Friday 24 July 2009

Feeling useful again...

One thing that’s nice as a new dad is feeling useful. It may sound a bit strange saying that, but there are plenty of occasions when I’ve felt a bit helpless, being stuck in work while Melissa handles some kind of minor crisis at home with Harry.

Admittedly, this wasn’t a problem immediately after Harry was born. During my two weeks’ paternity leave, I was on tea-making duty for the seemingly never-ending stream of visitors, as well as sterilising bottles, making up feeds and so on. But when I went back to work, Melissa coped so well, there were times when I felt I couldn’t do anything useful to help.

Since Harry’s got a little older, though, I’ve found myself becoming more useful again. It’s not that Harry is a bad baby; far from it. However, he has been teething for the last couple of months and this can mean a few, how can I put it, niggly days.

Since I went back to work after Harry was born, Melissa’s made a point of handing him straight over to me when I get in so that I can spend some time with him, feed him, change him and so on. I always look forward to this part of the day – it’s my chance to convince Harry that cricket is in fact the finest sport ever invented.

Anyway, when he’s teething, he can be a bit of a handful and I can tell as soon as open the door what sort of day it’s been for Melissa. Put it this way, some days she’s very keen for me to finish work on time.

I still get the easy end of the deal though; I’m not just saying this to score a few brownie points, but looking after a young baby has got to be one of the hardest jobs about. So I’m happy to keep Harry occupied while Melissa catches up on all the things she intended, but didn’t have time to do during the day. At least it makes me feel useful again.

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Quality time...

AS I’ve said on countless occasions in this column, I’m really enjoying being a dad.

One of the few downsides is that, from time to time, I’ve suddenly realise that I seem to have spent hardly any quality time with Melissa.

To be honest, most of the time you’re so busy dealing with a baby that you don’t even notice. And when Harry has gone to bed, usually we’re both exhausted, and the only thing we’re ready for is sleep.

However, in the last few weeks, this has started to change. Harry is now sleeping happily in his own room and is going to bed earlier (normally between eight and nine). This means Melissa and I have more time to spend together before we go to bed – and it’s so nice to be able to relax in each other’s company after a long day.

Don’t get me wrong, having Harry is still the best thing that’s ever happened to me; it’s just nice to be able to spend and hour or two recovering and chatting over the day’s events without having to worry about Harry.

Mind you, having done the Three Peaks challenge in 24 hours last weekend, I was absolutely over the moon to spot Harry and Melissa waiting for me at the bottom of Snowdon as I ran the last few yards.

Melissa had said she wouldn’t be able to pick me up, so you can imagine my delight when I realised she’d changed her mind and brought Harry along, even if he was a bit sleepy from the car journey.

It was the longest I’d gone without seeing Harry since he was born, and I’m surprised just how much I missed him.

Seeing him gave me a real lift after an exhausting day or two – he even smiled when I picked him up, despite the fact I was in desperate need of a shower and a change of clothes. Suddenly, it all seemed worthwhile.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

And finally on the Three Peaks...

I'm sure you're all sick of me banging on about the Three Peaks, but just in case anybody's interested there's a video diary of our experiences here:

http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/VIDEO-Evening-Leader-team-complete.5452813.jp

Sunday 12 July 2009

Three Peaks in 24 hours - we did it!

A slideshow of our Three Peaks in 24 hours challenge. Enjoy.




Feeling a little tired today but no too bad in the cricumstances - and only a few aches and pains. Still can't believe we made it.

Tuesday 7 July 2009

More nappies...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that I was now a dab hand at changing nappies. Clearly I tempted fate with this rather self-congratulatory statement as Harry has now decided to tear up the rule book.

Let me explain. I’m used to Harry lying on his back and co-operating while I’m changing him. In recent weeks he’s learned how to roll onto his side but while this made the process a little more tricky, it was still manageable.

Now, however, he’s learned how to roll onto his front. This makes it nigh on impossible to change him quickly. What’s more, he spends five minutes rolling onto his tummy, followed by a further five minutes trying to crawl before giving up and screaming.

At this point, I turn him back over and the whole process begins again immediately while I try and wrestle Harry into his nappy.

As you can probably imagine, it becomes particularly tricky if you’re dealing with a full nappy.

To complicate matters further, Harry has now started eating pureed vegetables – carrot, broccoli and the like. Without going in to the gory details, this makes full nappies a far more daunting prospect.

On a happier note, though, Harry seems to be enjoying all this new food. As well as baby rice and vegetables, he’s also eating porridge and yoghurts. Feeding him is relatively easy because he’s so keen.

In fact, the only problem is he sometimes gets too excited trying to grab the spoon and, if you’re not careful, you can end up covered in food; believe me, it’s not a good look when you turn up for an important meeting with baby rice down your trousers.
At least Harry’s swimming is coming on. His latest visit was a much more relaxed affair and he appeared to enjoy it – we even managed to get him dressed and out of the changing rooms without a tantrum. Believe me, it felt like a major victory.

Sunday 5 July 2009

In training...

Last weekend, we took advantage of the fine weather to do a training climb of Snowdon in preparation for our Three Peaks challenge. It was pretty warm - hopefully we'll get similar weather this weekend.

Anyway, it all went pretty well, apart from Rick twisting his ankle on the way up. Bring on Friday!

By the way, you can of course still sponsor me by going to http://www.justgiving.com/NWN3peaks/

Thanks



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