Suffered my first (but I doubt very much, last) gaming death due to baby interference today.

I've been passing some time playing a zombie bashing online flash game. Quite fun, quite diverting (www.deadfrontier.com) and quite intense when it gets nasty. Anyway, it's handy for me because if you are only playing it single player, then you can pause it at any time to, oh I don't know... Change a nappy, clean up a puddle of puke, dodge a streak of piddle etc etc...

But a three plus hour romp in the depths of the undead infested city was just coming to an end... I had my pockets full of scavenged loot and had collected a fair bit of cash and slain many a zombie. My armour was in tatters and my health was at rock bottom, but it was all ok, because I was about one minute from home base, safety, and a hot cup of tea. In fact I was just about to walk off the screen and into safety when I heard the sleeping menace make a noise, so I glanced over to check he was ok, literally only a one second look, but when I turned my attention back to the screen a zombie had entered from the edge I was about to escape from and I had walked right into his waiting arms. Thos strong, strong, scab encrusted, viciously clawed arms. Splat... Down goes my guy and all the goodies he had collected.

Should have ignored the baby...

So I've been a dad for just over two weeks now. I thought it was about time I popped on and posted up the full story to date.

Caleb (Cable Lentil) Xavier was born on Feb 13 at 7:16PM. He weighed 3.7kg and was about 49cm long.

On his due date we found out that he was breech, and before we had any time to try any of the methods of getting him to turn around, he decided it was time to come out. So we went to the hospital at about lunch time on the 13th and made the decision to extract him through a hole in his mum's tummy rather than have him pop out the normal way. About three percent of babies present breech at birth, and birthing them naturally has a high chance to end up with serious complications. So our entire birth plan pretty much went out the window and we decided it was time to go with the flow...

After the operation I was left with the new creature while mum was stitched up and spent a while in recovery waiting for her drugs to wear off. I was taken down to the maternity ward with Caleb and stripped off to the waist so I could hold him against my skin while we waited for mum to join us. We waited and waited and waited for almost an hour and a half. I was pretty grumpy about this because immediate skin to skin contact for Caleb and Lon was one of the most important things to me. It was just another part of the plan that had to be sacrificed though. Mum rejoined us by a little after 9PM and finally she got to spend some time with her new baby!

The rest of the stay in hospital was, while not perfect, much better than we had expected from a hospital stay. The midwives that we had were at worst good, and at best brilliant. The really good ones were happy to sit with Lon for 45 minutes plus helping her with early feeding and had lots of very helpful advice and heaps of patience. The ones that were less good were still not bad, but I had no qualms about singing the praises of patient midwives while they were in earshot, and they only got better, if anything...

Each night I was booted out as we were sharing a room with another new mum, but if gave me a chance to collect extra things Lon had discovered she needed while in hospital, and at least one of us was getting a decent nights sleep. Feeding Caleb was pretty challengin initially. Lon's body was still an entire labour behind the emergence of her baby, so her milk took a bit longer than it is supposed to to kick in. Caleb was never in any danger of starving, but he was getting quite dehydrated by the end of our stay, so on the last night the midwives gave him a few feeds of formula which pleased him immeasurably, even if it didn't make his dad so happy.

The move home was welcome when it came. We'd had about enough of hospitals (the food they were giving Lon was incredibly sub-standard!), although being at home meant that I had to come to terms with the actuality of living with a baby. All this time I have thought that I would be a fantastic dad, and I think this is still likely to be the case, but only once my children are not babies any more. I find I have very limited patience with his crying and that it gets to my head in almost no time flat. This is a bit of a shame, because really, he's a pretty well behaved lad. Once he learnt that we will feed him and give him attention when he cries, and change his nappy when it's dirty, he quietened down quite a bit and he rarely bawls any more. Mostly just grizzling when something is not to his liking. I am just glad Lon has the wonderful hormones that make everything that he does seem gorgeous and wonderful to her. At the moment my usefulness is only really in changing nappies and doing housework. Which I don't mind, but I had always thought I'd be a bit more starry eyed over my babies. It turns out I'd almost rather someone else took care of them until they get to be a little more interactive.
So instead of being a fantastic dad I'm settling for being a fantastic partner and just an ok dad for the moment. I'

For those who don't know and haven't guessed. We are having a baby.

Due Feb 11 (according to our most popular guesstimate, we imagine the wee creature will come when it's ready and wont apply any pressure). We have been doing lots of research and attending classes and stuff. I take everything the modern medical professionals say with a pinch of salt, Lon gives it a bit more attention, but remains slightly sceptical. Sex is unknown (when people ask do we know what we are having I say yes, a baby!) and we prefer it that way. Names are picked for the most part and clothing and other baby stuff is being gathered and stored.

About time this all happened! I've been looking forward to it since I was... Well I don't know! For years!!!

Other items of minor interest. I've got a new MMO, Warhammer Online. Really good fun, but I've not been playing much lately cos there are so many other cool games out now. Fallout 3 has been eating the most of my time pies, but also, Left 4 Dead is roolly cool and I have been playing that with friends and strangers, including Zackle Bro. It's super cool fun with enforced cooperation (in that if you don't cooperate... YOU DIE!).

Work-wise... Things are....... Interesting at work. Helpdesk is kinda being shafted lately. All our experienced staff have been booted off, either leaving DOJ or moving to other places in DOJ. I'm one of those, filling in as the IT Coordinator for the Corrections department, which is the major pie of DOJ, given it looks after all the prisons and correctional facilities. I'm also kind of 2IC on the helpdesk still, only by default, but it's interesting attending meetings on behalf of the team leader at times, and also sitting on the other side of the interview table (scary the first time, I'm over it now).

Hmph. Not much more to say. Have a lovely christmas holiday planned. Not sure how much fatty-Lon will enjoy it, if it's all hot and she's all huge. Hopefully the japanese whaling fleet wont be anywhere near while she is going for a float in the sea. I guess as the impending dad, it will be up to me to leap in from of incoming harpoons. Oh the life!

Enough rambling. Time for home.