Player 3 Has Joined

So this isn’t what I originally had typed up for this post as somehow that copy disappeared. It was majorly saddening. On a lighter note, my wife popped out a baby. Not just any baby, but my beautiful son.

For the use of this blog, however, I’ll be referring to him as ‘Player 3’. What really surprised me upon meeting him is how much he doesn’t look like one parent over the other. By this I mean he is a surprisingly perfect blend of both my wife and I. I’ve never been happier in my life. He’s a few weeks old now and has made it much harder than I would have thought to be able to push out a single post for this website.

Parenthood, though. It’s something completely different than what you would expect. There’s only so much preparation a person can go through beforehand to understand what is to come, but it truly doesn’t feel like it has prepared you at all. I’ve heard it over and over again that my life would change, and I was well accepting and understanding of that, but I really couldn’t understand it until the time had come and Player 3 joined us. Kids change your lives in ways you really can’t explain, which is probably why you can’t really be prepared for it when it happens. As for preparation, I didn’t really have a whole lot before the birth. This is in terms of diaper changes and other essential needs. I was working full time and spending the rest of my free time to make sure that my pregnant (not so much anymore) wife was well off.

Where am I getting at?

I was born to be a dad. Really I surprised myself at how quickly I took to diaper changes, burping, feedings (not from my boobs, that would be weird), and just general care of Player 3.

Without getting too graphic, my wife was forced to get a c-section after 50 hours of back labor with no major results. The c-section didn’t really go all too well, and although she’s doing much better now, there were screams from her I wish I didn’t have to hear before I was rushed out with Player 3 in my arms. It was a truly scary experience to go through and I wish things could’ve gone differently, but here we are a few weeks after doing much better.

Back to my original “being a dad” point. I was kind of pushed into the deep end caring for Player 3 as the wife had to recover and couldn’t really hold him very long unless it were for feedings. I feel pretty lucky that everything came naturally. I didn’t ever have that “I don’t know what I’m doing moment” at the hospital. At home, that’s a different story. The past few nights Player 3 has decided to wake up in the middle of the night and stay that way for hours. He cries on occasion over poopy diapers and wanting to eat, but he his late night endeavors have really crushed my sleeping. He’s been good for the few weeks so far until just the past few days. I’m running on an average 7 hours of sleep over a two night span (that’s 3 + 4 in case you were wondering). Parenting will get some getting used to, otherwise everything else has felt fairly natural.

I wanted to get a little nerdy in this post before I go to bed (even though I have no idea what time it is for you). So there were a few nights where I was trying to give my wife some rest and would take Player 3 for the night, hang out in the living room with him, and feed him. In the time he would spend sleeping before his late night feeding, I spent majority of it watching Daredevil and playing Hearthstone. I finally finished Daredevil and am thoroughly impressed at what Marvel has done to make him relevant and add him into the cinematic universe. GEEZ, its freaking dark. Yes, Daredevil is part of the MCU, quite possibly to make an appearance in the next Spiderman, I hope. Secondly, HEARTHSTONE!!! This is the only game I’ve really been able to play at home because you only need one hand to play it. Trying to balance a baby in one hand and console game just isn’t really an option (although I have stuck Player 3 in the Ergo carrier while trying to play Splinter Cell). What’s Hearthstone? If you don’t already know, it’s a digital card game created by Blizzard (same guys who made Starcraft and World of Warcraft). I can only play this because it finally came to smartphones (android and iOS only (sorry windows phone, your time will come)) and it feels made for it.

To wrap things up. Being a dad is freaking awesome. I hope to have some better stories in the future along with some pretty good baby/kid product reviews. For now, I leave you with this to start with.