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I cannot believe it, Lola is one today – how quickly did that year go! I’ve decided that rather than write a post about the year, I will just post a letter that I have written to Lola, that maybe one day she will look back on and read.

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So, my blogging has dropped away since Lola was born. I did promise that I would continue to update it, but the time just hasn’t been there. I will keep trying to update it as often as possible, I promise!

Lola is just over 21 weeks now, and in that time she has started eating real food, her favorite seems to be either Carrots or Squash mashed up. She even tries to feed herself now, which is so adorable!

She has rolled from her tummy to her back a couple of time, but since doing that, she hasn’t bothered to do it again. I think she checked she could do it, realised she could and feels no need to do it again.

She smiles almost non stop at me and Lara, which is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever experienced. She also laughs a lot now, and i’m sure she uses this as a way to get around me if she’s had a bad night or not been eating properly. It always works!

She sings to herself in the car in the morning, when Lara drops me at the train station to go to work.

She sat up for the first time on her own a few days ago, and seemed very proud of herself – rightly so.

She just amazes me everyday, and i could not possibly list all the things she has done, as she seems to learn something new everyday.

I really didn’t think I could love someone as much as I love Lola, she is the most amazing thing in the whole world. Nothing makes me happier than  walking in to her bedroom in the morning, leaning over her cot as she looks around after waking up, then spotting me and giving me the biggest, gummiest smile ever. I love you Lola, just keeping doing what your doing – being perfect!


It has been a while since I updated this blog, I haven’t even done it this year until now. So sorry to anyone who was waiting – probably not many of you. It turns out babies take up a lot of you time, which has meant the blog has taken a slight back seat. But she is asleep at the moment and so I’m taking this chance to do a quick update.

The last 7 weeks have felt like forever, it’s actually hard to remember what life was like without Lola in our lives. My life now is Lola, Everything I do is either with her or for her, and if I’m at work, she is always on my mind, I’m always looking at photos of her or texting or ringing Lara to see how she’s doing. I just love her so much, it’s amazing.

So much has happened in the last 7 weeks, that I couldn’t even begin to list them on here, but it seems that with each day, with each hour, something more amazing than the last happens. She’s always learning and so interested in everything, it is just beautiful to watch. Of course, as all babies she does cry a lot too, and those times aren’t so fun – especially the first couple of weeks when she was home and we COULD NOT get her to sleep at night. But over the weeks we’ve learnt and she has learnt how best so approach night times, and the improvement already is amazing – the last two nights she has slept for 7 hours straight, woken to eat and then slept again for another four! This is something we could not have even imagined being possible 5 weeks ago.

In the last couple of weeks she has started to smile – I never knew a smile could feel so good. Sometimes when I get in from work and hold her and talk to her, she smiles straight back, and with that smile it wipes away any thought of work or sitting on a train or even how tired I am, because that smile, makes everything worthwhile. She hasn’t quite got the hang of smiling completely yet, but she is getting there, and it is wonderful.

Already in her short life she has already had her first sleep over, with my parents – Nana and Gramps, and I’m pretty sure all three of them loved it! She has been to her first wedding, her Great Grandmothers, I’m not sure many people can say they’ve been to their Great Grandmothers wedding. She has also had a marriage proposal, from our friends son Levi Franck, all the way over in Palo Alto. She has said yes, and we are hoping to have them on a Skype date very soon.

Lara has been getting used to being home all day with just Lola, and has found it tough at times, as I am sure most people would, but she has been absolutely fantastic! She is such an amazing Mom to Lola, and you can just see by the look in Lola’s eyes when she see’s her, just how much she loves her Mommy.

I will try to update the blog more regularly, and next time I hope to get the videos of Lola’s first Christmas up. Until the video, here are a few photos of her first Christmas.


Hi all, I have added a new poll to the blog, so please vote. This time, the question is, what colour will Lola’s eye’s be?!

Merry Christmas to you all, and a very happy new year. I will get photos up of Lola’s first Christmas as soon as possible – she has a pretty special Christmas outfit!



As you should all know by now, I AM A DAD! I am the happiest, proudest, luckiest Dad and Husband in the whole world!

Both my girls did absolutely amazing during the birth, they were fantastic. Lara had a tough time of it, but she did so, so well – she is and forever will be my hero. I hated seeing my Lara go through the pain she had to go through, but she knew, as we all did, that the final result she was working towards was worth anything in the world. I would have done anything to take away any of her pain during those 21 hours, but to be quite honest, I don’t think I could have done it! I have a completely new respect for all Mothers now, they are superhuman!

Lola had quite a rough first week. She swallowed a lot of meconium during the labour and had to be delivered by emergency cesarean, she was also very much engaged, which meant she had to be pushed back up, so that they could get her out safely. Thats quite a lot for someone to take in when they are only minutes old, and this meant that she was taken away from us within hours of being born and taken to the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU), this was extremely hard for Lara as she had only really been able to hold Lola for 5 minutes, so it was pretty distressing for all of us involved.

