These where the words echoing down the hallway of our home. It was my bellowed wife screaming them towards me in a mix of joy, confusion and panicky voice. That’s the moment I knew, my wife is pregnant, I’ll be a dad soon enough.
Just to give you all a bit more background, at this stage we had a feeling she might be with child. I personally was pretty sure of it. I know love, I can’t always know everything. Given how the previous few weeks went, I was pretty sure that my wife is pregnant. Can’t fully explain it, it’s just this feeling deep down in you, that something is happening.
Now back to the echoes on our hallway. When I received this message, a flood of all kinds of emotions overwhelmed me. Happiness surged mainly, followed by fear, then confusion, and so on. All in a blink of an eye. It’s a very complex feeling that I’m not sure I can fully describe but it hits you hard and fast. For me it took a few days until I fully realized what actually is happening. Our lives will be different forever.
We all know the saying, calm before the storm. Well, for me it was a bit different, there was a lightning strike to kick it all off. Then I went into a phase of calmness where all kinds of different ideas and scenarios go through my head. Will I be a good dad, will I make many mistakes. I have to pay attention to so many things, but the more time is passing during the pregnancy the more I get used to this new reality. The more I managed to figure out what type of dad I want to be the more comfortable I got with the idea of becoming a father. All that’s left now is to have enough patience until the storm arrives in the shape of our child.
The funny side of things, despite adjusting to this new reality, happened to me several times as I was going somewhere and saw a parent with their child. They are showing them how to do certain things or how to behave. In those moments, I felt it again, that lighting strike of emotion followed by the never ending self-questioning. I will be partially responsible for another human, and if that’s not enough I’m responsible to teach that child everything about life. Do I know everything about life ? Can I do all of this ? Well, time will tell but for now the best advise I can give, just take a deep breath and calm down, it’s all going to be fine.
Nobody ever has all the answers to all the questions, best we can do is keep our cool and try to figure it out day by day.
Whilst a lot of us might have the tendency to overthink situations, I know I do, we are talking about parenting. I think it’s safe to say that we are all just thrown into this new form of life. At least this is what I use to calm myself in moment of doubt.
Hope you enjoyed this quick read, take care and see you in the next one.
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