A Thousand Words Thursday

iris, originally uploaded by RSCDoug.

I've found an interesting little Thursday activity that fits very well with my photo of the week plan. It's called 'A Thousand Words Thursday' and it's an activity put together by Jen at Cheaper than Therapy. I also found another blogger doing something similar over at I Should be Folding Laundry.

It's a great idea and I can't wait to play along.

I took this picture on a solo fishing outing...People float by these flowers everyday with nary a glance. We take things like this for granted. It's amazing how easy it is for adults to overlook the obvious when we have kids at home (newborns in my case) that have yet to see the beauty of the outdoors.

I can't wait to take my little girl for walks in the woods or canoe trips down the river to expose her to some of the simple things everyone else fails to see.

Hush, Little Baby...

The funny thing about babies is that they have an amazing ability to sleep at the most inconvenient times. These inconvenient times include, but are not limited to the following:

1. When someone else is watching her.
Thanks to a thoughtful mother-in-law my wife and I were able to escape to the movies for my birthday. We were gone 3 hours and baby girl slept for 3 hours. When we returned from the movies to feed her, mother-in-law said "Hey, she's doing well why don't you go get a bite to eat?" So out to dinner we went. We were gone 2 hours and baby girl slept for 2 hours...

2. When there is absolutely no time for us to sleep.
When she is awake we have no time to do normal house duties. She occupies all of our attention. So when she sleeps there are times that we have to make sure the house isn't caving in, the bills are paid, and the grass is cut. We can only do this when she is sleeping and during the day, as cutting the grass at 2am is probably against some town ordinance.

3. When we have visitors.
People come over and we look run down and exhausted then they look at our beautiful baby girl and see a calm and content sleeping baby. They look back at us and wonder why we're so tired. It's funny, no one believes us when we say she's a handful because whenever we have people over she's out like a light.

Two milestones this week: Dad turned 30 and baby girl 1 month old.

28 Days Later....

No, this is post is not going to be about the merits of a viral zombie horde as a opposed to the more traditional undead legions. It is instead going to glance over the first 28 days of my daughters life, what I learned, or more likely, what I think I learned.

Day 1: I told myself I wouldn't look. I remember the video in high school it was like horror porn. As excited as I was to meet my unborn child, I didn't think I could bring myself to watch 'all' of the action. I maintained eye contact with my wife as soon as the pushing started, but when the nurse said "There's the head daddy!" I just had to look and from that point I couldn't take my eyes off of her. It was amazing. As a friend of mine said about childbirth "it really makes you understand the word AWEsome."

Day 5: We finally got her home after some extra time under the anti-Jaundice lights. What a horrible experience to see your newborn on monitors wearing goofy goggles and crying. The nurses were great whenever we were there to visit and feed her, so at least there was that, but it was great to finally get her home. What did I learn that first day? POOP can spray. I lifted her legs to clean her up while changing a diaper and KABOOM! Poop on my shirt at a good 18 inches away. I didn't know whether to be disgusted or proud...Turns out thankful was the right emotion, that poop could have gone anywhere.

Day 10: Good God...Who knew that a baby could cry so much? You did, didn't you? Why didn't you tell me? It seemed upon our first few trips to the doctor's office our little one was what you'd call a "High Maintenance Baby," but on the fifth trip they decided that maybe our little HMB actually had some acid reflux issues. After a late night trip to the world's shadiest 24hr pharmacy we started dosing the meds. It didn't work immediately, but by the end of the second day, she was much more calm. Whew! problem solved.

Day 20: Ok, she may not be having reflux issues after all (although I still think she is). She is much more consolable when she gets fussy and now she only really gets fussy when she's tired or hungry, like babies are supposed to. I think we cured her. Sleep is the latest battle we've been fighting. I received a great tip from a buddy at work. RUN THE VACUUM. It was a last resort thing, but we eventually broke down and turned the vacuum on. Wouldn't you know it, that girl passed right out. I love running the Vacuum!

Day 28: I'll be 30 in a couple of days, and she'll be 1 month old. I hate running the vacuum, but she needs it to sleep. Fortunately, we've hit a compromise. I've created a CD of our running vacuum and play it on a continuous loop through our CD player. Keeps her unconscious in between meals and keeps us mostly asleep. My greatest idea ever! She's changed so much in 4 weeks, she looks and acts like a completely different baby. I almost forget what it was like to be in the hospital with her.

The only thing I can say now is that it's been a month and Daddy's Tired...

Welcome to the Adventure...

I've blogged before and I'll blog again. That's just one of the reasons I decided to start a 'Daddy' related blog. The other reason is that early in May my wife and I welcomed our first child into the world. Our little girl has quickly taken over the house, and as the title of the blog suggests: Daddy's Tired.

The first few weeks have been a whirlwind, but we're finally getting into a groove. Any parent can survive so long as they address the three basic facets of their baby: Eating, Sleeping, and Pooping...If all of these needs are addressed things go smoothly.

Of course there are the intangibles like gas, over-tiredness, acid reflux, and a constant running vacuum that make raising a newborn a much more difficult challenge than either of us expected. So, that's why the blog. I want to help new moms and dads navigate the uncharted waters of raising a child.

The good news? Well, I don't know what I'm doing either so you can be sure there will be some funny stories of my own misadventures on this blog. But, be sure, I'll write about anything that works and everything that doesn't. It's all in an effort to vent and help you help yourself.

Wish me luck on this new adventure...and of course, visit often!