FTSTBD

Hello. My name is Mike and I am a FTSTBD (First Time Soon-To-Be Dad). It is as exciting as you can imagine. Oh. . . and it is also scary as hell.

Despite the fact that I am 27, have been married for 2.5 years, and have a steady job, I still feel like I am too young and unprepared to be in charge of another human being. I barely (stressing the 'barely') take care of myself. Now I am going to be personally responsible for the well-being and growth of a tiny version of Sarah and me. This tiny Flick will require more attention than I am used to giving, more money than I am used to spending, and more patience than I am used to having. Best of luck to my sanity. And my pocketbook.

We started looking at day care facilities this past week. Sarah worked at a day care in Fort Collins all throughout college, so she has a pretty good idea of what things to look for and what questions to ask. After the tour and sit-down at the first center we visited, Sarah was laughing as we left the building. She asked me if I was overwhelmed. I told her slightly and asked her how she knew. She simply said, "I could tell because you didn't say anything in there." Silence is not my strong suit. Picking a child care facility is extremely important; you are trusting the employees to foster and care for your child when you cannot. That still does not take the sting away when you hear how much it costs per week. So far we have not been blown away by any of the places we have visited. We did find a place that we will not be taking her. The teachers were not interacting with the kids at all, the place was dirty and chaotic, and a kid came walking down the hall with blood all over his face. The teacher that was with him had no idea how it happened. If you are in charge of watching children, you better know what they are doing and how they got blood all over their face. It was super sketchy and a great example of what not to do. This adventure of looking for child care is incredibly stressful. I can't wait until we find one and get our spot reserved so we don't have to worry about it any more.  

The good news in all of this is that I have always known that one day I would be a dad. I am extremely comfortable around babies, so the realization that diapers and crying are in my future don't freak me out too much. I have seen our friends' kids grow and learn and knowing that our little girl is going to do the same is exciting. I can't wait to teach her everything I know. When that 15 minutes is done, I'm not sure what we will do. Probably watch baseball and discuss BABIP and UZR.

Til the next post,
Mikey