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Diary of a First Time Dad Teething time and becoming Don Draper

Working long hours, with a wife and child at home, reverted me to a 1950s style husband until somebody (not me) spoke up.

WE STRETCHED IT seven months but Caitlin is out on her own in the big, bad [child-minded] world. Her bag was packed, this morning, with several nappies, a blue monkey and two tubes of teething gel.

Cat is back in work and found it tough when putting our daughter to bed last night. Now, the schedule becomes a juggle with my mother on the speed-dial if a working day stretches too long or an additional shift crops up.

I have had more than six months of enjoying full days in Cailtlin’s presence to catching a fleeting glimpse before or after work. It will take Cat some getting used to. Add on the full delivery term and those two have been close to inseparable for almost a year and a half.

While Caitlin will see less of her mother in the coming months, I will have to start fending for myself again and re-embracing housework. I have to admit, while my wife was at home, I occasionally — weeks on end — lapsed into Don Draper mode.

Dinners were often made and the house was in great shape. D.I.Y jobs that I D.I.didn’t were checked off the list too as I languished in a 1950s-esque comfort zone. As part of her first week back in work, Cat has decided to go on house-work strike. I am being re-trained but distractions [like this column] are easy to find.

Google Maps is not accurate with a camper van and a baby

Before Cat headed back to the jobbing world, we had the opportunity to get away to the south of England on holidays. The idea was to get away from Ireland but not too far and without flying. We sorted out a camper van, had a rainy night in Rosslare and set off at 7am the next morning. The destination was St Ives in Cornwall.

When planning the trip, we were guilty of thinking as our former selves. Google Maps told us our post-ferry drive would be five hours. It turned out to be closer to eight. We knew there would be a feed or two along the way but Caitlin was often more interested in escaping her baby-seat shackles than having her bottle. Camper vans do not go 100mph too. We were shattered after the trip and felt like parents that had pushed our luck. Fish and chips tastes better than guilt so I volunteered to go scouting as Cat kicked off the peace negotiations.

Once we got settled, we enjoyed a fantastic 10 days away. The good weather helped but the time we spent together was great for Caitlin and she really flourished because of it. I swear she developed more in those days than she had in a month before but perhaps it is because I just took the time out to notice. She’s a little gem and already has the hang of peek-a-boo.

IMG_0506 Waiting to get the Greenway Ferry in Devon. Patrick McCarry Patrick McCarry

After many, many false alarms, here come the teeth

The first set of choppers are on their way and causing the odd restless night. Foreboding words had used primed for red-light emergencies but they proved false alarms. Murmurings under the surface. It is more of a gradual process and there have not been too many night and day-time screaming sessions but we think we are ready for the levee’s break. Caitlin already responds to the sight of teething gel with a glint in her eyes — ‘This’ll help’.

The strengthening of the gums and echoes of teeth have coincided with the ebbing move to solids to go with all that delicious milk. Cat is a sponge for other methods from friends, neighbours and work colleagues when it comes to what may work best. We are dabbling with baby-led weaning. Orange wedges are handy as they have a natural holder but bananas and kiwis are pure carnage. Having Caitlin eat whilst we are certainly encourages her.

IMG_0403 'I don't care if Patrice Evra just scored against Bayern Munich. My teeth are killing me!' Patrick McCarry Patrick McCarry

What actually constitutes a first word?

Caitlin has mastered her ‘A’s’ and has moved on to the letter B. It has led to many BBbbbs, a sprinkling of Bbaaas and we were even treated to Baba a few times. As tempting as it was to get excited about our word-dropping wunderkind, I have to raise the question. Does she need to know what a Baba is for it to count or is the fact that she said it enough to celebrate?

The champagne is on ice.

@patmccarry is sports reporter and rugby correspondent for TheScore.ie. Playwright of shows that have appeared at Vicar Street, Electric Picnic, Bulmers Comedy Festival and New Zealand Comedy Festival. He is a Dubliner, living in Kildare. Happily married for 18 months and counting.

Read: Diary of a First Time Dad: We’ve got company!

Read: Diary of a First Time Dad: Sleeping with one eye open

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    Mute Jon Rodgers
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:17 AM

    The iSheep going wild for all the “new” features that Android has had for years.

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    Mute Jason Doyle
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    Sep 17th 2015, 1:56 PM

    Android wouldn’t exist without the iPhone.
    I jailbreak so I get the best of both worlds.
    Won’t be updating till the jailbreak is out.

