Having my first Baby! (my wife... not me) (3 Viewers)

Spend the extra $$ for a car seat that has an easy to remove liner (the zipper kind)… nothing worse than trying to quickly clean puke out of the car seat and you have to spend 15 mins trying to take the thing apart.

and it will happen.

many times.

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Don't try to be super-dad, or the perfect dad. You'll inevitably mess up and falling short of those expectations of yourself will just make it harder on you.

Do your best, I have no doubt you'll do great.
 
First of all, congratulations! That's awesome news, DAD!

You're going to be flooded with advice, tips, tricks, warnings, etc. (whether you like it or not). ;) One piece of advice - get a decent external HDD for all those baby pics/videos you'll eventually take.

what we should have done was made a Gmail account for the baby. Then you can email all the photos and videos to them
 
Lots of good advice here that I echo all of.

I am not positive of the situation in Canada, but if your job and local laws allow for it, take some time off when the baby is born to help out with the little one and with things around the house.

Also do not be ashamed to ask family/friends for help, even though I still hate doing it. They'll 99% of the time be happy to help if they are able.

Most moms get this advice, but it goes for Dad too. Sleep when the baby sleeps.

That's three pieces of advice, whoops!
 
Please write a how-to guide to accomplish this!
lol my wife gets all credit. Eat dinner same time, short play time, bath time, read story, tucked in bed. It’s hard to follow but the reward is worth it. My wife and I call it “going to war”. But sipping a bourbon at 9 while playing online poker is fantastic.
 
what we should have done was made a Gmail account for the baby. Then you can email all the photos and videos to them
We liked this idea and have a variation of this. However, not all members of our family are so 'technologically fluent' so they still require hard photos and/or for us to actually bring photos to them.

We've cut the difference by gifting them a net-enabled photo viewer (let's not go into the work required to get those suckers online). The grandparents acted like we performed black magic when we sent the photos over.

Worth it. ;)
 
We liked this idea and have a variation of this. However, not all members of our family are so 'technologically fluent' so they still require hard photos and/or for us to actually bring photos to them.

We've cut the difference by gifting them a net-enabled photo viewer (let's not go into the work required to get those suckers online). The grandparents acted like we performed black magic when we sent the photos over.

Worth it. ;)

I tried to do this for my mom and aunt but they don’t even have WiFi haha. So each year for Christmas my wife orders photo books of their year and we mail it as Christmas gifts.
 
Lots of good advice here that I echo all of.

I am not positive of the situation in Canada, but if your job and local laws allow for it, take some time off when the baby is born to help out with the little one and with things around the house.

Also do not be ashamed to ask family/friends for help, even though I still hate doing it. They'll 99% of the time be happy to help if they are able.

Most moms get this advice, but it goes for Dad too. Sleep when the baby sleeps.

That's three pieces of advice, whoops!
There is two types of leave:

maternity (mother only) - 15 weeks paid at 55% of wages to a max of $595/week

parental (can be split between both parents) - either 35 weeks paid at 55% of wages to a max of $595/week or 61 weeks paid at 33% of wages to a max of $357/week.
 
I tried to do this for my mom and aunt but they don’t even have WiFi haha. So each year for Christmas my wife orders photo books of their year and we mail it as Christmas gifts.
Looks like you and I have the same family. ;) This is what we were struggling with at the beginning so that's why we have the portable HDD to take photos / videos to the family members.
 
Sell all your chips as you won’t be able to host for a while...Dibs. :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:

Seriously though, congrats!
My advice:
Prebirth: Take the wife to as many restaurants, going out, excursions, etc as much as possible before baby arrives.
Post Birth: Take turns at night to feed the baby.
 
Congratulations! Lots of great advice has already been mentioned.

My advice is to use swaddle wraps that have Velcro.

With our first child we used a blanket to swaddle the baby which didn’t have Velcro and you had to learn the techniques to wrap the baby.

With our second baby we exclusively used wraps with Velcro and it made things more convenient.
 
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Congrats Dave!

Enjoy all of the time you can get, they grow up quickly!
^^^ This. So much this. My boys are now 20 and 22, and it seems like it went by so fast. They'll both probably be moving out in the next 2 years, and that will be a turning point. I'm not looking forward to it, truth be told.

