This little fella has been with us for a month now, and he’s turned our lives upside down! I can’t believe a whole month has already flown by before I’ve had a chance to introduce the wee man – he’ll be a year before we know it at this rate! I’m very much working around his demands at the moment, so I’ll making sure to document these things before they’re confined to the (not entirely reliable!) memory banks..

The birth..
I was worried about the birth to be honest, after I’d read someone describe their child’s birth as “like a scene from a slaughterhouse” – I don’t do blood and gore, and so this had me worried. I needn’t have worried though as the majority of the labor was blood-free, and when it did become a blood-fest, I was up at the non-business end of things. That doesn’t mean it was a doddle though – Er Indoors was in labor for a total of 28 and a half hours, the first twelve of which were a piece of cake, but it soon went downhill from there on, and the worst thing for me was having to watch Er Indoors in excruciating amounts of pain without there being a damn thing I can do about it.

Eventually it was clear that Jack wasn’t going to come out by himself, so we were whisked down to surgery (we’d already been prepped 5 hours previously after a scare where baby’s heartrate dropped for around ten minutes) and he was finally delivered via forceps at 10:43am on Saturday 22nd August 2009. The drama didn’t end there however as he was having trouble breathing by himself, so we had a nervous 5 minutes of silence before he was breathing (and crying) by himself, and maintaining his temperature before we could relax (a little!)

I can sum it all up in one word: Brutal. I really didn’t enjoy the birth, and would be quite happy to never go through it again.. Er Indoors seems to have forgotten the worst of it though, so I dare say we’ll be back in the delivery suite again before too long – and of course, it was all worth it in the end..

The first month..
It really has whizzed by – There’s been all the stereotypes you’d expect – dirty nappies, lack of sleep, colic, frantic worrying about whether he’s ok, etc, etc. But it’s really not been that bad, and we’re into a “kind of” routine that works for us.

Once again I find myself trotting out the line “I’m really glad I’m an affiliate…”, as I was able to take a full two weeks Paternity Leave off to focus entirely on Jack and Er Indoors, and following that, I can work when I want around feeds, nappie changes, baths etc – If I was still in the Day Job, I’d have been expected back in the office for 9am Monday morning where I would be chained to my desk until 5pm every day (at least I could get some sleep then though… lol)

Whereas as an affiliate, I can stay up until 4am watching Chuck Norris films (it’s not ALL crap TV on in the middle of the night) with my boy whilst Er Indoors gets a good 4/5 hours sleep, then head to bed myself, sleep till lunchtime and then get to work throughout the afternoon.

Going forward..
I’ve already found that I’ve got a LOT less time since Jack’s been on the scene, and I’m determined that I’m gonna be there to watch him grow up, so I’m learning to say NO a lot more.

I’m not taking on new projects, I’m not promising to promote every merchant that asks, and I’m prioritizing with a ruthless streak – when you’ve only got an hour at a time to focus on work, you realise that all the crap you fill the working day with is just a waste of time, and so I’m working slightly less hours than I’m used to at the moment, but I’m still achieving just as much as I can working 100 hours a week.

Someone said to me just after Jack was born “That’s it – your life goals and work goals will change forever now”, and they’re spot on – I no longer want to be the best affiliate on the block.. I just wanna be the best dad possible to Jack, and I’m not gonna achieve that by working every hour of every day – I’ll be the only tax-paying dad at every school assembly, sports day and swimming lesson – and that’s all thanks to Affiliate Marketing

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Meet Jack Robert Lamerton

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Thought you might like to meet Little Lammo..

He (or She) is due to be making an appearance in August 2009 (well obviously 2009 – we haven’t mastered either record-breaking gestation periods or time travel yet). Naturally, both myself and Er Indoors are completely thrilled – I’m sure that those of you who know the full story about our journey so far will appreciate just how happy (and surprised, and nervous, and excited, and worried) we both are.

And I’m sure this is just the beginning of the rollercoaster of emotions – I’m already wondering how people managed to survive pregnancy before Google was invented – Did they just phone up the midwife every five minutes – “Can I eat this?”, “Can I take this medicine?”, “Should I do this?”, “Is this normal?”

Of course, this does mean that a Travel Ban will be in place shortly, so I’m afraid A4uexpo Europe and the Summer Roadshows are going to be out of the question, and A4uexpo London could be in doubt. I’ll try and get up to London for the Pubmeet next month (as long as they’re not still at a standstill cos of some snow!

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Introducing Little Lammo…

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