Dads & Dads-to-be
meggyme
member
Future Dad Resources?
meggyme
member
So DH and I have started to discuss when to start our family and during that discussion it has become obvious to me that other than the sex and maybe the biological basics, he has no clue about the details involved with getting pregnant. For example, as we're deciding when to start, he had no idea that it's normal to take up to a year to conceive, or that at 35 a pregnancy can be considered a geriatric pregnancy. I've seen a lot of resources for dads once we're ku, but what about before? Is there a book or site that lays al that out in a guy friendly way?
DD1: June '16 DD2: March ‘19 :::: Married since 2011 :::: USN Wife ::::
Re: Future Dad Resources?
Most of the "guy friendly" stuff that I've seen for future dads haven't impressed me. They try to be funny about it being doom and gloom in regards to diaper changes, no sleep, and giving up all free time. Then they say you'll love it though!! I read 2 books my wife gave me and got nothing out of them. I can imagine a prep for pregnancy for dad's would be equally disappointing.
The best resources I've come across are straight forward educational ones that lay out the facts kind of like you just did. I would suggest Google and search for what you're interested in. "what to know before getting pregnant", "Pregnant at 35", etc. Wikipedia would be a good resource too as far as learning the simple stuff. If your husband is curious he'll have no problem doing some research like this. If he's not that curious than do what you're doing now and tell him stuff as he needs to know it.
Good luck!
I can't think of anything for before she was pregnant. Our first was a honeymoon baby and very straightforward. Got pregnant, went to the doctor and the doctor told us the do's and don'ts. Everything was easy. We failed at breast feeding, he was a horrible sleeper, liked milk, but had a hard time getting him to eat solids. Great kid and great personality. Everything I learned was by doing it though. When they're first born it's feed, change, sleep. Then they start playing a little bit. It's a slow process and you're basically going to learn on the job.
The second pregnancy took some work. It took over a year to make happen. The month we were supposed to start a fertility treatment she got pregnant (old story, right?). I learned as I needed to going through that. A lot of the information came from my wife and then I could research it further as I felt I needed to. They were identical twins so then I researched that. Then my wife become RH-Sensitized (very rare and very high risk) so the pregnancy become high risk for two reasons. I don't think there's anything that can prepare you for it. You just have to learn as you go.
With all that said, I learned everything as it happened. I think it's good to have a general knowledge of things, but the best learning is going to be by experiencing it.