For RESP's, get them set up as soon as you can. We set them up through our bank and it was well worth it.

Congrats, and enjoy the ride!
 
One piece of advice? Shit dude...

OK here you go:

From day 1, you are their model for how a man should conduct himself. This is true whether you're having a boy or a girl.

Over the course of the next 18 years, they will decide for themselves if you showed them how to be, or how not to be.

Bonus tip: I don't know if you've selected a name, but it's important to take into consideration that you're naming a person who will have to deal with that name when they're eventually an adult. The name you choose for them has the potential to affect their chances of success in life. This is useful: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/name-rebroadcast/
 
Know gender? Got a name? Let me know if you need name suggestions.

also if you drink, be on the lookout for a Blantons with birthday. I hear that’s a thing. I wouldn’t know since I open all my bottles lol.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice and kind words!! I was going to reply to all of you but I chose sleep ;) (see!! as a night hawk I am learning to pick my battles!)

I picked out a few comments I wanted to reply to but as I said I will be reading this thread over again and likely to comment again!

First of all, congratulations! That's awesome news, DAD!

You're going to be flooded with advice, tips, tricks, warnings, etc. (whether you like it or not). ;) One piece of advice - get a decent external HDD for all those baby pics/videos you'll eventually take.
THIS sounds like genius. I think I could spend a week deleting the craptacular photos on my phone. I will need to make space.

Lots of good advice here that I echo all of.

I am not positive of the situation in Canada, but if your job and local laws allow for it, take some time off when the baby is born to help out with the little one and with things around the house.

Also do not be ashamed to ask family/friends for help, even though I still hate doing it. They'll 99% of the time be happy to help if they are able.

Most moms get this advice, but it goes for Dad too. Sleep when the baby sleeps.

That's three pieces of advice, whoops!
Canada (especially ONTARIO) is a $hi+show right now. Golf was closed down for a month due to "the covid" as well as all sporting activities... most of you know the Raptors called home Tampa Bay, Toronto FC are playing soccer in Orlando, the Blue Jays were in FLA and now in Buffalo.... small businesses here are shutdown and likely all to fail with locked doors. It basically is a mess - I apologize if this turns into a long thread about covid and rights and freedoms. SORRY.

Our families have been and hopefully will continue to be great. So theres that!

And as far as taking time off.... my wife and I are both educators so we technically hit pocket ACES preflop here by having the kid during the summer months! Will this be a good thing or a bad thing... I am thinking AA preflop is always a good thing... but only time will tell. With us both off and perhaps another covid ravaged school year happening... who knows... but at least we will have the summer together to figure ish out.

Sell all your chips as you won’t be able to host for a while...Dibs. :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:

Seriously though, congrats!
My advice:
Prebirth: Take the wife to as many restaurants, going out, excursions, etc as much as possible before baby arrives.
Post Birth: Take turns at night to feed the baby.
LOL about the chips. NO chance I am selling. hahahahah Instead have plans to get a mancave/garage built for festivities (wife is on board)! Fingers crossed...

See above for our limitations up here due to this pandemic.
 
Congratulations! My advice is do not feel like you have to give up the hobbies you enjoy. You may not have quite as much time to do them but it is important to maintain some personal time when you can.

I feel like I dropped everything to focus on parenting when I should have searched for a balance. My daughter is a little older now (4 years) and I just started playing poker again!
 
BABY arrived just in time ... well 3.5 weeks early!!! WOOOOO!

In time for summer. In time for fathers day. In time to watch the EURO knockout stages. But no matter!

Super excited!!!!

HAPPY BELATED FATHER'S DAY ALL!!!
sweet. Ours is about to come. Our due date is July 19 but no way we making it that far.

congrats!!
 
A bit late here, but congratulations on the baby! I have two bits of advice:

1) Sleep when you can or while the baby sleeps. You’re gonna need it!

2) Your child is not the outlet for your frustrations. No matter how aggravating things get, despite your best efforts to make things better, that child is still trying to get used to living in a new world. Be tolerant, supportive, and loving.
 

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