Blog Guest Posting

Looking for some exposure for your own blog?

Well, you've clicked yourself upon the right link my friend!  Here's what I'm offering.

Guest Posting on Tork's blog

Looking for exposure? Feeling creative? I'd love for you to guest post on my blog!  But, there are a few guidelines.

1. Your post must be of original content, not copied from anywhere and not previously published.
2. You agree not to publish your post elsewhere.
3. You need to include a short bio of yourself or your blog (30 words or less).
4. You must give credit to any sources of photographs that you may provide.
5. You must provide the URL of your blog (if you have one).
6. If I need to edit your post, I will notify you of the edit prior to posting to my blog for your approval. Please note though, if you don't approve then I wont post it! (Refer #7)
7. I have the right to turn down any post.  If I do so, you may use it however you wish.

Phew! Hehehehe, that'll do.

Posting Content

I am pretty easy on what content you would like to guest post about.  If you are unsure though, simply ask me before starting.


How to Contact for Guest Blogging

You can contact me via here for all your guest posting needs and questions.

I will try to answer every email as quickly as I can.

I look forward to hearing from you!

- tork

Tork's Video

Ever been to one of them professional looking blogs where the owner of the blog has an introductory video? Usually these videos consist of the owner/designer sitting in front of the camera given a spiel about themselves and their blog.

Well, I've done one of them too!  Does that mean I'm now professional?  (crap..)

Now, before you hit the play button, no, I'm not sitting in front of the camera.  Sorry! I've gone on a different angle.

But now it means, whenever a new visitor lands on my site, they can click my video and easily see what my blog is about! I highly recommend all bloggers to try to do this. It can greatly improve on the number of return visitors as well as followers/subscribers.

I will return to give feedback after a month or so on how this addition improves my site to (hopefully) prove it is a worthwhile venture to undertake.

In the mean time, tell me what you think of my first attempt.  Love to know what you think of the video, as well as the music I made myself!  But, go easy please.  It's my first ever YouTube video!! :-)

- tork

Songs to Inspire - Song 17

Feeling unmotivated? Need inspiration? Need to be inspired?

Inspiration comes from within, you just sometimes need to be reminded - Torkona

Every Sunday I post a song to help you find your inspiration

I've said previsouly, I love a good spontanious dance up and down my hallway.  I hope this inspires you to do the same.

I can say nothing else but:

Enjoy, Acid Rock!

Hahahaha!

- tork

Cappuccino vs Latte

I need your help.

I've been having an argument over which type of Coffee drink is more manly.

See, I love my coffee.  Can't imagine working without it.

I am a Latte drinker and I've been copping a bit of stick from my mates whenever I order one.  I think it may be the fact that when I order it, I pronounce it as "Lar-tay".  They think it sounds too fancy around a bunch of guys.  But that's how it's pronounced, isn't it?

Anyway, I've been branded wimpy by my coffee mates that drink Cappuccinos.  They think Latte's are less manly.

Pfft.   I don't care whether I'm drinking a manly drink or not.  I don't have a problem with it.  My problem is this though; How can they call a coffee sprinkled with chocolate on top of a frothy milk layer more manly than a plain Latte?

So, I am putting the call out there for answers.

Which coffee do you think is more manly? The Cappuccino or the Latte.

Don't let me influence your thoughts though.  Love to hear your own opinion.

- tork

Mad first weeks as a Father

Everyone's has been asking me for an update on how fatherhood is going.

Well, I've been spewed on, peed on, pooed on..  I really must stop drinking!

But seriously folks, it has been a mad house.  I have come to the point where I get spewed on and I don't change my clothes.  Last night, little monkey boy went the vom on one of my shirts.  I woke up still wearing the same shirt.

The definition of being used to having a new baby in your life is exactly that.  If you are spewed on and don't change your clothes immediately when it is possible to, then you've settled in to parenting.

The First Few Weeks of Parenting

When we finally brought baby home, we were madly crazy running around the house sorting out our shit.  Now we run like a well oiled machine.

