First time dad...

pgi947

pgi947

pgi947

Soldato
Joined
25 Jun 2011
Posts
16,800
Location
Aberdeen
Hi all...

SO I found out last week I'm going to be a dad for the first time, as is the mothers first time.

Tbh I'm not sure what to expect, how to plan for this, what to do, how to do it etc...about 10 weeks gone atm, due sometime in June.

Basically I'm clueless and could do with some 'real world' advise, I find all information online to be pretty much BS based on my own assumption, making it sound overly easy.

The one thing I have noticed is how much the government pretty much kicks you in the stones as much as possible while having your first born, £120 a week pre tax for paternity?? Really?? Something else I should be looking into to assist with this? I'd very much love to take 2 weeks PAT leave + 2 weeks annual Leave when its born, but I seriously can't afford to take such a pay ditch over 2 weeks.

Any other recent first time dads want to give me some tips?
 
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Thanks everyone :)

No problem at all with the 2nd hand stuff, other halfs cousin had a baby boy last week so I have a source for some free/cheap baby stuff, will keep an eye out for other stuff too.

I'll start stocking up on stuff after xmas, ASDA quite often have nappies/wipes etc.. on offer, plus I live pretty close to a large ASDA.

I'm also not saying the government own me anything, just pointing out that the one time in my life I'm likely to need assistance financially I'm not really going to get it as I'd be better off using annual leave, I'm paid weekly so I would instantly notice the drop in income, in the long term we should be ok financially, just doesn't hurt to get what help you can :)

I will speak to one of the company directors in the next few weeks and see if they can provide any assistance, which may be helped by the fact my boss has a baby due in April, so I'll at least have his backing.

For saving cash, as it is I already put away £50 a week for emergencies, so that will be now used for the baby rather then buying new PC parts :p
 
Won't really be doing anything prep wise until after xmas just to be safe!

I'm not sure how I'll react to the sleep situation, I'm up at 6am 7 days a week through habit, so surviving on even less sleep I imagine is going to be a pain :p

I'll certainly be giving her a break over the weekends, I spend most weekends doing little anyway so it will be nice to spend time with the kid :)

Current mancave is going to make way for the new born, though I have eyed up a new spot for it, at least until moving house is on the cards to free up some room.

Have a meeting with some of the management at work this week, see if there is any movement on the paternity leave side of things, I'm going to guess they'll say no as they're tight but it can't hurt to ask :)
 
So much fantastic information from everyone thanks, really starting to sink in now :)

Mrs has got the doctor's tomorrow for a blood test and to sort out a date for the first scan!
 
Thanks again everyone :D

Fortunate enough to have a Costco membership, so will have a scout around what offers they have next time I'm in as well as taking a trip to Aldi and my usual Asda.

First scan is tomorrow morning, quite excited about it, though thanks to my mother for pointing out twins are very common on both mine and the mrs side of the family :o
 
Time to unearth this thread!

Little boy arrived in the early hours of Sunday morning, weighing in at a rather hefty 9lb 6!

Thanks again for all the advise in this thread (I'm going to re-read all of it over the next day or so just if I missed something!). Its really appreciated.

We had a hard first night he was home, constant crying, wouldn't settle etc... but we seem to have gotten into the swing of things now, I'm staying up late while the mrs catches up on sleep and I'll grab a few hours in the morning once the coffee & relentless has worn off :p

He's only up and crying now roughly every 2 hours for a feed/change/burp which I gather is normal, so all happy on that front.

The stocking up thing, we didn't really stock up much of anything thanks to the Asda rollback thing (prices stay at 'offer' prices for 9+ months at a time), plus when stocks are looking low its only a days wait to get something delivered from Asda too :)

Thanks again GD :)
 
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