One year ago, almost to the day, I used this column as a “post-wedding dispatch” to offer some (very) preliminary thoughts on marriage. The column was published five days after my wedding. Now, almost exactly one year later, I am using this column as a “post-birth dispatch” to offer some (very) preliminary thoughts on another milestone life event: fatherhood. Indeed, this column is published seven days after my wife gave birth to our first child, a beautiful baby girl.
There is really nothing that can prepare someone for first-time parenthood. And while the burden of caring for a newborn is clearly heavily weighted toward the mother, one could argue that the immediate postpartum period is even more of an adjustment for the father; the new mother is frequently sleep deprived, yes, but—unlike the father—she also just experienced nine months of frequent body…