Diapers on hand? check
Wipes on hand? check
Industrial strength goggles to prevent piss in face? check

One thing I have learnt in the first few weeks is with a boy, learn to change diapers fast.  When jr Wang points outwards into the air, it often gets used for number ones.  I haven't really been hit too bad, but it is an awfully tricky task to drain urine from a young boy's ear without getting anything wet.

Apart from slowly becoming a Kung Fu master at twisting, turning and applying diaper's at record speed, everything else has been great.  Our only problem was learning how to feed the little tacker.  He is bottle fed and due to his original weight, he needs to put on a lot more weight.

When we were told he has only put on half the amount of weight that he was required to, we were kind of puzzled.  He is a bit spilly, but not that much to not be putting on weight.

We improved our feeding technique to not let as much air in when feeding.  Wish we were originally showed how to feed properly.  We were required to get 80g weight increase.  He put on double the amount of that.

So we are kicking along well and I am learning very quickly.  I must perfect my diaper chaninging technique still though to become a black belt in changing times.  I am also perfecting the skill of the "sniff before agree to change" move, but don't tell my wife about that one.

It still is so very surreal though.  It still hasn't sunk in.  I think as soon as I hear "Da-da", then it will most definitely have sunk in.

Until then I am teaching him how to burp like his dad.  You should see his eyes pop out of his head when I do it ;-)

- tork

RIP Toshiba Laptop

My old friend passed away recently.  My Toshiba Laptop.

Ahh the memories.  Of days playing the Civilisation series, to time wasted with Seinfeld DVDs, to studying back in my college days.   Yeah, I actually studied.

Now, I need a new one.

How can I land myself in a cafe and wirelessly blog and surf the net without one?

How can I plug my laptop into my 50inch plasma to play disbanded arcade games if it doesn't work any more?

Oh woe is me.. If I hadn't got that virus.. If I didn't have stupid Windows XP..  If I didn't let my wife touch the bugger (teehehe), maybe all would be right in this world.

I am going to miss my laptop.  The little chew marks on it reminded me of the days when my dog was a little puppy  :'(


So now I need a new one, but you think I can afford one?  Pffft, no way Hose A (or Hose B even).

*kneels down*

Oh ye Internet Gods.. I pray for light to shine upon me to bring forth a new bright and shiny laptop, of which I will care for and love and blatantly flog on my blog.

I promise to be a good nerd and will always go to keep raids for the greater good!

Please see it to be! I will forever be greatful!


*sigh*

RIP Lappy.. (unless I figure out a way to fix you).

- tork

Songs to Inspire - Song 16

Feeling unmotivated? Need inspiration? Need to be inspired?

Inspiration comes from within, you just sometimes need to be reminded - Torkona

Every Sunday I post a song to help you find your inspiration.

Today is a song from one of my favourite movies of all time, perhaps my favourite kids movie ever.  Yeah.. I know I'm not a kid anymore, but don't judge me.  You'll find it awesome too :)

The Lion King's Circle of Life

This song is fantastic. If you haven't seen the theatre production of the Lion King, you better make sure the next chance it is in your country, see it!  The music from the movie is fantastic and this song is one of my favourites.

This is the most inspiring.  I hope it inspires your spine to tingle..

..and for you to take your first born to the nearest rocks and lift him to the sky, like I did with my little lion cub :)

Enjoy!

 

- tork

How to gain useless traffic to your blog

Do you like traffic?  Do you watch your blog stats hourly?

Well, have I got the deal for you!

You can get traffic to your blog FREE OF CHARGE!!

 How?  It's easy.  It's called Useless Traffic.

That's right, useless traffic.  Hoards and hoards of single clicks to your website that never get you any followers, don't stay for longer than a second and don't click your ads.  Useless traffic, free of charge.

How do you get useless traffic?  Well, I'm glad you asked..

Post your URL in irrelevant places

Have you got a great link you want people to see about puppies?  Well, why not add the URL to a popular forum?  Perhaps a gaming website with the heading "Get a load of these puppies!".  Yep, the gaming nerds would click on that faster than the speed of light!

Don't worry about posting your link on a relevant site about dogs or animals. Mislead people to get that useless traffic you deserve!