They took a blood test from Lola not long after she was born and the results showed that she only had a 73% oxygen level in her blood, and they are ideally looking for between 92-100%, the higher the better. To help counter this she was quickly put in to an incubator to give her extra oxygen and was hooked up to all sorts of machines to monitor her heartbeat, her oxygen levels and various other things – I can’t be quite sure what they all were as it was quite a lot to take in.

They were also concerned she may have an infection after swallowing all the meconium (which later proved to be the case) and so they instantly put her on a 5 day dose of antibiotics, which was later increased to 7 days so they could flush out the infection.

This was all so much to take in, and obviously the doctors main concern at this point is the baby, so they never stop for too long to explain too much to you, so you are being given all these numbers and words you dont really understand and told it will all be ok. But it was one of the scariest times of my life, so many things going through my head! This is where our incredible family and friends came to our rescue, we could not have done it without them. I will never be able to thank them enough for all the support they have given the 3 of us this last week.

Not long after being in the incubator and getting the extra oxygen, Lola had improved a lot, her breathing was a lot calmer and she was able to finally get some sleep and relax a little. It was so tough seeing her with all the tubes coming off her and having her stuck in the plastic box that was now her home, but you just have to keep telling yourself, she will be ok, and that they are doing the best things for her. Which they were, the care she received was amazing, the nurses did an amazing job.

Obviously as Lara had had major surgery she was stuck in the hospital for a few days herself and for the first 24 hours couldn’t even leave her bed to see Lola, this left me with the horrible, heart-wrenching decision to leave my little, precious baby Lola and go and sit with her Mom, to help her and to keep her updated with news about Lola as best I could. I spent most of the next 15-16 hours going up and down between Lara and Lola, as I never wanted to leave either of them alone for too long.

Every time I went down to see Lola, I had to fight to hold myself together and was wiping away a fair amount of tears. This was not how I had imagined she would be introduced to the world, it was not fair at all.

Once Lara was able to get up and walk, she was straight down to see Lola, and seeing the two of them together was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had. It made me feel so much better knowing they were able to cuddle each other, and that Lara could come down and see her little girl at any time, even after I had gone home at night. Lola improved so much after having the contact with her Mom and finally breast-feeding. You could visibly see her improve every time Lara held her – it was an amazing thing to watch.

As the week went on, I had to set myself mental goals in my head, to help get me through. I was focussing on getting Lara fit enough to leave, to see Lola move to the next room, closer to the end of the ward, which means you are closer to leaving. Willing and praying that the next tube will be removed, that she will no longer need monitoring 24/7 etc. And these things happened, slowly but surely she got better and better, and now, she is fully fit and at home with us, where she belongs.

The last week has seemed like a year to me, and although I know, compared to others we’ve had very good birth and are extremely lucky, while you are going through what we went through, your only thought is yourself and your family, and some of the things that happened took me very close to the peak of my emotions, and at times I wasn’t sure if I could keep it going without just breaking down. But you have to be strong, because Lola needs us to be strong. Also, knowing that Lara had been through so much worse than me, meant that I was in no position to be complaining, I had to support her. At times I would rant, usually to my parents. I would cry, to my parents. I would swear and scream, to my parents. But these were things I had to do, away from the hospital, away from Lola, to get them out of my system, so that I could be as calm as possible around her.

My parents have been simply amazing this past week, I don’t know how to thank them enough, but that’s something I will try to explain and show them personally, over the next few months. Once I’ve caught up on sleep. I love them so very much!

Fatherhood is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me, I just cannot believe how much I love Lola. I could just stare at her forever and more. I now understand all the things that people have said to me about how they feel about their children and I now have all those feelings. I know at times it will be tough, it will be frustrating, it will be sad, but one thing I can promise to my Lola is that no matter what, I will always be there for her, I will always be beside her holding her hand, I will always love her and I will always protect her as best I can. I will always hold her when she needs to be held, I will always be the best Dad I can be and hopefully I will be her best friend too.

I managed to get her in front of a camera earlier while her eyes were open, isn’t she beautiful!

I am going to try and update this blog as regularly as possible, as Lara’s family and friends are over in the US and so I want to help them get as many updates about Lola as possible. I also just want to continue sharing the amazing story of fatherhood!

Thank you all very much for your love and support, it means so much to all 3 of us!

P.S. Thanks for helping out OBGB!

Lola Barbara Christine Child was born on the 5th December at 4.48am, weighing in at 6lbs 11oz.

After 21 hours of labour, she was finally delivered by a cesarean.

Lara was absolutely amazing, i will always me in her debt, for giving my the amazing gift of fatherhood and the most beautiful little girl, all of our own!

Lara is recovering well and is up wand walking about and is a lot more comfortable than last night, although is still in some discomfort.

Lola had the unfortunate and rather horrible experiences of swallowing a lit of fluid during the labour and so had some difficulty breathing when she was born, and also had a low percentage of oxygen in her blood.

Because of this, she was taken away from us after about an hour, to the special care unit, where she is still being cared for. She is doing well though, and is improving by the hour.

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to hold Lola this morning and Lara was able to feed her too. Having contact with her seemed to help both of them a lot, Lola seemed much happier by the time we left her to have a break and let Lara have a rest.

