Well that’s another first under the belt, my first ever Father’s Day as a dad. So far Phoebe seems fairly pleased with my progress, although to be fair it must be pretty hard to mess it up in six weeks. Hard, but not impossible as maybe suggested by earlier posts.
One unexpected aspect of Baby Beno’s arrival into the world was just how reminiscent she is of that other popular, influential and temperamental lady, Grandma Benson.
In Part One we learnt how raising babies is tough. Okay, so not much of a revelation there to anyone that’s tried it, but as Baby Beno is having an unusually long sleep, here are a few insights and tips from the early days…
1. Be on your guard as early as possible
At just one day old, Baby Beno was getting a lot of attention, from nurses, midwives, paediatricians etc. All as expected and all fairly routine. One surprise visitor was the Bounty pack woman.
Of course at that stage your relief juices make you happy to speak to just about anyone, which is good news for £50m+ company who’s representative wanders the maternity wards taking names, date of birth, email addresses, even nappy preferences, all in exchange for a couple of product samples and wedge of coupons.
Let’s get something straight first. I love my baby. Holding your firstborn in your arms is a feeling unlike any other. You instantly know that you’ll love, care for and coo over this creature for the rest of your life.
Naturally, your firstborn is beautiful beyond all reasonable expectations; has a burgeoning level of intelligence that suggests a future Nobel prize or business empire; finds most of what you do funny, leading you to believe you’ll have the best parent/child relationship since Mrs Shakespeare said ‘It’s a boy!’ and thrashes around in a manner only seen by legendary athletes, world cup winners or Madonna backing singers.