First Month as a Father

So Zane will be a month old on Monday the 19th. I can't believe it has already been a whole month. Zane's condition aside, fatherhood definitely has its ups and downs. When little Zane came home, I had a week of vacation and with Audra's family in town, things were pretty easy. Audra and I had to get up at night to tend to Zane's eating requirements, but since we had so much help, napping during the day was no problem. I even go some projects done around the house. During this time I got to spend plenty of time getting to know my son and get more comfortable dealing with a baby.
After this first week, I had to go back to work. This was not fun. Firstly, I missed spending all day at home with my little family, but that is life. Secondly, I could no longer catch up on sleep lost during the night. Everyone knows of my boarder-line unhealthy love of sleeping, and even up to now, I am struggling with less sleep.
I really do love being a dad; having little moments with Zane (usually at 3:30 a.m.), seeing him smile and making him giggle.

Some things I have learned:

1. Put a fresh diaper under the diaper you are getting ready to change, especially if a poop seems eminent.
2. Sometimes it just takes the other person to come in and make Zane go to sleep.
3. Time really does go by quickly now.
4. The bottom pat is key to success.
5. The pee is coming, move quickly.
6. Man has yet to invent a bottle that does not leak on a consistent basis. I cannot believe this, but guess it is true. Come on other types of engineers, how have you not perfected this yet? Just make something that seals well, how hard can this be? All the anti-colic, mouth form fitting nipple technology is no good if it pours out five teaspoons every time you turn the bottle upside down. How about talking to the people who make 20 oz. bottles of soda, those bottles don't leak. Just because yours is of different parts and has to be able to be taken apart, doesn't mean that the feat is not possible. Use your brain and do it. I will pay extra, just make it work.

Zane teaches us new lessons on a daily basis and Audra and I are learning quickly.