Aim for Google Image Search Results

Put only pictures on your blog posts.  Also, name the picture file.  So if it is a picture of those little dogs of yours, call it 'my_big_puppies.jpg' and watch the streams from Google Images come through and only look at your photo, not at your site.

This will give you loads of useless traffic for free!

So there you have it folks!  Two methods for getting visitors to your site that are completely useless!

Thank you for not shopping with us!

- tork

fyi - this is intended as a joke and a message to help stop you getting useless traffic.  This sentence is only here for the people google searching "my big puppies".  ;-) Thank you for your time

This is how you write

Twitter this morning is a-buzz with the latest article from Roseanne Barr - And I Should Know.

Wow, what a fantastic piece.  So good, I could not "put it down".  Want to learn how to write fantastic posts?  Take a tip from Roseanne, as this is bloody fantastic.

A excerpt from the article:

“Winning” in Hollywood means not just power, money, and complimentary smoked-salmon pizza, but also that everyone around you fails just as you are peaking. When you become No. 1, you might begin to believe, as Cher once said in an interview, that you are “one of God’s favorite children,” one of the few who made it through the gauntlet and survived. The idea that your ego is not ego at all but submission to the will of the Lord starts to dawn on you as you recognize that only by God’s grace did you make it through the raging attack of idea pirates and woman haters, to ascend to the top of Bigshit Showbiz Mountain.

Genius.  It makes me want to write better.  But the reason why this writing is so good is that Roseanne puts herself into it.  It's as if she is talking it to you as you read it.

That's what you want to try to aim for with your own blogging.  Write as you are.  Roseanne did and the attention she is getting for these few words is amazing.

What are your tips for writing?  What do you think of Roseanne's article? Love to know! :-)

- tork

Best of Eurovision 2011 Germany

Yes, I love Eurovision.  With little sleep and one large mug of coffee, I got through the whole show!  Here were my favourite countries.

Best Eurovision Performances 2011

Italy

Song was very good.  I do enjoy a tinkle of the ivories and the big band style.  Very unique sound from the whole night.

Denmark

A very now song. It was wicked. Reminded me of Chemical Romance in a way. Enjoyed it!

Switzerland

These guys came last. I thought they are great! Ukulele's are awesome :) Why did Switzerland come last? I got no idea! Do you think they deserved it?

Germany

The hosts for this year's Eurovision 2011 was Germany. Lena last year was my favourite (and everybody's fave!). Lena came back for this sultry number that was so very awesome. Loved it.

Top 3 Eurovision songs 2011

Here are my top 3 favourites from the night.

Ireland - Jedward - Lipstick

Voted by Australians to be the very best of the night was Ireland. I thought they were the third best. Great song, great performance, great costumes.. great hair hehehe.

Moldova - Zdob & Zdub - So Lucky

I love the crazy acts each year. These guys were one of the most out there groups. But I actually loved their song, as well as their weird fairy girl on a unicycle :-) My second fave act of the night.

Iceland - Sjonni's Friends - Coming Home

Hands down, best song of the night. Originally it were to be sung by a dude called Sjonni, but tragically early in the year he died. His friends decided to put their hands up to still do his song. So six of his pals, coincidentally awesome singers, got together to sing this moving song for their friend that recently passed away.

Great work, and my favourite for the night!

So, who was the actual winner of Eurovision 2011 Germany? Some country called Azerbaijan. I didn't think it was very good. It was okay I guess, but it was as if Jennifer Lopez and her Ricky Ponting look alike son sang an awkward 'romantic' song to each other. I guess I should show it to you, here it is:

Now we look forward to Eurovision 2012 in Azerbaijan. Let me get the Atlas so I can find out where the f*ck that is!

- tork

Songs to Inspire - Song 15

Feeling unmotivated? Need inspiration? Need to be inspired?

Inspiration comes from within, you just sometimes need to be reminded - Torkona

Every Sunday I post a song to help you find your inspiration.

Today is Shakespeare's Sister - Stay. This song is fantastic.  I remember listening to it when I was younger.  I saw the film clip when I was young and it freaked the shit out of me.  Still does.

It is so weird but awesome at the same time.  Something, a little bit different.

I hope it inspires you to be a little bit different  :-)





- tork

What would you like to know about me?

