2015 came to a dramatic end for our family. After the loss of my grandma on the 20th, our attention turned to the impending birth of our new baby. Five days past his due date and with only a few hours to spare in 2015, Finnley David Smith was born on December 31st. We didn’t know he was going to be a boy. We didn’t find out the sex beforehand. We had our girl named picked out, Annabelle Helenka, but we didn’t have a boy’s name chosen yet.
Poor Finn spent the first day of his life without a name. Actually you could say he spent his entire first year without a name! Continue reading New Year, New Baby →
As the days are counting down until our fifth baby is due I realized I needed to get my bag ready, the bag that I’ll take with me to the hospital when my wife goes into labor. It’s well documented what you need to take for mom and the baby but dad is often overlooked in all of this.
So I have decided to put together my Dad’s Guide to Packing for the Maternity Ward. Continue reading A Dad’s Guide to Packing for the Maternity Ward →
This is a post I wasn’t sure I’d ever write. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to write it. But with October being SIDS, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month I decided now seemed appropriate to write this post. We currently have 4 children and my wife is pregnant now. This is her 6th pregnancy. Continue reading The Child We Lost →
Yes, you are reading that correctly. In December we will grow our family by one more. Four kids had been the plan for most of our married life but somehow after number 4 we didn’t feel like we were done with our family; so here comes number 5. We do not know the sex of number 5 and will wait until delivery to find out.
I need to go catch up on some sleep just thinking about it. It’s always a bit of a shock adding a newborn back into the daily routine. And it’s great motivation to get the next oldest kid out of diapers. I’m looking forward to meeting this new baby and wondering if he/she will be our last one. I guess only time will tell. Continue reading We Have a Basketball Team →
35 years ago today a woman went into labor at 11pm at night. By 6 am she and her husband had made their way to the hospital. After several hours, at 2:15pm on June 9, 1980 a baby boy was born to this young couple. On that day their whole world changed. Continue reading The Day the World Changed →
When we were headed to the hospital for the birth of our first child I really didn’t know what was about to happen. I had read a couple parenting books and we had discussed what our parenting plan was going to be but all of that started after the baby was born. My wife was reading books about what to expect during the pregnancy and she shared some of that with me along the way but I never really read anything or discussed with anyone what to expect during the delivery. We didn’t go to any birthing classes, I imagine some of this would have been covered in there. I was going in blind. Continue reading 8 Things I Didn’t Know About Birth →
The Adventures of a Stay-at-Home Dad of 5
