A Daddy to be proud of!

I watch my husband and my daughter play together and all I can do is smile. Dave was understandably standoffish about her when I was pregnant. It is hard to get too excited about a pregnancy when you have a track record like ours. It wasn't until I was so huge that there was no question that we were going to have a big healthy baby that he got onto the excitement wagon. Who could blame him. With the miscarriage we had already gone and scoped out baby sections for a registry when I started having trouble at 8 weeks. We started getting excited with Aislynn when we made it through the first trimester. With Aidan we literally had a conversation about how we would stand together if we were to lose the baby. So you can see we were a little gun shy.

That is not to say that he wasn't a part of the pregnancy. He went with me to nearly every appointment that we had and there were alot. I counted them the other day and we had over 50 Dr.s appointments. He held my hand as we prayed that the cerclage would be enough to hold our little one where she needed to be, and he sat with me on the couch counting contractions on the nights when my uterus decided it was time to exercise a little. There is no question that we both spent the entire pregnancy waiting for the other shoe to fall. We then had a beautiful little girl and brought her home and again waited for the other shoe to fall. We had been disappointed so many time. We are breathing a little easier now, although we both check on her 50 times in a nap, and she sleeps with us in our bed. It is amazing that the child gets any sleep at all, though for all of our fears she seems to thrive.

There was a look in Dave's eyes though when our daughter was born that I will never in my life be able to forget. He watched them take her out of me and I watched him watch. I love everything about the man, but on that day I adored what I saw on his face. He watched his little one with awe and so much joy that it brings tears to remember. As the stay in the hospital progressed he fell more and more in love with his daughter. He would come to visit me and look for his little girl first. The day after she was born it took 45 minutes before he came over to give me a kiss hello. He was a goner. I knew he would be, but it sure was wonderful to watch. I thought that it was the best thing I had ever seen.

Then we got her home and I watched him care for her. But the real began when she started to smile and laugh. I think that Dave would happily stand on his head for a smile. When she makes it clear that what she wants is her Daddy, that look from the hospital comes back. When we snuggle together in bed holding hands over her head and she nuzzels into her Daddy he relaxes into happiness that I have seldom seen on him. She always manages to wiggle her way into her Daddy's arms at night finding a spot in his armpit that she marks as her own. Dave has started showering at night so that she doesn't stink in the morning. When we have a little bit of time in the morning and we all have a lie in and mommy and daddy watch as the little dumpling wakes up. She is one stretchy little baby. And just like her Daddy with every stretch there is a stinker. Stretch (fart) stretch (fart). It goes on indefinately with the two of them. He laughs and proudly proclaims "That's my Girl!"

With Dave going off to make the donuts everyday, he misses some of her firsts. On Wednesday she rolled over from tummy to back. A HUGE first. Dave was at work of course, and missed it. But Mommy gives him a running commentary when he gets home. Dave listens to every word as I tell him what we have done today: Little things like looks she gets on her face that crack me up. Funny things like when she sneezed at the same time that she spit up so that it was all over my face and hair and dripping from my glasses. Gross things like when she had a cold and coughed while she was pooping. It came out of every single opening in her diaper all at once. (Thinking about it that is kind of funny. For the record it was very not funny when it happend to me.) Play things like her sit up routine where I go "One Two Three" and at three she flexes all of her tummy muscles and her face turns red. These are the fun things that make being home with her the best job in the world. These are the things that you regret that you were at work for. ( Except that poop thing! I would have gladly been told the story about it.) So I tell him and he looks at his daughter and talks to her about it. A part of it all still.

For all that working though, he makes up his time when he is with her. He coaxes smiles and wins laughs from her. He goos her up with lotion to avoid the exzema. And he is a very gifted baby putter-to -sleeper. She adore him... he adores her. He is a daddy in a million. Now if we can just get him to change that diaper.