Thanks for the congratulations, guys.
I'm going to be a father in August.
She's going to start craving for strange foods at strange times. This is often used as a joke but it really does happen as her body realizes that she is going to need ingredient X for the fetus and she will subconsciously start craving for some food that contains it. Things like getting a craving for beer are not unheard of (although substituting beer with some other non-alcoholic food that contains similar stuff is for the best.)
Try to take a good nights sleep now. After the MIRACLE OF BIRTH it is going to get much harder.
...Although it's not as bad for the father as it is for the mother so for everyone's sake try to make sure that she gets a rest every now and then. Also you need some rest every now and then. In fact, if you can occasionally hand over the kid(s) to grandparents try to do that and get some time with your wife(? I don't actually remember if you've said you're married or not.) because that will be important for the relationship.
But for that last bit don't get your hopes up for. After giving birth the mother's hormonal balance is geared up for taking care of the baby and generally speaking sex or even intimacy may not be high on priority list.
...Despite these warnings I really do wish to congratulate you and remind you that children really are wonderful creatures it is just that at some point the parents will feel the exhaustion (it took two months for me for the first time I realized that I got a pang of annoyance and felt bad about it for a while.)
I appreciate the advice. I am married. The strange cravings have already started. Actually, her diet has always been pretty craving-driven, but now the difference is that she no longer feels guilty about asking me to take care of it at odd hours (I went to Kroger at 1 AM yesterday morning for potatoes, so I could make her french fries). Sleep isn't something I've ever been good at. I can't usually get more than 6 hours unless I'm sick, and 4-6 is pretty typical for me. Interestingly, our bizarre collective sleep schedule should work out pretty well. I tend to sleep from about 3 to 8 AM, while she usually sleeps from 8 PM to 5 AM. It's always been kind of annoying that we don't sleep at the same time, but there should only be about a 2 hour period each night when one of us won't be awake anyway.
And the grandparents are extremely excited. This will be the first grandkid on both sides (as well as the first great-grandchild for her maternal grandparents), and they have all enthusiastically volunteered for babysitting. The the first coherent sentences that my mother-in-law managed to put together after we told her was something along the lines of, "Ooh! I can babysit! I'm allowed to work from home for up to three days a week! Let me play with the baby!"
I particularly appreciate the words of warning about sex, which I've already been trying to prepare myself for. The gap between our sex drives is extremely wide to begin with, and she has already started apologizing for her lack of interest since she has been pregnant. I actually found it kind of funny that she thought she needed to apologize. I mean, nobody ever needs a reason to not want sex, just saying "no" is enough, but, "there is a tiny almost-person inside of me that is making me throw up several times every day" is a
really good reason. Either way, I've already been trying to put myself in a place where I expect exactly no sex for the next year or two, meaning that my expectations can only be met or exceeded.
