Parenthood Begins!

Hello!

Those of you who don't know me, I'm Tim, husband to Jodie and new father to a beautiful baby girl, Willow. I started documenting the parenting journey when we had about 70 days left of pregnancy. There wasn't a solid reason for that time scale, but that's around when it really hit me that I was going to be a father and the excitement took over, I wanted to remember every emotion, feeling and experience of the entire journey. Not to mention, share our excitement for our first baby!


I started out writing a few posts over on Instagram as @Astoryfromdad and the response has been incredible. I've been so lucky to now be in touch with so many amazing parents and people who are pregnant as well. So many different experiences and stories to hear and some really great advice, without which we would have probably struggled quite a bit as first time parents (still working on that!), so for those of you reading this who have shared our journey so far, thank you so much!

Our story begins on a sort of long trail. It took us about 2 years to get pregnant in the first place, my wife Jodie unfortunately has Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome which limits ovulation (kind of important to get pregnant, you need an egg!) and after many doctors visits she finally got diagnosed and our journey started. We eventually got referred to a fertility clinic to get the ball rolling. One thing that really got us through the fertility issues was teamwork, sounds cheesy but as a couple you both go through issues, not just one of you, we talked plenty and worked through it all, together. After plenty of tests for her and a few for me (wasn't really a fan of producing a sample in the mens 'special room' but in comparison to the tests Jodie had to have, I best not complain!) to make sure there were no other issues before we underwent treatment, the clinic gave us a few months trial of a drug called Clomid to get those eggs out! Luckily, to our surprise, the first month of pills worked and we got pregnant!

Along came the pregnancy which I'll write about as this blog goes on, Jodie did incredible and I'll forever be in awe of her for it. What a woman's body can achieve is astounding to say the least! And then came the birth, which is a story of it's own to come soon. Another incredible thing Jodie has done to give us our first child which I will forever be grateful for. She's beautiful, she's perfect and I'll tell you, that feeling you get the moment your child is born, it's extraordinary, it changes everything and feels amazing. I think seeing a little bit of Jodie and a little of me in our daughter is so cool, we made an actual child!


I will be sharing as much as my few hours of free time each day allows me to, mostly to document this amazing journey and have something to look back on, but also to share our successes and failures to anyone who might be listening and maybe even receive or be able to give advice and help bring this next generation of kids up into a fantastic world full of opportunity and value. I'm also currently working on the whole 'Dad joke' thing too so of course, there will be plenty of those swimming around.

That's it from me for now, Willow and Jodie are currently sleeping at 5am and I think it's time I get an hour or two in myself before we start another day (day 17) with our baby. I'm a proud Dad and Husband and this whole experience has brought a whole new meaning to life for me, every day brings a new challenge but I look forward to it more than anything.

Thanks for reading,

Tim (Dad)