Hi there! Due to Blogspot issues over the past few days, Blogger decided to shutdown and remove any comments you may have made recently.  Below is my recent post that I would love your comments on!  You might too :-)  So I am re-posting, here it is:



I've been thinking, you guys really don't know too much about me, do you?

What do you know?  Well, I'm an Aussie and you would know I recently became a dad.  You probably know I like the odd bit of music.  I hope you know I enjoy having a laugh.  You also probably can remember that I enjoy a bash on the computer games every now and then.

Other than these, there isn't much more I've let you know.  I think it's time to let you know just a little bit more about me.

But, instead of me telling you the gory details of myself, why don't you ask me some questions instead?

What do you want to know about me?  Have you got any questions to ask?  Is there something that you've always wanted to know?

So drop me a comment below, contact me via the "Contact Me" tab or even say it via Twitter or Facebook.  I'll answer as many questions as I can.


..without letting all my deep and darkest secrets out of the bag, of course ;-)

Can't wait to get started on them.  I'll give it a couple of weeks to gather enough questions, so come back in about a fortnight for my responses!!

- tork

Social Media Sharebar and reddit.com

Social Media.  As much as I hate its addictiveness, I find it an essential side-kick of a blog.

As I've talked about previously on my major blog killer, how you can avoid it post, you shouldn't spend a lot of time on social sites as a blogger.  But! Why not let folks know you have a recent new post?  I do via my Twitter or Facebook page.

Bloggers need to spend more hours on blogs than social sites, but for the rest of the world, it is often the only sites people visit!  So a blogger needs to utilise a little time on these sites to show others their posts.

One way to let the world know of your post is a tool that I wanted to let everyone know about.  It is a widget that I use called a 'sharebar'.  You can see it on this post to the right. This is the most useful tool that my blog has (if you're reading this via an RSS subscriber, you might like to check it out).

I can hit 'Share to Facebook' to tell my Facebook friends of my new post.  I can also hit 'Retweet' to let all my Twitter followers know of my latest stuff.  There's a Digg button which sometimes I use, but there is my favourite, Reddit.

I'll talk about Reddit a bit later, but firstly, here's the code for this sharebar that you can add as a widget to your own blog! 

<style> #sharebar {position:fixed; bottom:15%; margin-left:230px; float:left; border-radius:5px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px;background-color:##ee9ea8;padding:0 0 2px 0;z-index:10;} #sharebar .sbutton {float:left;clear:both;margin:5px 5px 0 5px;} .fb_share_count_top {width:48px !important;} .fb_share_count_top, .fb_share_count_inner {-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;} .FBConnectButton_Small, .FBConnectButton_RTL_Small {width:49px !important; -moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;} .FBConnectButton_Small .FBConnectButton_Text {padding:2px 2px 3px !important;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;font-size:8px;} </style><br /> <div title="Get this at wissamidrissi.com"><div id="sharebar"><div class="sbutton" id="fb"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php" name="fb_share" type="box_count">Share</a><script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"> </script> </div><div class="sbutton" id="rt"><script src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></div><div class="sbutton" id="su"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=5"> </script></div><div class="sbutton" id="digg"><script src="http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js" type="text/javascript"> </script><br /> <a class="DiggThisButton DiggMedium" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><div class="sbutton" id="reddit"><script src="http://www.reddit.com/static/button/button2.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></div></div></div>

Add it as a widget or gadget, whatever your blog calls them, to the Design sections of your blog.  This will display as a vertical bar on your blog.

Don't like its position?  You can change it.

What you do is find the code below:


margin-left:230px;


You can change the number from 230 to anything you like.  Increase it slightly and you will move it closer to the right side, decrease it and it will move closer to the left.

Having troubles? Just let me know!  If it helps you I'd love to hear your feedback as well.

reddit.com

Now, about this site.  Reddit is currently one of the internet's most popular sites to waste time on.  It is full of good stuff on absolutely anything.  It also is a good tool to get some traffic to your site.  Albeit the traffic is not often useful, it is kind of cool to see a traffic spike in your stats.  If using reddit correctly, you can achieve thousands of visits to your site.  This can gain you perhaps a bit of GoogleAds benefits or extra subscribers if you're lucky.


