Our day started off with Jarvis reading some classic New Zealand literature, Kapai's New Mates by Uncle Anzac. As Jarvis read it, I told him that he was a Kiwi (nickname for people from NZ) which he disagreed with. I then told him that Version 2.0 will be a Wallaby (Australian Rugby nickname) and he said he was a Wallaby too. If you look at the first picture you can see that I finally convinced Jarvis that he is a Kiwi, as he is patting his chest and saying "Jarvis Kiwi."
At the hospital we waited for a while until Adrienne was called to chat with the first specialist and as you'd expect, I stood up and followed only to be told "We only ask that the Mother attend this chat." Talk about being left out! I've always prided myself on being as involved with ALL aspects of our pregnancy and to be told that I wasn't welcome in the first chat really pissed me off. Once Adrienne came out, she informed me that it was nothing special, just some information on the things to expect from the health care system. Man I was fuming.
We were then called to see the next person who seemed really nice, but asked Adrienne questions like Fathers name and contact number, when I was sitting right next to Adrienne. I thought it was really strange that I was not acknowledged or even spoken too directly. The woman, who as I said was really quite nice, then went on to ask Adrienne questions and informed her that at some point she'd have to ask further questions and that I'd have to leave the room. OMG! At this point I'd had enough and told her that I was not happy at being excluded the first time and was certainly not going to be left out again. Suddenly I got some recognition and was spoken to directly for the first time. I explained that we raise our little people together and are BOTH involved in ALL aspects of the birth. To be fair to the specialist, she did say that it was procedure, but if that's what we wanted, then she was happy for me to stay.
Australia is a great country, but it doesn't seem as advanced in the area of dual responsibility when it comes to parenting, as I still see lots of Father's not taking an active role. It's very apparent when you try and find a nappy changing table in a public toilet here too. There's pretty much always one in the woman's toilets, but you'll seldom find one in the men's. I've lost count of the times that I've had to change Jarvis on the floor of the men's which, is not the most hygienic place in the world.
Anyway, this blog meant to be light-hearted, so all in all we had a wonderful time at the hospital, making heaps of new friends in the waiting room. Jarvis even got to play Doctor's with a real stethoscope and blood pressure thing. He even got to make his Dah go up and down on the bed using the foot pedal - how cool is that?
House Dad.
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