If you haven’t seen it yet, How To Be A Dad is running a challenge with Mike’s Hard Lemondae around the moment to tell how you knew you were going to be a father for the first time. Here’s my story.
Almost one year ago to the day on August 13th, 2013, I found out I was going to be a daddy for the first time. Earlier in the summer, we had the talk and decided that we would start trying for kids. The first month was a bit of a disappointment when we found out we weren’t pregnant, but to be fair, we weren’t tracking the timings for ovulation or anything like that. We were still living our pretty normal newlywed lifestyle, with us going out, having dates, seeing friends, going to gigs, etc.
The weekend just before Vic told me she was pregnant, we had a very ‘normal’ weekend for us, featuring a massive cocktail party at a friends house and a Manchester United football match at Wembley. The work week rolled around and when I came home on Tuesday, Vic was in the kitchen. As part of our daily routine, we’d talk about our day and catch up. Vic mentioned she got a new calendar for 2014, which was on the wall right next to me. My initial thought was, ‘Ok, great, who uses a physical calendar anymore?’ Vic then insisted I take a look at it as it was music themed and I would probably like it. I flipped through the first three months and getting the gist of the calendar, closed it. Didn’t quite see what Vic was so excited about it. She then further insisted that I look through the whole thing. Being a good husband, I obliged and flipped it backwards, from December on down. The shock came when I got to April and saw a post it note that said ‘Baby Rothwell due’. It took like a year for it to settle in what I was seeing, probably only a second or two in reality. There it was on a cheap music calendar, which became the best calendar ever, simply because it’s when I found out I was going to be a daddy for the first time.
For me the real #dadchelor moment was at the 12 week scan. With Vic being a twin, we knew there was a small chance of twins, but only made jokes about it. I remember sitting in the GP office with the midwife starting the scan. I had the benefit of seeing a better monitor and when she moved the ultrasound wand a certain way, I froze up and exploded with excitement all at the same time. The midwife asked if we were ready for a surprise. Sure enough, that small chance was now going to be a 100% definitive, as we were not only pregnant, but pregnant with twins! That’s when I knew life would be so amazingly different from here on out.
If I recall correctly, Vic took me out to our local craft brewery for a couple beers, as I was now drinking for three. Both the initial surprise in the calendar and the second unexpected joy of finding out it was twins was just amazing. We’ve celebrated in various ways ever since!
Twin Daddyo 