Unsure about how to use reddit?  It can be confusing for the new users, I know it was for me.  You also have to be careful as they hate spammers, like everyone does!

It is all about selling the description you give of your links.  The site has helpful features if you're lost, otherwise drop me a line and I am willing to help.

Hope you find this information helpful.

Do you use social media to share your blog?  Are you familiar with Reddit? Love to hear from you!

 - tork

Why does my newborn have my receding hairline?

Just putting it out there, but why does my newborn baby have the exact same receding hairline as me? Am I the only father or parent who has noticed this?

After the first few hours with our son, the first thing I noticed was "Hey, he's got the same hairline as his dad!"

So my hair may or may not be starting to recede.  I'll be the first to point that out.  I'm not going totally bald, but it's starting to take that sophisticated old fella look.  But bubs has got plenty of hair, but the pattern of his hairline is exactly as if it were receding, and exactly like mine.

I just wanted to put it out there real quick to see if any one else has noticed their son (or even daughter) had the exact same hairline as their father when born.

So has your kids had the same freaky hair pattern as their freaky father?  Or am I the only freaky one around here? hehehehe

Interested to know!  Let's see how we go..

- tork

The Crows need a new captain?

Oh my lord.

Watching the Adelaide Crows play was like watching my new born baby boy do a poo.  It's disgusting but you have to sit there and make sure things don't get too much out of control.

For my overseas readers, visit AFL.com.au to learn up on our great game of Aussie Rules Football.

Anyway, after the Crows losing to Melbourne Demons by almost 100 points, I could not hold back to vent my opinion.  I know the team is young, I know we've lost our majority of experience with retirements from last year.  I know we won't be winning a premiership any time soon.  Still.. *sigh*

I'm not one to slam my team after a terrible loss.  I still support them by watching until the very end (unless if it's against the Power, of course) but all responsibility lies on the Captain to now come out and do something, say something constructive about how to go forward.

Nathan Van Berlo is the captain and hopefully will help turn things around.  But VB, as I've thought from the very start, is the worst choice of captain I've ever seen.  From this fan's point of view, he is Captain for his own benefits, not for the team's benefit. Patrick Dangerfield will be captain in the few years.  Why? He's the only player out there showing true crows spirit.  Guts and determination.

VB might not have the greatest foot skills, actually, I wouldn't put him in the top ten best players for the crows, so he needs to come through and show the same effort as Dangerfield.  Put his body on the line.

Kevin Sheedy recently came out and said Nathan Van Berlo is the worst captain in the AFL in 2011 (source via adelaidenow) and I agree.  Until he shows the crows fighting spirit that ex-captains like Mark Rucciuto or Mark Bickley, he needs to go.

But, I don't think he should have ever been there in the first place.

What do you think? Who do you think is the worst captain in the competition?

- tork

Songs to Inspire - Song 14

Feeling unmotivated? Need inspiration? Need to be inspired?

Inspiration comes from within, you just sometimes need to be reminded - Torkona

Every Sunday I post a song to help you find your inspiration.

This song I found myself singing over the days when my son was due to be born.  Creed's With Arms Wide Open.

It's all about being excited to find out being a parent.  And by the way, happy Mother's day to all the mums out there!

Enjoy.

- tork

The first few days as dad

The first few days as a father so far have been crazy.

Yee-oiks! Hehehehe

Awesome having your own mini-me around the place.  And he's so so very small.

Man he's noisy though.  Snores, eats too fast and breathes as if he's run a marathon, farts, burps, cries.

Love it.

Had a moment though where he was in deep sleep and bubs couldn't be woken no matter what we could do.  Took a minute to raise him.  He had been thrashing and restless for many hours though previous, so he was very tired.  Still, was kinda scary not being able to wake him up.  Something we'll keep an eye on.  If it happens again, off to the quacks, but after being looked over he seems fine.

Overall, it is surreal.  Still hasn't sunk in.  At least we're getting plenty of sleep! Seriously, we are!

Getting a few more smiles out of him too.  Looking forward to many more :-)

Can you remember you first few days as a parent? Any flash backs that you might want to share?

