Hi friend,

Two newsletters in two weeks. Madness!

Last week I announced my book and your support was heartwarming, so I asked Penguin if I could share an extract with you - my day ones. so below is an extract from another day one, my first 24 hours as a dad.

Day 1 - Change the first nappy

On the drive to the hospital this morning, I fought back tears and lost. I’d been listening to songs we’d played our boy through his mum’s tummy. Now he’s here, the playlist broke me.

This year has been hard. I lost one of my best friends a few months ago and I still haven’t processed it. Knowing we had a son on the way was the perfect distraction. Turns out, it had been a shield too. But as I sat at the traffic lights, my defences were weakened. Pain and pride forced their way out in the form of ugly tears. The 10-minute walk from the carpark to the special care nursery was enough for me to collect myself. Once inside, I was relieved to see Sid in his mum’s arms. They looked so perfectly natural together, and Nora was radiant despite having only had 30 minutes’ sleep.

Soon, I was summoned and reminded of some advice I’d received weeks earlier.

‘Change the first nappy.’

Reason being, as a person without milk ducts, I needed to master this part of the process. Well, I didn’t change the first nappy, instead watching on intently as a midwife did. Sid was still hooked up to various machines, which made things a little trickier than they might’ve other- wise been, but still there isn’t a lot to it. Shortly after that, I got my chance. The thing looked like a pair of baggy jeans on our boy, but he didn’t seem to notice. The nurses told me there’ll be plenty of opportunities to refine my nappy-changing skills. Our lad is already pooing and weeing well; apparently that’s good news.

I hadn’t held a baby for at least five years, and that occasion was an outlier, so I’ve been building up my confidence cuddling our lad. It’s incredible. He’s tiny. Good at sucking. Expert at sleeping. I refuse to make a joke there.

I’d only cried twice in the preceding 15 years, and now I’ve done it twice in 24 hours. Has fatherhood softened me already? I don’t know, but I hope so. And I hope my mate is seeing this, somehow, somewhere. He was a proud father of two and one of our last interactions was a video he sent congratulating Nora and me on our pregnancy news. I’ll always cherish having that video, in particular seeing his eyes light up as he spoke about when he’d first learned he was going to be a dad. I wish I’d asked him more about his parenting experiences while he was here. I thought we had more time.

I welcome you all to grab a pre-order of my book. It’s specifically written to be entertaining and insightful for everyone, rather than some “how to” bible for blokes with new kids.

- You can do that here Aussies
- Or here International friends (these shops post internationally)

Until next time, when I’ll be riffing on things I wish I knew, have a lovely day.

ZP / NpG

PS. if you enjoyed this little snippet, drop me a line with your feedback at [email protected]