wheres the dummy daddy???

So I thought its about time Mr. Farnsworth had a go at this blog game. I think it would be good to get the other side of post natal depression across, the dark, the sad, but also the happy and how far chels has come (by the way Chels is what I call the wife), So were shall I begin? Lets start and chat abit about me and chels shall we. Chels is abit nuts! always has been and always will be. as you've read through the blogs I'm sure it didn't take you long to realise this. She has always been a ray of sunshine for not just me but everyone she knows and has ever come across. We have been together now for almost 10 years now and there is never a dull moment with the two of us. We have had some unreal memories together, so many so I could make my own blog about some of the things we have done and the amazing lives we have had together, This brings me onto our wedding day....

I finally popped the question after 5 years of us being together after years of her naggin! 2 years later we made it happen and it was the greatest day of our lives. It ended up with my shirt being ripped open, my tie on my head and a game of football through the hotel. Anyway one thing lead to another, I have no idea how because I couldn't even fucking see straight but 9 months later, we had our beautiful baby girl in our arms and this changed our lives forever. Little Lottie was the most amazing bundle of joy I had ever seen and she was ours, we felt so lucky! The labour was abit of a rough ride going on for nearly 3 days. As a bloke its hard being in these situations the best of times but this was even worse. You are literally sat there, talking all the lingo, acting like a part time midwife when in reality you haven't got a fucking clue! you are totally helpless and have to just try your best not to worry and fold, just having to put a brave face on for the other half to be laid there, while there talking absolute shit off there head on gas and air. Any lad going through this, or going to be going through it just think it will all be worth it in the end, trust me!

So you've had your little one and all is amazing for the 1st couple of weeks. Well us not doing things in the most normal way, we moved house, a week after lottie was born. probably not the greatest idea but we didn't really have a choice as we was living in a flat before. This put us all under a lot of stress and there was a lot of pressure for all to be sorted as soon as possible. Chels couldn't move or do much as she had a C-section as I'm sure you've all seen in past blogs. This added even more stress onto our recently grown family. Things started to settle a lil and we was getting closer to having our lives all back to normal, well so we thought. Being with Chels for so many years I know her better than anyone in this world, better than she knows herself. You could tell things just wasn't quite right with her. Her mood was 100 mph, she could never rest, you could rarely get a full conversation out of her. Ontop of this she was suppose to be resting and time and time again I would tell her "you need to slow down, you need to stop, things will catch up on you" I worried about her well being, more and more as the days went on. We even went out for a night out for our anniversary, we kept drinking and drinking but chels just could not get drunk. We didn't really think to much into it, later this would make sense to us. Then not long after this. chels would become emotional, upset, tears, feeling unworthy of anything in her life and struggling to accept that there was something going on. These moods become less and less spaced out and become more of a regular thing. Me being me I would never want to worry her, no matter how bad of a situation I just would calm her down and tell her not to panic, things would all be fine. I couldn't quite understand it all, we had a new home, a gawgus lil baba yet things just wasn't okay. I struggle to cope with her being upset. Inside it kills me but I know I have to put on a brave face to get her through this. Then, a string of 4 days, 4 days of constent emotion. This was overwhelming! chels would have relentless crying and thoughts of self harm, thoughts of self pity and lack of confidence. It felt like Chels became empty, Where was my chels? The chels we all loved, the chels I lived with and would make us laugh everyday, the chels I would come home to and she would do random shit like be playing on my fifa! I felt like id lost her and couldn't understand, neither of us could. Then, one day after these 4 rotten days I got in my car after work to come and received a phonecall......