- tork

I've cracked the 10,000 barrier

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to everyone.

Yesterday I cracked the 10,000 pageviews mark on this blog.  Hurrah!

A pageview is whenever anyone or anything views a single page, so one person can technically visit 100 pages if they wanted.

Even though a lot of these views are more than likely my own (I estimate perhaps 5,000), I still wanted to thank a few sources.

Firstly, I want to thank you.  You reading this right now.  You're awesome, even if you're only here for ten seconds :-)

Next I want to thank anyone that has linked to my blog.  I appreciate the time you've taken to do so greatly!  Thanks for adding my badges to your site.

Next, I want to thank Melissa Doyle.  Strange hey?  Well, she retweeted my most popular post What Mummy Does for Work. It has just clicked over at 2,100 views, with over 100 Facebook shares and 55 tweets.  Thanks Mel, even though having a famous Australian TV Host tweet your site doesn't bring you followers, it still made my day and still does.


Next I want to thank the site reddit.com.  If used properly, I can get 200 hits in an hour.  The site can be awesome, but I can be spammy on it.

Thanks to Google for about 15 folks a day hitting my page.  I'd like to get a few more, but I appreciate the trickle!


Thank you to anyone that has hit Follow, Subscribe, has Facebook friended me or followed me on Twitter.  I am having loads of fun and you guys make it worthwhile.


I would also like to thank the Academy.  You like me, you really, really like me.


*ahem*


Enough thanks from me for now, until hopefully my next milestone..


Cheers!


- tork

Winner of the 2nd Torkona Award is..

After reading numerous parent bloggers, the winner of the 2nd ever Torkona Award has been chosen.

This time, the award is to highlight blogger's first born birth stories.

Having recently become a parent myself, I found it a very appropriate theme.

You can read my own first born birth story: Finally, I am a dad. Leave me a comment if you think I should have won my own award :-)

The requirements of this blogger award to summarise were:

Your first born birth story with a total score of out 31 based on four different criteria.

• a possible ten points for creativity
• a possible ten points for how hilarious you are
• a possible ten points for a heart warming story
• one brownie point (for posting award image link)

And the winner is..


*insert drum roll here*

mum in search

~**Congratulations!!**~

She has fit every category of creativity, humour and heart warming story with her post Torkona wants to read my first born birth story. And yes, I did.


Visit her post and perhaps follow her blog.  She's quite funny and a great blogger as well.  Top marks go for having priorities of watching such quality TV programming like 'So You Think You Can Dance' instead of worrying too much about labour pains. Too bad you missed the end of the show!  Great creativity with the photo collage, which was unique of all the entries.

Good idea going for the brownie point also, it got you over the line!  Something I would recommend for future torky awards!

So well done mum in search. Here's is the other part of your prize, my second ever trophy.

Ten runners up are as follows, each with links to their birth stories for everyone to read.

A field of dreams	My if journey
Tara	Birth story bandwagon
Taryn	First born story
lifeasmummymax	Our 1st born Elaina
Tracy	Arrival of Cassidy
Crap Mamma	From birth plans to toilet plungers
Reservoir Dad	Enter the Torkona Award
parentwin	First story of my first borns
Kellie	Sienna Jade
Madmother	God of Obstetrics

Thank you to all that entered.  I enjoyed finding a few new blogs as well as reading all your birth stories.

Don't forget to follow/subscribe for the next installment of The Torkona Award.  It is getting bigger and bigger, so who knows what can be next!

- tork

finally, I am a Dad

Finally I can say that my wife and I have become parents.  I am the proud father of a bouncing baby....

Oop! Hold that thought.  I really have only told you half the story in previous posts.  So before telling you the gender, let me put my storytellers hat on and take you back to where we started.

Getting Pregnant

I've always wanted to be a dad.  My wife has always wanted to be a mum.  It was just when all that will happen that was stopping us.

We decided the time was right.  We had done our trip overseas and are living in a house big enough to support a family.  Money is good, support is good, everything was good.  So it was time to make good, if you know what I mean (wink wink, nudge nudge say no more).

