This morning I took my 15 month old son to swimming for the first time (mine, not his). It was an interesting experience to say the least.

Last night, my wife went over all the finer details with me: Pack the bag, starts at 8:45, get him ready, get yourself ready etc…

“Oh, and don’t poo in the pool!”

I’d heard that from her before. Apparently if a baby poos in the pool, the whole centre is shutdown for 8 hours while the filter is cleaned. Ok, got it, don’t poo.

After getting up this morning, we got the poo out of the way – all good. About 30 minutes later my wife says, “I don’t know if he’s done another one”. We check, nothing there…

My wife left for work, we finished getting ready and off to the pool we went. We’re the first ones there, in the heated hydrotherapy pool. I started getting his stuff ready, towel, bathers, swimming nappy.

I took his clothes off, then his nappy and just as I’m putting the old nappy in the bag, I feel something against my foot…

He’s done a poo! Straight after the nappy came off this little thing dropped to the floor and rolled over to hit the side of my foot. AAAARRRGGGHH!!

Luckily, as we were the only ones still in the room I was able to retrieve and dispose of it without being seen! And it went no where near the pool, so we didn’t have to evacuate the centre.

That scare out of the way, it was time for class. This part went off without a hitch. He’s a confident little boy in the water, not phased by going under at all. He was distracted for a bit after seeing a Thomas the Tank Engine toy amongst the teacher’s props.

When the class finished it really hit home that I was the only dad in the pool. I obviously knew this intellectually, but the reality of it was apparent by the use of change rooms.

There are three change rooms in this particular section of the centre. One is a unisex, with a picture of a man, woman and child. One is female, with a picture of a woman and child. The one down the end looked to my like a male room, with a picture of a man and a boy.

Women went into all three!

They must be so used to only having other mothers in the classes that they take over the whole place! I’d been warned this might be the case, so I ended up just putting on a dry shirt and changing my son.

So all in all it was an eventful morning, so much so that he fell asleep on me on the couch after we got home

I came across this infographic today, Confessions of a Geek Dad. I think it’s pretty accurate in portraying this Geek Dad at least! Click the picture for a closer look.

I hope all the mums out there are being spoiled rotten today by their Husbands/Partners and Children! I hope you get breakfast in bed (and that it’s still warm when it gets to you!), as much coffee as you need or desire, and all the love and attention that you deserve!

Have a great day! I’m off to the kitchen!

We’ve been having some sleep issues at home recently, so my wife borrowed a few sleep books from the library. One thing I have noticed is that they all seems so extreme! It’s basically all or nothing, with one book stating that you should leave your child to cry for up to 1 hour without comforting them.

We’re first time parents going through this with a 9 month old that has just learnt to stand in his cot, crawl everywhere and no doubt starting to get separation anxiety when put in his room alone. We don’t think that we need to be this extreme.

We plan on taking in some of the advice common to most books, such as a defined and repeated bed-time routine of dinner, bath, story, lullaby, bed. But we’re not prepared to just let our son cry himself to sleep, but taking him into his room and preparing for bed and allowing him to protest and cry about being there while being held, then once he understands that we’re not giving in he tends to calm down and give in.

Once we’ve got to this point we will lay him down in his cot and gently pat an reassure him until he’s almost asleep.

Are we doing this all wrong? Is the all or nothing approach of these books the only way to go? Are we too nice as parents?

I’d love to hear your real life experiences in the comments!

A new Australian study published in the Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Journal has found that new fathers are just as likely to suffer Postnatal Depression (PND) as mothers.

Fathers are at risk of experiencing postnatal mental health difficulties, which may persist across the early childhood period for some fathers. The results suggest routine assessment of fathers’ wellbeing should be undertaken in the postnatal period with mental health interventions and support provided across the early childhood period.

Fathers are often the forgotten parent in many different areas, and this is probably one of the most important. The screening for PND generally focusses on the mother in this country, in my recent experiences I don’t recall any questions aimed at my mental state. Luckily I haven’t suffered, but I don’t doubt than many men do, especially after going back to work after the short time off (if you’re lucky) after the birth of the child.

So remember to ask a new dad how he’s going next time you pay them a visit.