The Dad Who Went Through a C-Section

April 10, 2013 By 17 Comments
C-section dad

The anxiety of labor pains in the living room was quickly replaced by enthusiasm at the at the admissions desk. For him, it had been nine months of excitement and nerves laced with awkward moments of phantom symptoms and helplessness. Forty weeks intertwining the role of supportive husband with that of expectant father. As involved as he was in the process of preparing his emotional and physical world for the child to come, without a baby in his belly he couldn’t help but always feel more a passenger than a driver. [Read more...]

3,090 total views, 23 views today

How to Not Lose Yourself in Your Role as a Working Parent

April 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Do Not Lose Yourself As a Parent

Note: For the purposes of simplicity, this article assumes fathers occupy most often the role of “working parent”; while mothers are more frequently “staying at home”. It is understood these role are not only interchangeable, but are becoming less defined and more intermingled. Also – again, solely for the purposes of clarity – this article defines “working parent” as the parent who devotes the majority of the work week to tasks outside the home, not directly related to child-rearing. It is understood raising children constitutes ‘work’ as much as any for-income profession. [Read more...]

1,691 total views, 2 views today

Enduring the Unthinkable: A Story of Loss from a Dad’s Point of View

February 11, 2013 By 6 Comments
Emily's Feet

I wish I had known how my life would change after losing a baby I never met. My wife was only 16 weeks pregnant, and we had just seen the doctor for a check-up two weeks earlier.  Besides taking a bit longer than normal in finding the heartbeat, the appointment went well.  My wife was over 35 in 2011, so we had done an early ultrasound, which showed no markers for any chromosomal abnormalities.  In fact, her risk factors were characteristic of someone who was 20 years old, so we were confident. [Read more...]

3,980 total views, 17 views today

The Plights of Fatherhood

January 8, 2013 By 2 Comments
Plights of Fatherhood

It’s amazing that fathers (and mothers for that matter) are supposed to know everything about parenting from when the new baby is born to when they are sent off the college. For example, have you ever heard a mom scream to their child, “Just wait until your father gets home!” Really- what is dad supposed to do? Perhaps they secretly take classes on proper ways to yell at children effectively. [Read more...]

1,915 total views, 3 views today

How Moms Can Help Dads Bond With Their Babies

January 5, 2013 By 4 Comments
How Moms Can Help Dads Bond With Their Babies

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “The kind of man who thinks that helping with the dishes is beneath him will also think that helping with the baby is beneath him, and then he certainly is not going to be a very successful father.” Too many dads leave the baby stage to mom. When they do, they miss out on an immensely important and formative time in their child’s life to bond with them—a bond that is the crucial foundation upon which the rest of their relationship will be established. [Read more...]

2,649 total views, 3 views today