Our first pregnancy test came up negative.  Nerts.

Next month, our second pregnancy test, zippo.

The following months our third, fourth, fifth pregnancy test etc, nothing.

We just could not get pregnant.  Both being young, fit, nubile persons, we were starting to get concerned.  Fast track to about 8 or so months of trying, we went to our local GP for tests, tips 'n tricks.

I was told to only wear boxer shorts, which I do (try not to imagine it).  No bicycling, no cigarettes, no caffeine.  Lots of no's.  I don't do the first two, but me and caffeine are thick as thieves.  I love it, it loves me.  The withdrawals of my fizzy coke fix and caffeine were shocking, but I needed to do it.  Man, I remember that being so very tough.

Anyway, we hopped on the happy sperm tablets and joyful lady pregnancy tablets for a few months to no avail.  I made happy into a jar to get the wrigglies tested, which by the way were well above average levels I will have you know!

My wife was getting upset that it started to look like she wasn't functioning right and I was.  Reading this you already know that we managed to eventually get pregnant, but here is the massive stroke of luck for us.  We saw an Obstetrician that recommended a pill that women can take that makes periods more regular, as in, tell the egg to be in the right spot at the right time.  This was to make sure we were trying on a day that was more likely to be successful.

Most couples get to this stage and it takes several tries, if at all.  We were lucky and got pregnant our first try.

I remember sitting on the couch half asleep when my wife tells me that she is pregnant.  I always imagined the time that she would tell me "I'm Pregnant" that I would run out the house, down the street, find a local park and run laps around it with giddy joy.  When she finally told me, it was first disbelief.  I felt relieved and exhausted at the same time, but also happy and shocked that we finally got there.

First Ultrasound

So onwards to the 9 weeks pregnant mark.  We had our Obstetrician lined up and did an ultrasound scan.

"There's your baby!" the doctor said as we held each others hand tight. It was amazing to finally see what we'd be trying for so long.

Now, the doctor had some concerns though, there was no heart beat. The heart beat could not be found and we thought we had lost our baby.  After over a year of trying and finally getting pregnant, we thought we lost him/her.

Our doctor told us that sometimes it takes longer for the heart to start working in the pregnancy.  It can get going anytime between 7-10 weeks into the pregnancy. This kept our hopes up.

The doctor sent us to get ultrasound scans again at a different place with better equipment.  This scan was a week after from the first, so you can imagine our tension, waiting a full week to know whether our baby's heart had started working yet or not.

We get to the ultrasound place and there on our screen is our beautiful little baby, heart beating away like a drum and very healthy.

Phew! What a relief.

Then the sonographer says "Ohh but it looks like this other little one hasn't made it."

A twin?  We were having twins and we lost one?

I stand up and put my face in my hands with an 'oh my god!'.  I hold back the tears for later and my wife looks at me with the same surprised face as I got.

We were given a few moments to soak in the news.  We are told the child didn't make it past 7 weeks old.

It is so sad, but in a way we prefer to not have a twin pregnancy because it would be much harder pregnancy than a single child.  At least thats what we told ourselves.  So I am kind of grateful but sad at the same time.  Forever though, we will wonder 'what if'.  Our doctor did say that there is a 20% increase in chance that you will have a twin pregnancy when you take pills to make periods regular.

So rest peacefully our lost little child.

Low Amniotic Fluids

At around the 30 week mark, we have a check up with our Obstetrician.  As I said in a previous post, Our baby is too small for the third trimester and Why baby is a bit small, our doctor poked and touched my wife's beautiful round tummy and said after about 5 seconds "You baby feels too small" and sent us to hospital.

We freaked out.  My wife double freaked out.  We were told to expect worse case scenario that our kid were to be born prematurely and on that night.  So you can see why we were slightly worried.

We stayed about a week in hospital to find out that yes, baby's abdomen wasn't growing to it's full potential and that the amniotic fluid was at 3cm instead of the average 11-20cm.

My wife was pulled out of work early for rest, drank lots of fluids and she fantastically got the baby fluids up to a normal level, but the problems meant us having fortnightly scans/visits to doctors, just to make sure everything was going well.

