1st Time DaddyMy own experience of becoming a first time parent

We have just returned from our first family holiday, and it’s been amazing.

Apart from the first two weeks paternity when our son was born 6 months ago, and the Christmas break, this was the first time I’ve spent a lot of quality time with our son. I do enjoy my work and we need the money now more than ever, but it does mean I miss out on a lot of time spent with the little guy. I do get the weekends and nights with him, but I guess I’m just being greedy by wanting more!

Anyway, our holiday wasn’t anywhere exotic, just along my wife’s brother who lives about 200 miles away from us. We have an estate car and needed every inch of space to get all his stuff packed away. His favourite toy just now is his Jumperoo so that had to come with us as well. He loves that thing, I highly recommend you get one if your baby likes to bounce!

The only dampner on the holiday was we all got ill. And at different times too, so during the whole 10 days there was always one of us that was ill. Our son was first hit, then me, then my wife. Still, it was great to get away from it all.

The best part for me was having day after day to spend with my son. I don’t take for granted how lucky I am to be able to do that, and love every moment of it.

It was certainly a different holiday to what I’m used to. Beer was replaced by milk bottles, going out to restaurants or going to the cinema was replaced with eating in and watching films on TV but it was fantastic. It was also good spending time with my wife’s brother who is the proudest Uncle imaginable. He spoilt the little guy rotten with new clothes and toys. As he lives so far away it’s good to have some quality time with him.

Our next trip is in June when we are back to the same place for a family wedding. My wife has already been looking for little suits to buy. Something tells me he is going to be the star of the show!

I would say 6 months is a great time to go on a family holiday. I wouldn’t like to fly any great distance, but if you can drive somewhere it’s the perfect time as he is taking notice of everything, can sit and play with his toys and amuse himself.

Tell me about your first family holiday below…

Today we visited the dentist for the first time. It felt a bit strange going there as our son has no teeth yet, but they are keen to see new babies around 6 months old so we went along.

Before we could be seen, we had to register our son. This involved filling out a form, which I assume is a standard New Patient form they hand out to anyone regardless of age. I had to laugh when it asked if he has ever served in the Army. Emm, no.

It’s actually quite good timing for us going to the dentist, as we think his first tooth isn’t far away. He has been showing signs of teething for a few months now, since before Christmas, but last night it seemed to kick up a gear. He was up a couple of times in the night with the pain and has been restless all morning. I even thought I felt a tooth but after the dentist checked it was just the little bit of gum in the top middle of his gums (there’s probably a medical name for it, but I don’t know it).

The dentist appointment was really just a chance for us to meet the dentist, who gave us some advice about brushing, what food and drink is ok, what to avoid, etc. Basically all the stuff you learnt as a kid. One part that I hadn’t heard before was that teeth can defend itself against 3-4 sugar attacks a day. Any more than that is when the real problems start.

Children’s teeth can handle 3 sugar “attacks” a day, whereas adults can handle 4. What this means is if you eat/drink all your sugary things in no more than 3/4 sittings per day it isn’t as bad for you as if you eat some sugary stuff regularly throughout the day. For example if you have a bag of sweets, it’s better for your teeth if you eat the whole bag in one go than to graze and eat them gradually throughout the day. Of course, the best option for your teeth would be to avoid sugary treats, and you still of course need to brush and floss, but this is something I’ve never heard of before so I thought I would share it.

So, back to baby teeth. The general advise was to wait until we see the tooth appear then start brushing it right away. We see the dentist again at 12 months, so hopefully he will have a mouth full of teeth by then!

We have a dog, a Labrador who was around 4 years old when the baby arrived. She hadn’t really been around babies before so we were anxious about how she would react. The trouble is, although she is a great dog and always happy to see you when you walk through the door, she can sometimes be a little “too” happy. Hyper, I suppose is the word I’m looking for.

It can be unsettling for anyone, even adults for a big Labrador dog to come running up to them at full speed. She is just wanting to play and meet a new friend to lick and slobber on, but even so it can make people uneasy. It must be 100x times worse for a baby looking up at this big hairy goofy looking monster.

We spoke about what would happen if the dog acted badly around the baby. What if the baby was scared? What if she growled at the baby? What if she bit the baby? We knew if anything happened we would have to get rid of the dog, and even had one of our friends lined up to take her if we needed to.

It would be heartbreaking, but the baby would always come first.