"Hello is this shaun? we have your wife in a&e we need you to come and meet her here" Obviously I fear the worse, instantly think is it a car crash, has she been hurt, wheres lottie? So I rush to the hospital to find the pair of them, with 2 nurses and our midwife (her name was amy by the way and she was the most amazing midwife we could of wished for through chels pregnancy) turns out chels had had a breakdown, nearly taking her own life with lottie in the car to almost driving off the side of a bridge. lucky for my girls chels swerved last minute and took herself to a safe place, no injuries or crashes. She couldn't take this anymore and enough was enough. I was in shock! I didn't know what to think. Nothing felt real, it was all like a one big blur.  How could this all be happening? Why us, why have we been chosen for all this to of happened to. There was questions asked in the hospital, people monitoring the situation, chels under constant supervision. As all settled slightly it came to a decision I had to have some days off work to look after my girls and get through this thing that
 had took over her. luckily I had summer break just round the corner so I knew this woud help us all and had come at the right time. Then in the upcoming few weeks things were pretty rough, things all started to become real! The harsh reality of everything that had gone on after lottie had been born was starting to hit home. Things were at there worst. It was even to the point were I couldn't go to the toilet without chels having to come with me. I couldn't even leave the house. She could not trust herself in her own skin and alone with her own thoughts any longer. I probably don't tell her very often but this was the toughest time of my life. I felt like one wrong move could tip her over the edge and she would take her own life. Could you imagine your wife turning around to you and saying the words "lets all go together, I think its the best thing to do" on more than one occasion? It all blew my whole world apart. My heart felt like someone was kicking the fuck out of it every single time something would happen. All I could do was just be here for chels, try the best of my ability to make all of this okay. To make sure I had to do whatever it would take to make my chels better again, to make sure that my lil lottie would not be affected by this what so ever and to protect her form any bad. Get your game face on shauny lad, its time to step up!

As time goes on chels speaks to numerous people through phonecalls, has crisis teams on stanby if needed and is reffered to a specialised mental health clinic about 20 mins from where we live. It was then comfirmed she has what looks like post natal depression. How? I thought to myself. You hear about these kind of things and think there bad but never in your craziest thoughts would you think it was as bad as this. The thing that always stuck in my head though was PND would eventually go. This to me was a target that I repeatedly reminded myself of. Chels though at this point felt all this was becoming to much but I had to reassure her this was a step into the right direction and would benefit us as a family, without being her full self our lil world wouldn't work properly. After sessions of tough counciling going in depth about everything leading up to this point, to get to a breakdown, things slowly but surely began to look up. I know it might sound easy writing the recovery in a few short sentences but trust me this aint easy, not one fucking bit! it tore our world in bits. Turned it upside down and a lot of the time never saw a way through all this pain. It even got to a point that I couldn't handle what was going on and had to talk to someone on more than one occasion. Just because its not you, the partner that is going through all this directly don't be ashamed to admit you arnt okay. I wasn't but I used the help that was there because chels could tell I wasn't right! I should of spoke to the people at the hospital more. I think this would of made chels recovery a lot quicker and put her mind at ease. I'm a guy that never shows there emotion and never have. Seeing your
other half in all this pain you at times have know idea what to do. if you say something it could make them worse. If you tell them how you feel will it knock them back and will they blame there selves? its a tremendous amount of pressure to be put on us but we have to be there no matter what. no matter how hard it gets just stick through it and things will get back to normal. In our relationship before all this I think chels saw me cry 3/4 times. Since all this I have cried that in 8 months of the depression, I didn't even cry on our wedding day!

After all the recovery at the hospital and our regular visits we can finally say that chels has been discharged and is on the way up! She is back to her self and our lil world is back on track again. Over the past months we have built up amazing relationships with the girls at the hospital and it was a bitter sweet day as its been the last one officially being signed off from the hospital. we will miss all the girls there and the job they have done for us and will be forever greatful for what you have done for us. You have got our family back on track. By the way the buffet today was the best ive ever had! and to 'PONY' and the nurse (I don't know if you have a nickname sorry) you are diamonds, Their is so many people I want to thank you all know who you are I’d especially like to thank chelsey’s mum and dad for everything they have done for us we couldn’t have done it without you.

I just want to lastly say how proud I am of chels. She's a unreal character made of joy and I'm so so proud of you. One, for being an a amzing mummy and lottie will be so happy when shes older to maybe read this one day and see how brave you are to do it all for us. And two, for overcoming this illness and turning everything around to get back your sparkle, because no one or anything will ever take that away!

Signing off
Lots of love
Mr. Farnsworth