Towards the last few days of the pregnancy however, wife's blood pressure was rising and baby's growth was starting to slow down.

It was time for induction.  Thank god we were in the safe stages to give birth.

Induction! Time to be parents

The few days leading up towards our set date to be induced, well, for my wife to be induced, wasn't too bad.  I had expected to be pacing up and down the hallways freaking out and wearing the carpet thin.  Luckily I had enough gin stored in the pantry cupboard and fizzy drink in the fridge to combine the two together and keep my nerves down each night to not wreck the carpet.  Also luckily enough that our hallway is all tiled to prevent such carpet damage. Anyway, our bags are packed and we are off to the hospital.

So the midwife does her thing to see how it is all going on down.. you know.. where it all goes on.

"You don't need to be induced. You're 2cm dilated and ready to have your waters broken!" says the midwife.

Awesome! We don't need to sit around for hours waiting for induction to work.  We can simply burst the ol' waters and get this show on the road!

So we did.

When they say you are low on amniotic fluid, they are wrong.  You could have almost frozen the room and played ice hockey on the floor after they broke my wife's waters.

Anyway, not long until the contractions started.  I eventually become a pro on how to read a CTG machine.  I held her hand every single time she had a contraction.  Even though I couldn't do much, I just wanted to hold her to know I was there.  I also wanted to take my rings off just in case she pulverised my fingers together in agony.

She was great though.  She was having what we thought was a perfect labor.  She lasted no drugs at all until the last 30 minutes when we were told we were having issues that baby was struggling and we needed to get it out.

Caesarean section

It hit us both like a freak wave.  We required an emergency Cesarean section. It sent my wife into a panic.  I was flustering around the room trying to hide valuables whilst grabbing a camera for the surgery room and getting changed into scrubs.  A brief thought popped into my head about whether anyone from the show Scrubs would be involved.  Strange.  Even at my most worried my brain would still try to make a joke.

But I digress.  J.D. and Turk were nowhere to be seen and I had to be there for my wife and child, trying to encourage the wife that everything was going to be fine.  I knew it was going to be fine for some reason.  I had no worries in the world.  I was excited to be in the surgery room and to be there for my wife.  I usually am terrible with medical shows.  Watching procedures on the telly makes me faint or feel queasy, even just talking about them does, but I had this overriding sense or strength to be there and to grab my wife's hand as we were wheeled in for a c-section.

They gave me a stool to sit on at the head of the bed.  I was there for my wife, whom I am so very proud of for going through what she was not expecting.

Perhaps what was about 40 minutes into the cesarean came a scream into the room.  It wasn't my wife, it wasn't any of the doctors or staff.  It wasn't me either.

It was a scream from our baby.  It's first cry into the world.

The curtain was brought down for us to see our firstborn for the first time.

We finally saw our little man, so beautiful and perfect.

Yep, it's a boy!!!

His eyes wide open, outstretched arms.  Not too upset until he was poked and prodded by the doctors, but soon enough he was wrapped up and in my wife's arms.  All he could do is silently look at us with his big blue eyes and try to figure out what the heck is going on.

All we could do is look back at him and cry out our faces.


So there you have it.  Baby is going great.  Wife had a few more complication post labour, which I may go through one day, but she is doing great now too.

We our proud parents to a tiny little boy who is the spitting image of his father.

And I can finally tell the world what my wife and I have known since early scans that he is a boy!

I've never been happier in my life.

I can never repay my wife for what she has gone through and what she has done for us, but I promise to try every day.  I am so proud of her.

And to the new young fella of ours, you've got a lot to look forward to.  I know you'll make us proud.



So I hope I've given you an interesting perspective of a childbirth story from the fathers perspective.  Hopefully it will give people courage too if they are having any concerns during pregnancy, that in the end it is just a small blip on the radar of your life where all worries are washed away when you hold your little one in your arms.

Thanks for reading.


- tork

The Torkona Award II - Closed

Entries for the Torkona Award II Your First Born Birth Story is now closed.

All entries have been reviewed and a winner will be announced soon.

Winner announced as soon as I possibly can, as I currently have other important matter to attend to.

Hmm, whatever could they be?  :-)

- tork