I think one of the best feelings in the world was the day that my wife told me that she was pregnant.  A feeling of elation, tinged with apprehension of the unknown.  I would imagine that for most guys this would be the same, lots of questions about have we done the right thing, how are we going to cope and I hope everything is going to be ok.  Strangely these thoughts were not as real when we were planning on having our baby, but now seemed to be very important indeed.

Life then got back to normal and I carried on with my life as if nothing had changed.  My wife was not showing any signs of the pregnancy and was lucky enough not to suffer from morning sickness, so there was nothing obvious to make it seem real to me.  Even when the 12 week scan came around, waiting to go in and see the sonographer was quite a surreal experience - then BANG!!! There was a little foot on the screen and the reality sunk in…“My God we’re having a baby!”, and the elation and fear came flooding back.

Now came the task of letting people know that we were having a baby.  Again, a great feeling and I remember my dad’s face as we told him, he looked so proud and it is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

After the breaking of the big news, we were back to the humdrum of daily life.  My wife was getting slowly but relentlessly bigger, and then the hormones kicked in!  Almost overnight, my normally sane wife, changed into someone with the worse case of PMT I had ever encountered.  Mood swings and irrational behaviour were par for the course… it was like living with my wife’s evil twin.

Strangely, she knew she was being unreasonable and would even apologise afterwards for some of her behaviour, but she genuinely couldn’t help herself.  It was just one of those things you have to take on the chin and live with for the relatively short period of your lives when she is pregnant (although, at the time, it feels like it will never end!).

Around the same time as the evil twin turned up, my wife also went into nesting overdrive, so out came the paint brush and the whole place got a spruce up, and a whole load of baby gear was purchased. To this day I still have no idea what half of it was for!

As D-day approached there was quite a lot of preparation, bags being packed, and dry runs to and from the hospital (12mins door to door, if my memory serves me).

For me this was the hardest time of the whole pregnancy, as you are worried about seeing your partner in pain, hoping that everything is going to turn out ok with the birth and that mother and baby are going to be safe. Of course, as a guy you are supposed to be strong. I didn’t discuss my concerns with my wife at the time as she had enough to be dealing with and I didn’t want to burden her with my worries.

However, we have subsequently chatted about the whole thing and I was pleased that she let me know how much she appreciated my support through the whole pregnancy. So even if they don’t say it at the time guys, your efforts are being appreciated and earning you brownie points in the long run.