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    Mute Lou Tennant
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:05 AM

    Android. That is all

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    Mute willie
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:07 AM

    There’s always one

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    Mute Lou Tennant
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:14 AM

    Heh Heh Heh, I did it on purpose for the Craic. I’m easily amused

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    Mute Rúairí O’ Sullivan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:15 AM

    to be honest, every single feature has been on android for years! if I was an apple fan I would be seriously disappointed!

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:13 AM

    Apple fans are never disappointed cause they don’t know what they want and rely on Apple to tell them what it is they do want.

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    Mute Jay
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:13 AM

    Lets all trot off to the android forums and boast how Iphone had the first fingerprint reader, the first x64 processor, Apple Pay etc , the first App Store and then laugh at them. And then they might realise it’s all bull anyway. It doesn’t matter what mobile os you use, no one except fan droids seem to judge people on it. Has to be an inferiority complex.

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    Mute Frank McKevitt
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:30 AM

    I’m sure ios users are well aware of other phones functionalities but choose ios because it’s a slick user friendly and reliable phone. You sir are a pleb.

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    Mute Rúairí O’ Sullivan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 10:24 AM

    responding to facts with an insult! clap clap clap

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    Mute Dave Meagher
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    Sep 17th 2015, 12:45 PM

    But it’s not user friendly even windows 8 mobile was a better OS bar the lack of apps. I always find it humorous how defensive people get and start trading insults over a PHONE, even more humorous when it’s against reality.

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    Mute Brian
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    Sep 17th 2015, 5:55 PM

    You certainly don’t sound like you find it funny haha. You talk about being close to reality yet then say windows mobile is superior the apple OS. Oh dear!! The most bland, limited and underwhelming OS I’ve ever used. I’m a S6 Edge user and the Apple ios like it or not is one of slickest, easy to use out there. I’d love to know what kind of phone you use? Don’t say one plus please :)

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    Mute Peter Bishop
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:16 AM

    No Apple Pay yet.

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    Mute OU812
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:16 AM

    Banks here don’t/won’t support it. Nothing to do with Apple

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    Mute Alien8
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    Sep 17th 2015, 11:00 AM

    is it not down to apple negotiating with individual banks for this service? and in this case, apple don’t see the value in p1ssing around with a couple of little banks, instead waiting for the back to bend over backwards and pay them to use it? (I.e. all down to apple!!)

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    Mute Nucky
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:51 AM

    Android … A cheap mans Mercedes

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    Mute Ariana
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:17 AM

    Can anyone here actually get it yet?

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    Mute Stuart Cummins
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    Sep 17th 2015, 2:45 PM

    Id stay away from 9.1 until the official release, it drained the battery on my 6 Plus 50% quicker than 8.4 did

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    Mute EVAIS DOVES
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:44 AM

    My company iPhone 6 has a mandatory 6 digit lock , as did the iPhone 4 I had previous.

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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Sep 17th 2015, 10:34 AM

    Welcome to 2012 :)

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    Mute John Donnelly
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    Sep 17th 2015, 6:19 PM

    5s updated last night Eats up a hell of a lot more ram

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    Mute Seamus McSpud
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:31 PM

    During testing of iOS9 it was discovered that there is an issue for users who use custom Access Point Names (APN) to access their corporate networks.
    This could affect some customers using Vodafone Office Access, Vodafone Data Control or customers who have custom-built APNs.
    The impact it may have is that if a user upgrades to iOS9 they may lose complete data connectivity.

    As a precaution we strongly recommend that any users who use custom APNs, Vodafone Office Access or Vodafone Data Control do not upgrade to iOS9, until further notice. We understand that Apple are working on a fix.

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    Mute Tom the Bomb
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    Sep 17th 2015, 10:38 AM

    I bet you still can’t turn vibrate off for just alarms while plugged in to the wall.

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    Sep 17th 2015, 10:55 AM

    Or receive sms notifications from ‘favourites’ while in ‘do not disturb’ mode.

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    Mute Jay
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    Sep 17th 2015, 12:51 PM

    Who cares? We’ve got iMessage. Coming soon to an abroad phone near you

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    Mute Seamus McSpud
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:32 PM

    The humanity

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    Mute Tom the Bomb
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    Sep 17th 2015, 10:48 PM

    LoL

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    Mute Chauncey Gardiner
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    Sep 17th 2015, 5:26 PM

    Podcast feature is a mess with update! Downloading loads of programmes at once! Does anyone have any advice?

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    Mute Chauncey Gardiner
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    Sep 17th 2015, 6:33 PM

    Ignore me, all grand now. Thanks!

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