Hitting thirty was big for me. I know that it is a significant birthday for everyone but most people seemed to be upset about leaving their youth behind and scared of growing old and getting wrinkles, mine was different. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to climb the career ladder and finally earn a decent salary and it was only really I guess at thirty, that life truly became comfortable. We’d bought the house and the car and still had money left over to spend on going on nice holidays and out for dinner without thinking about the financial implications too much. It was a couple of years of living like this and the general lack of inconvenience that made me question for the first time whether I wanted children or not.

Many of our friends were having kids and seemed to be making the decision relatively easily to go head first into sleepless nights, not being able to do things when they wanted and (heaven forbid) purchase a people carrier?! Yes I liked it when they came to visit but still couldn’t get my head round the level of inconvenience and commitment involved.

Saturday June 29th 2013 was the day it all changed for me, it was the day I met my nephew Theo for the first time. Flesh and blood is a powerful thing it seems as having had a few hours with him that day I knew it was the first time in a long time, that I knew I definitely wanted a family of my own.

Let’s say one thing led to another (a lot sooner than Charlotte and I thought it would) and a couple of months later on a random Wednesday evening we found out Charlotte was pregnant. Being honest my first reaction was not of joy and elation but total shock. Once this had settled down, you can’t help but think about the future and what we had to come and how life changing this was going to be. Now I just had to get my head around loving something that doesn’t really exist and is no bigger than a raspberry.

Charlotte was fantastic being pregnant, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a touch worried about how she would handle the body changes as she can lack confidence sometimes. I’m sure it is the same for most women worrying about how they are going to feel changing shape so dramatically and whether they are going to put on a lot of weight. I thought Charlotte looked great with a bump, in fact most women look good with a bump in my opinion.

The whole process was a massive learning curve for both of us, from what Charlotte could eat, couldn’t eat, should eat, should do, shouldn’t do, green folders and what happens if you forgot these when you have an appointment (you’ll know what these are when you get pregnant), scans, NCT, the risks associated with being “our age”, C -sections, the list goes on and could get a little stressful, but throughout the nine months, at each stage, all I cared about was that we were doing things right and that the baby was safe. This must be natural I guess.

I think the strangest part about the whole pregnancy for me as a dad were the scans. They are incredible, the first time you see the baby with your own eyes is mind blowing, the day we found out we were having a girl was crazy (as you would imagine) but amazing!

The one thing I wasn’t expecting in the pregnancy phase is the ease and pleasure with which people seem to want to impart how hard it was to have a baby. I know a lot of this is said in a jokey way but after several months of “get your sleep in now, while you can!” and horror stories about sleep deprivation and never having your life back ever again, I’d had enough and just really wanted to meet my daughter and find out for myself.

March 26th 2014 was the best day of my life. Up until this point I thought I had experienced each and every possible emotion but when I first got to hold Mabel it made me realise how actually I hadn’t, everything else pales into insignificance. As I am writing this, she is lying next to me and each and every time I look at her it is the same feeling. I suspect it will be like this forever.

I am proud of Charlotte and fully appreciate that she has had the harder job in all this, she is a perfect Mum and it is clear to me that Mabel has had the same impact on her as she has on me.

So far I think we have managed OK and we are slowly getting used to life with her around and I’m loving being a daddy. Yes there can be tough times but they are trivial in the grand scheme of things and you don’t really give them a second thought.

I am also happy to report that I have now immense pleasure in letting the people know who said “get your sleep in” that Mabel is really easy going and sleeps through most of the night already. Yes I was worried that it would be a struggle to have a child, the permanent tiredness, the lack of flexibility, the inevitable extra financial commitments but it is all completely worth it. I think back to when I questioned whether to have kids or not and can’t believe it. Being a dad to my baby girl really is the best feeling in the world.

I hope that I can give her everything she wants and needs (as well as one day maybe a brother or sister…) and she feels the same way about her Dad as I do about mine.