My main aim this week is to focus day by day, and to help my lovely family through everything, as best I can. This isn’t the way i imagined our family beginning, but it’s just the way it went, and I am so grateful to everyone who has been helping us through all this, my Mum was fantastic during the birth, and we really couldnt of done it without her.

The nurses caring for our little girl are doing a fantastic job – they are brilliant!

I will post some more pictures and videos when we’re all back at home together and settled.


Quick update. Lara is in labour and doing amazingly!

Hopefully she’ll be delivering little Lara soon, and she will then be born on her due date.

Only 5% of babies are born on their due date – unique!


It took me a while to get it, to work out exactly how I felt about waiting for our little baby, but I got it. I worked out what that feeling was. It was like waiting for that package to arrive in the post, the one you really really want to be on time, but deep down you know it won’t be, and you also know that you can’t really do anything about it, apart from get inpatient and frustrated. Thats how I feel! A little bit more extreme and excited, as the package is the most exciting package I have ever had the pleasure to be waiting for, but that is the closest thing I could think of – weird aren’t I?!

I know Little Lara isn’t late yet, but because I got myself prepared for her to be early, I kind of convinced myself she would be, so now I am getting inpatient. I know it’s my own fault, and I am not blaming the package or the ‘courier’.

My emotions have been pretty up and down this last week, I go from ridiculously excited and unable to concentrate, all the way through to all out fear, and pretty much every emotion you could imagine in-between those 2. The fear I’ve had, tucked away in the back of my head has not disappeared at any point through this journey, the fear of being a bad Dad scares the bejesus out of me. The standards have been set for me, as I have grown up around a lot of amazing Dads. My Dad, the man I would personally call the ultimate Dad. My Dads Dad, Grandpa, the guy who taught my Dad everything. My uncle Mike, who was my 2nd Dad and was as good to me as he was his own children. Obviously I know many more amazing Dads, but these are the 3 men i have learnt the most from, and the one thing I can link them all with is as well as being related to them, they have all been a great friend to me, someone I could turn to for help, advice, or just to have a bit of a joke with. Between them they have taught me to walk and talk, been my football coach, taught me how to play pool and table tennis, taught me to ride a bike, taught me to enjoy hiking up the Welsh hills in the pouring rain and high winds – and enjoying it! The list goes on and on, but the point is, I have no excuse to be a bad Dad, and for that very reason I am convinced that I will be fine. I have many memories to call on that I’m sure will help me out in various situations, and I know I am only a phone call away from some advice. And I expect to be making a few phone calls.

In Lara news, we thought we may well be spending the night in hospital last night. We thought we were about to meet our little girl. But, it was not to be. I think it was just her bodies reaction to the busy day that it had just been put through. A whole days christmas shopping proved to be a little bit too much for a heavily pregnant lady – who would have thought?!

We even had my Mum on standby, ready to come over and to start the preparations to get us to the hospital, but it all proved to be a false alarm. At least now I will know how it will kind of feel, when it does happen. I just hope my hand recovers in time, because it got well and truly squeezed last night!

Here are a couple of photos of bump:

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14 days to go, well if we aren’t ready now, then we better get a move on, because it really could happen any day now. Lara has started her maternity leave now, and so many people of told me stories of how they went on maternity leave and within the first couple of days, once they were nice and relaxed, the baby decided that was the time to arrive – so I’m getting myself prepared, just in case.

With 2 weeks to go until the due date, I seem to have got to a point where I am now just waiting, we have most things arranged and organised, we know where we’re going, who we need to contact and when, the people we want to tell first, and when we want to tell them. We have got most of the things that she will need from day zero and it seems we now have enough clothes to get her through the first year!

Don’t worry though, I am not that deluded, I understand that within the first 24 hours of bringing my little girl home, I will be packed off to the shops with a list of things we need to get, and that this will become an almost daily routine for me. I’m fine with that, I accepted it a long time ago.

We’ve been trying to work out what to get our little girl for Christmas, but every time we think of something, we then decide she should have that from the moment she is born, so we are trying hard to hold things back until Christmas day, so that we will not just be relying on Father Christmas!

Lara is officially 100% uncomfortable and ready for the carrying of baby to be over. For the last few days she has been getting some horrible cramps. They only last about a second or two at a time, but a couple of times she has had 3 or 4 in quick succession, which isn’t great when you’re sitting on a train or stuck in a meeting!

Lara also went to visit the midwife on Friday, and she was told that the baby is nice and healthy and is now engaged and in the correct position, so that’s all good news. Little Lara is quite small apparently, but as Lara is small, it is nothing to be worried about. hopefully that will make her arrival a little easier?

I will try to get a picture of the bump up next week, but I haven’t felt brave enough to ask Lara to stand by the wall while I take my time getting the right angle and the perfect lighting whilst she stands still, uncomfortable and bored. I’ll wait until she is nice and calm and relaxed.

I’m going to be a Dad!

I recently became a Dad to the beautiful Lola Barbara Christine Child. She is the most incredible thing that has ever happened to me and I love her SO much.

Thank you for visiting and joining me on what is a truly incredible journey.

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