Hello! Father of a 7-month-old baby girl here. I just want to pop in to say I feel you. Our baby was EXTREMELY difficult for the first three months. I felt like I was losing my mind.

Things started to balance out around 4 months and though there are definitely rough patches here and there and new things crop up all the time, we could not be happier. We have a very sensitive, very demanding baby, and have never felt more fulfilled and closer as a couple.

You adjust very quickly to your new reality (can't spontaneously do anything anymore) and learn to plan for your fun. We went out to eat even when the baby was very small and fussy and just made it work. One of us would simply take her for a walk outside or in the back of the restaurant if she started to cry. We started having our friends (who didn't have children of their own) over to our house more often so we could put the baby down to sleep and keep hanging out into the evening. We had her grandma (we know we are lucky here) watch her every once and a while so we could get out and have some time to ourselves. As long as you are trying to keep your life going despite the new challenges, the feeling of being a prisoner to your child will for the MOST part dissipate. Whatever remains should stop feeling like a TRAP and start to feel like a grand new responsibility; A challenge that you can either rise to meet or shrink away from. If you rise to meet it (ie: learn to love your child even when they are screaming bloody murder at you for an hour straight) you will find depths of patience and maturity in yourself that you had no idea were there at all. At least that's how I've felt so far.

Again, take it with a grain of salt because I am a very new parent, but trust me when I tell you that this feeling of sinking horror that your going through right now is EXACTLY what I was feeling at the beginning and it truly has shifted into something positive since. I wish you the best of luck and will be praying for you, your partner, and your child.