She’s Here!
Posted on Oct 8, 2012 by Trevor in Being Dad
My precious little daughter Harper came two weeks early, healthy and happy. I wanted to quickly jot down a few simple thoughts about her first couple of days.- Having a doula (labor coach) accompany us was such a good idea. She helped my wife stay calm, in control, unmedicated, and mobile for as long as possible, which we believe contributed greatly to the speedy labor. I was really proud of my wife’s efforts.
- In the final part of the delivery process when my wife was pushing, I stood by her waist and helped pull one of my wife’s legs toward her chest. I wasn’t sure if I’d be queasy or shocked or even able to watch all the details of the birth, but I was surprised to find out I didn’t have the slightest discomfort with it. I suppose that’s a side benefit of having watched over a dozen video clips of other births.
- As the hospital staff cleaned up my newborn daughter, I stood close by and watched her. I’m convinced that a talented special effects artist could create an animatronic robot that seemed just as lifelike. Her first movements were so mechanical and random.
- My first time ever (yes, ever) changing a diaper was in front of a nurse and my wife, who sat and watched me, almost daring me to admit I had no idea what I was doing as I cluelessly wiped that sticky Hershey’s chocolate syrup off a squirming baby and tried to figure out how to not make a complete mess of everything.
- It turns out my cousin, who’d spent about 24 years living right next door to me, was three doors down from us in the newborn section because his wife gave birth earlier in the day.
- My baby hardly cries at all. I’ll be one happy man if this is a sign of things to come.
- I installed my first car seat ever and was congratulated by the hospital car-seat-checker person for being in the 1 out of 5 people that do so correctly on their first try. (It was actually very simple once I read what was supposed to happen.)
- I’m still waiting for it to hit me that I’m actually, really, truly a dad and that this past weekend wasn’t some weird Total Recall dream scenario.
Jenn
Oct 9th, 2012
K, I know I’m a random internet stranger who blurks on your blog but I can’t not comment on this one. Congratulations, she’s beautiful! And so much hair! Enjoy those first few weeks- there is nothing else like it. They generally start to “wake up” more and be a bit higher-maintenance around week 3.
N8 and JME Vberg
Oct 12th, 2012
She is beautiful, Pev. Congratulations! It is such a fun adventure. Ours is about four months and it is still pretty dreamlike most of the time. It is also quite the learning experience but thankfully babies are pretty resilient and can handle a lot of the things new parents do wrong as we learn how it all works. Hope you are okay with us following you on your website. It was nice to find you on here and see your good news.