Congratulations you have been a father for one year now! I would like to encourage you to see that your baby's first birthday is as much a celebration for you and your wife as for him. The first year of fatherhood is the most profound change you have gone through as a man.

In your eleventh month of fatherhood it is probably hard to remember what life was like without your baby! Your life as a family and a father is the center of all your decisions and day to day activity. Your baby continues to grow into the world around him.

I remember how happy I would be when our son slept two nights in a row without waking up. I thought, finally we would get back to having a normal nights sleep. It seemed, just as I thought we had a "routine" established, I would find that the next night all would change.

Most couples begin parenthood hoping to be equal partners in both work and family life, but it seldom works out that way. Usually at nine months you begin to feel that you have assigned "roles." This is an important time to talk with your wife about your parenting partnership.

Becoming a father changes the way we view ourselves and the world around us. We see ourselves less as a son in relation to our own parents and more on equal footing with our own father. During the first year of parenthood it is usual for a new father to reflect on how he was raised by his own father.

Is their tension between you and your wife? It is usual for couples to find, at six months, that they have tension that has built up around how the scheduling is organized. Since you baby keeps changing, it is difficult to have a "regular routine."

In the eight months of fatherhood you begin to notice that your baby interacts much more with you. He can recognize you and may even begin to show excitement when the two of you are together. You may be gaining more confidence in understanding what his crying is trying to tell you.

There are many roles we play in life. None is more important than being a parent. No matter what job you do or career you have, believe it or not, you are not irreplaceable. But as a father and a husband your "role" is unique and one-of-a-kind.