Transition to first-time fatherhood involves men embarking on uncertain personal journeys which are characterised by less clear trajectories than for women becoming mothers. This in part results from their physical bodies outwardly remaining unchanged through the antenatal period and so the signals and markers of pregnancy which shape women's transition, and others' responses, are absent. The term ‘expectant mother’ is instantly recognisable and conjures up visual images associated with pregnant female bodies but ‘expectant father’ is more obscure and clear images and associations are not readily evoked by these words. This confusion can symbolise men's own experiences of the antenatal period as they prepare to become fathers: both seeking ways to demonstrate ‘appropriate’ support and engagement and also feeling detached and at times excluded. In this chapter – and the three which follow – the empirical data are prioritized as the focus turns to men's own accounts of transition to first-time fatherhood. The themes identified here will be traced through subsequent chapters so that the interplay and fluidity of gender, discourses, agency and structure can be followed through transition. Using the categories employed in the empirical chapters in the earlier motherhood book (Miller, 2005) this chapter will examine the ways in which men's experiences of anticipation and associated behaviours are narrated and organised around the interrelated categories of preparing appropriately, anticipating the birth, shifting selves, and being a father and fatherhood.