it and here he is. He looks like his mother. Not a trace of me at all! Here is the reason I’ve not been around for the last 3 months or so… His first month he had colic, and the second was the recovery poeriod (thank you Oval!!!). Month 3 he starts to smile, recognize me when I enter or leave a room, he starts to baby babble… at 5am…, and now he can hold his head up and sit in a Bumbo. What a rush! Everyday My wife and I look at each other and still can’t believe we’ve got this beautiful boy! @devilock76 I did screw up a little bit. He was half asleep and I was changing his diaper, I VERY gently tapped his head on the wall, (as our change table is located in a corner), and he was up, not upset, but up for the rest of the morning… this started @3am… tuesday!!! Work was fun at 7am that day.

Cool have fun, once you get used to waking up that early it will take a long time to get back to sleeping in, lol. edm

Good job and good luck. As much as the new child is going to monopolize your time, remeber to still take time for just you and his mother. Grandparents are always willing and trustworthy baby sitters, and its nice to get away for a time, keeps you sane; although count on worring the entire date.

just a quick re-open of an old thread…

this is Haimish @ 7 months.

Just a proud dad posting his son.

nothing more.

Nightcap.

It’s amazing how fast they grow up.  It feels like my daughter was just born yesterday and she’ll be 20 months tomorrow.

I live every day to its fullest with her, she’s only that age once, and every day can be a new adventure.

Congrats night cap! We have one due in June. Another boy, my five year old son can not wait to meet him. My only advice to you is this, ear plugs. Now do not get me wrong, they are for the mommy. Moms are hard wired to listen for every peep a baby makes. That makes it hard for new moms to get a good power nap in. So when she is wiped out tired. Present her with the ear plugs and send her off for a nap reashuring her you will wake her if any thing happens you can not handle. You can handle what ever comes up and a well rested mommy makes for a happy house. Also take the baby in the stroller for walks around the block. This also gives mom some time to do what ever she needs to do to feel human again.

Congratulations Nightcap! You have just embarked on the most stressful and rewarding journey of your life. One never really understands what love is until you hold your child for the first time. I have 3 between the ages of 6-17. I thought I knew what it was to love someone until I held them for the first time. I never really wanted children until then. Now I wish we could have more. I find myself dreading not having them in the house anymore and that’s still at least 12 years off. As far as advice…

I agree with the poster that said not to get the most expensive of everything that is available. Most of it is not necessary and is no better than a less expensive model. The exception I would make is the carseat, which I’m pretty sure you already have. Avoid most anything with a “celebrity” name brand such as Eddie Bauer, Maclaren, Fararri, etc. With few exceptions, items such as strollers, carseats, cribs, etc. that have these names on them add significantly to the price but are no different than their “nameless” counterpart. Also seriously question what is necessary and what is not when purchasing things like wipe warmers and the like. A lot of things like that are totally unnecessary and only cost you money. If you think the wipes are too cold just blow on them for a few seconds like you would if you were trying to warm your hands. The baby doesn’t really notice anyway. Their systems aren’t that developed yet. But It does make us parents feel better.

Also, don’t be afraid to let the boy cry sometimes. You don’t have to fix everything. A baby that can self-comfort it a joy and usually grows to be a much better adjusted kid and on into adulthood. You’ll learn the difference between a cry that needs attention and one that just needs to work itself out. There’s also a difference in a cry because they’re hungry and one that needs a diaper change, etc. Sometimes they just need the comfort of being close to mommy or daddy. Yes they do sound different. After a while you’ll start to notice a difference. Also on that same idea, don’t be afraid to put him in a crib or playpen and leave him for a little while. You don’t have to entertain him all the time. If you try to keep him entertained all the time versus letting him entertain himself sometimes, you will set a precedent that you can never live up to and will come to regret for many years to come.

Also, make sure to allot time for you and mommy to get some rest. Offer to take him out for the day, maybe to the grandparents, so that she can rest. Even a few hours can make a world of difference. Dont be afraid to ask for the same in return. It doesn’t make you a bad parent to want to send them to the grandparents, or auntie’s for the day. You will need that from time to time, as individuals and as husband and wife?

Once he starts on baby food, don’t be alarmed if he starts to turn yellow or orange if he eats a lot of vegetables of those colors. It is normal. When our first was starting on baby food we noticed he was developing an orange tint to his skin so of course as new parents we freaked and called the doctor. Her very first question was “does he eat a lot of carrots?”. He couldn’t get enough of them. Had to have them at every feeding. The doc just laughed and explained it to us and it was nothing to worry about. It was because of the carrots. It will go away. 

Mostly, don’t take it too seriously or stress over it. I know that can be difficult but have fun with it. When one of mine was just an infant, he was running a low fever and fussy so we called the doc. The docs response sounds uncaring but it had a message. She asked… 1.“Is he breathing?”, 2. “Is he bleeding?” and 3. “Does it seem to cause him pain when you pick him up?”. The answer to these was yes he is breathing and no he is not bleeding or in obvious pain. So her advice was give him some Tylenol and don’t worry about it, if he gets worse call. Sometimes they run a low fever for no reason. Their body is learning to regulate itself. Sometimes they just get fussy for no reason. They’ve just been through one of the most physically and emotionally demanding experiences a human being can experience. You don’t have to rush to the dr for every little thing. Tylenol and the like can work wonders. Conversely, don’t be afraid to call if you’re in doubt. Sometimes we parents need a little comfort and reassurance too.  

Again, Congratulations! You will never regret having them. You will make mistakes. It’s normal. Don’t set expectations of yourself that you cannot keep. none of us are perfect parents. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, recognize it, own it, and learn from it. I assure you that as long as he has loving and supportive parents as he grows up, most if not all of those mistakes will be long forgotten.