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First-time moms aren’t the only ones who struggle with the changes a baby can bring. In a candid new interview with the Daily Mail, Laurence Fox — who with wife Billie Piper welcomed son Winston James, 5-months, in October — lends a voice to all the bleary-eyed new dads out there who don’t feel an instant connection with their children. “I definitely went through really odd feelings, really animal ones such as ‘Do I even want this baby?’” he admits. “I was like that for about two weeks after he was born.” Noting that not all men are willing to go on record with having this particular emotional response — or lack thereof — to fatherhood, Laurence observes that most men opt instead to “get drunk.” He muses that “some of it is that men can have babies whenever they want, so, until they actually connect with this baby, then it’s tough.”
“Suddenly I looked at him and thought, ‘You’re called Winston’ — I’d called him ‘it’ for ages, as in ‘it’s doing that’ – and then it just clicked. And that’s when you become — it’s awful isn’t it, when clichés are true – but that’s when you go, ‘I’m not going to ever let anything bad happen to you – ever.’ And now he’s just a joy.”
A joy who continues to exhaust his parents, however! If there is one ongoing drawback to life with baby it is the “cumulative loss of sleep,” Laurence says. “‘It has this peculiar effect on your brain,” he explains. “You lose compassion, sensitivity, kindness – they’re the first things to go in extreme situations.”
“You stop opening doors for your missus when she’s carrying the shopping bags. Instead, you plough through yourself, in an ‘I-must get- through-this-myself’ way. It’s quite scary.”
Click below to read about who Winston favors.
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