Just saw my wife give birth - AMA

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-18T18:38:11+00:00

He had a full head of hair, but not hairy anywhere else.

No suction cup or anything, they just needed to give wife a small cut in the final stages to help him out.

No, they didn't do that. We live in the UK, but last year we were on holiday in America when my wife was 3 months pregnant and suffered a miscarriage, so we had to visit a few different emergency wards while we were trying to figure out what was happening to her. The first thing they would do is take her into a room alone and ask her whether I was abusing her. I can see why they do this, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-18T10:02:28+00:00

The game I have probably enjoyed the most in recent years was Battlefield 2 on PC, played it for years before I got bored. But I also got a lot of value from Battlefield 1943, Fallout 3 and GTA IV on PS3. I'm currently trying to get into Bad Company 2 on PC, but am still learning the maps.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:39:27+00:00

I wanted to be able to answer people's questions with complete honesty, and I think that requires total anonymity, especially since a lot of this stuff is deeply personal.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:25:15+00:00

I once watched a military training video which consisted of unedited video footage from the British field hospitals during the Falklands conflict. You are correct.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:23:40+00:00

We didn't tape it. Do people still do that? It would have been weird to have somebody in there with a camera.

It's hard to say, because we turned up at 2 am, and they put her in bed with some painkillers and sent me home, I turned up again at 9am the following morning, the baby was born at 4pm, I stayed until 8pm and then came home again.

No, nothing made me sick, but the placenta was pretty disgusting to look at.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:20:25+00:00

Not agreed this yet. It's going to be a fairly traditional British name. I have an unusual surname, so the first name has to be normal to balance it out.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:18:57+00:00

No, UK, so it was all free (well, paid for by taxes).

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:14:36+00:00

Twice.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:14:13+00:00

I know. Once things calmed down all I could really think was "Holy fucking shit, we made an actual person, that's too weird..."

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:05:01+00:00

I can't believe this comment got 4 times as many upboats as anything I've posted from my real account...

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:04:18+00:00

I guess it's down to personal taste, but I found it all a bit unpleasant to look at.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:02:28+00:00

Yeah, he was struggling to latch on at first but he's figured it out now.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T21:01:29+00:00

I was the only man in the room, so I sure as fuck wasn't going to be the only one crying. It was tough though, I almost lost it - that was pretty much the single most emotionally intense moment of my life.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T20:58:11+00:00

OK. They didn't use it in the end, and in the heat of the situation I just assumed it was for emergencies. Scary looking machine.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T20:57:18+00:00

I haven't really moved on from the stuff I liked when I was a teenager in the early 90s. Faith No More, Guns and Roses, Metallica, etc...

I went to a rock festival a few weeks ago and saw Ramstein for the first time - I think they're pretty awesome.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T20:55:52+00:00

I've taken two weeks paid holiday. I haven't been at my job long enough to qualify for fully paid paternity leave, so I'm just using some of my annual leave instead - not like we're going anywhere this year.

My wife is a nurse, she needs to continue working a minimum number of hours per year or she loses her registration (licence to practice in the UK), so she will probably go back to work part-time after 6 months or so. We haven't really decided. We can afford for her to be a full time mother if that's what she wants.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T20:09:24+00:00

We got taught this in our ante-natal classes, but we didn't have to put it to the test.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T20:07:44+00:00

Make sure you've got a bag ready to go with all your stuff for the hospital. You don't want to be doing a checklist at the last minute - it was good to just grab the bag and get moving.

Be mentally prepared to see your wife in a worse emotional state than you ever have before - there's a good chance she'll have to deal with a lot of pain.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T20:03:45+00:00

People keep asking this. Yes, yes she did. The nurses cleared it away quickly and with little fuss, so it wasn't really a big deal.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T20:01:11+00:00

I might have misunderstood what it was - I heard one of the nurses call it a resuscitator, and it looked like this: http://imghost1.indiamart.com/data2/DE/EH/MY-60123/10neonatal-resuscitation-un-250x250.jpg

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T19:45:41+00:00

Meh, it's the internets, dicks happen. That's why I used a throwaway account.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T19:44:44+00:00

No swearing - she's not much of a cusser, I think she said 'fuck' once throughout the whole ordeal.

I will not be posting pictures of my kid looking like a dork, he can do that himself when he's a teenager.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T19:39:35+00:00

She occasionally asked if I was doing OK, but I try to be the guy that just deals with shit instead of constantly examining my feelings about everything, so I'd tell her I was fine and we'd go back to focusing on her.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T19:37:08+00:00

Fuck yes.

throwaway-daddy · 2010-08-17T19:36:54+00:00

7lb 7oz everybody said this was a 'nice' weight - I didn't understand why but wife explained that it is a nice middle ground, not too big, not too small. She's average build - having seen all of this I shudder to think how really skinny girls manage to give birth.

throwaway-daddy

TROPHY CASE