View of the inside - The Magic of Ultrasound!

Throughout my wife's pregnancy thus far, we've been visiting the obstetrician/gynaecologist for the routine checkups. Baby & mama have been doing fine. Alhamdulillah. Besides the usual ultrasound scan, today's technology allows the parent-to-be's to see their baby's face & organs in an almost-actual visuals. It's a technology that reconstruct the ultrasound signals into 2D pictures & videos. Eventhough it is a common equipment available at hospitals nowadays, it would still amaze me for many decades to come.... Here are some of the ultrasound shots taken during ultrasound scans.

Junior at 30-weeks

Junior at 33-weeks

It was at 30-weeks that we first saw his face. Personally, it was another significant moment in fatherhood journey for me. Such an amazing feeling it was.

Ready to become a Father?

The question of whether I really had given a thorough thought on whether I was ready to become a father; was never really there. I have always wanted to have my own kid. I trully believe that Fatherhood is awesome.

After we got married, my wife and I (especially me), could not wait for this precious gift to arrive in our life. We were blessed with her pregnancy news just five-or-six weeks after our wedding day. I was over the moon with that sight of positive sign on the test-kit. Anyhow, it took a little bit longer for my wife to really grasp the great news. :)

In order for a man to be ready to become a father, I guess being a supportive husband/partner first is such a key element. Those three pregnancy trimesters are all about providing ample supports to your wife/partner; your kid's mother.

The key here is to be very supportive to the mom-to-be's. As their emotion swing is not much of a help during this stage, things go much smoother if you could just listen more to their brouhahas. Lower down our manly egos, and apologize when 'sorry' is due.

And of course, it's time to stock up those pregnancy-related as well as parenting books. Knowledge is power. I would suggest parent-to-be's to grab one of those Miriam Stoppard's books. Such an easy-to-follow chapters. Most of the time, I would do the readings and would then verbally summarize the infos to her.

First trimester could be very challenging for some couples. Morning sickness could be THE major headache to your partner. Luckily for my wife, her first trimester was such a breeze. No throw-ups at all. Zero morning sickness.

As a husband to a forgetful wife, I had to remind her to take those Folic Acid and vitamin pills too! :p

Once the third trimester kicked in, my wife started to experience muscle-aches; especially backaches as baby started to grow bigger inside. It's time to gear up the massage session. No choice there. Miriam's book shows useful tips on this topic.

Oh, another key thing is to try your best to attend every doc's appointment for baby's check ups. Well, I missed two of them. It's never a good thing to miss those.

To sum it all, pregnancy is a testing times for mom-to-be's as well as to the father-to-be's. Being a supportive husband/partner is the key element.

Fatherhood for Newbies.

Whoa! So this is me, back with one new objective. "Fatherhood for newbies" is the new shite!

As I was starting my new own small family, I found that there were very minimal blogs out there being written by first-time dads. I want to know what is it like to be in the labour room, waiting nervously for the baby to come out from mommy's tummy. I want to know what sort of preparations dad-to-be's should have before even stepping into the labour room with mommy-to-be's. I want to know how is like when they get to hold their first born for the first time. I want to know their experience when they wash their baby's poo for the first time. You get me, all those first-timer stuffs after stepping into this Fatherhood phase.

As my journey of being a newbie papa is starting soon (3-weeks-or-so to go), I shall share stuff which may be relevant for other dad-to-be's/newbies out there. I know site's layout is pretty corny. Don't worry, hopefully I'll found one macho template to replace this one day.

Let see how long this is going to last. Heh.