However, as we soon found out, there was absolutely nothing to worry about. I keep forgetting that dogs are way more clever than I think. Our dog knew straight away that this was a baby, this was our baby and she had to protect it. Ever since our son first came home, the dog has been brilliant. I have to say, for the first few months while we were settling into life with a baby the dog was ignored a lot more than I care to remember. It must have been miserable for her no longer getting the attention she used to get.

Yet through all that she still acted perfectly around the baby.

Dog toys and baby toys

Our dog, like many dogs, has a lot of toys. Rubber rings, tennis balls, footballs, even teddy bears. She is a spoilt dog and our garden is evidence, as it is full of her toys scattered all over the place.

We have always been strict on her going anywhere near any of our sons toys, and it definitely is working. She knows which toy are hers. She can be in the middle of the room full of baby toys, you say “where’s your toy” and she will go around sniffing the toys to make sure she gets the right one. Of course, sometimes she gets it wrong, but generally she knows which toys to avoid.

The same cannot be said for our baby. He is just about starting to crawl now and grab and play with things. Anything lying about gets picked up and anything that is picked up goes straight in the mouth. We really have to watch him to make sure he doesn’t go near the dog toys. It’s funny, I thought it would have been the other way around!

Growing up in a house with a dog

I never really had a pet when I grew up. We had a goldfish (actually we had several as we didn’t really know what we were doing and they kept dying), and I had a rabbit when I got a bit older but never really played with it.

Now I have a dog I’m pleased to see my son growing up with a dog in the house. He is not scared of her. In fact he bursts out laughing and reaches for her whenever he sees the dog. It’s so funny to watch, he loves that dog.

Obviously with any dog you should not leave them alone with a baby, but we are lucky to have a dog and baby that get on so well. Just wait until he starts walking and running around, they will be thick as thieves!

We have a dog, a labridor who was around 4 years old when the baby arrived. She hadn’t really been around babies before so we were anxious about how she would react. The trouble is, although she is a great dog and always happy to see you when you walk through the door, she can sometimes be a little “too” happy. Hyper, I suppose is the word I’m looking for.
It can be unsettling for anyone, even adults for a big labridor dog to come running up to them at full speed. She is just wanting to play and meet a new friend to lick and slober on, but even so it can make people uneasy. It must be 100x times worse for a baby looking up at this big hairy goofy looking monster.
We spoke about what would happen if the dog acted badly around the baby. What if the baby was scared? What if she growled at the baby? What if she bit the baby? We knew if anything happened we would have to get rid of the dog, and even had one of our friends lined up to take her if we needed to.
It would be heartbreaking, but the baby would always come first.
However, as we soon found out, there was absolutely nothing to worry about. I keep forgetting that dogs are way more clever than I think. Our dog knew straight away that this was a baby, this was our baby and she had to protect it. Ever since our son first came home, the dog has been brilliant. I have to say, for the first few months while we were settling into life with a baby the dog was ignored a lot more than I care to remember. It must have been miserable for her no longer getting the attention she used to get.
Yet through all that she still acted perfectly around the baby.
Dog toys and baby toys
Our dog, like many dogs, has a lot of toys. Rubber rings, tennis balls, footballs, even teddy bears. She is a spoilt dog and our garden is evidence, as it is full of her toys scattered all over the place.
We have always been strict on her going anywhere near any of our sons toys, and it definitely is working. She knows which toy are hers. She can be in the middle of the room full of baby toys, you say “where’s your toy” and she will go around sniffing the toys to make sure she gets the right one. Of course, soemtimes she gets it wrong, but generally she knows which toys to avoid.
The same cannot be said for our baby. He is just about starting to crawl now and grab and play with things. Anything lying about gets picked up and anything that is picked up goes straight in the mouth. We really have to watch him to make sure he doesn’t go near the dog toys. It’s funny, I thought it would have been the other way around!
Growing up in a house with a dog
I never really had a pet when I grew up. We had a goldfish (actually we had several as we didn’t really know what we were doing and they kept dying), and I had a rabbit when I got a bit older but never really played with it.
Now I have a dog I’m pleased to see my son growing up with a dog in the house. He is not scared of her. In fact he bursts out laughing and reaches for her whenever he sees the dog. It’s so funny to watch, he loves that dog.
Obviously with any dog you should not leave them alone with a baby, but we are lucky to have a dog and baby that ge ton so well. Just wait til he starts walking and running around, they will be thick as thieves!