Last Thursday, March 3rd, my wife gave birth to an absolutely beautiful baby girl. It came a few weeks earlier than we expected, but at this point we wouldn’t want it any other way. We were just supposed to go in for an external cephalic version, our baby was breech and they were going to manually flip her. Our doc decided to do a pelvic exam and discovered that my wife was 4 cm dilated and showing some clear signs of early labor. He thought we could go ahead with the version, but then his staff stepped in and performed an exam and said “I think the version is not a good idea at this time, as a matter of fact I think we should take you in for a c-section very soon”. You can imagine how shocked we were to hear that. I honestly did not go to bed last Wednesday thinking I would be a dad the next day, I knew it was a possibility, but the chance was supposed to be very small.
As those of you who are parents on this forum can attest to, I have gone through a whole host of emotions/feeling/states of mind over that past 6 days to include fear, anxiety, elation, pride, fatigue (extreme fatigue), absolute joy, and on and on and on. You know, you always hear “Yeah, well just wait until you have kids, then you’ll understand.” I always poo-pooed that and said to myself, "Yeah I don’t think so, I’ll never do ____ (fill in any number of cheesy things that parents do on a daily basis that those without kids just don’t understand).
One of my favorite quotes is now my tagline, and it rings so true with me right now, my perspective has totally changed. Case in point, the morning after my daughter was born, I was making some coffee and I thought to myself “I need to get one of those coffee mugs that has my daughter’s face silkscreened on it.” As I was thinking it, I was shocked, but that doesn’t change the fact that I still want one of those cups. I have only been a father 6 days, and I could already go on and on with stories of how my perspective has changed, although I’m still not ready for the “World’s Greatest Dad” t-shirts or funky Father’s Day ties, but I have a few years for that.
This is going to be a fun ride!
Actually even got a workout in yesterday, my first in a week. Not sure where I mustered up the energy, but it felt so good to get out there. Of course all I thought about was my daughter and how cool it will be to take her to races (mine and hopefully hers).
Okay, well I’ve been on the computer for about an hour now, that means it’s time to wake up my wife to begin the feeding process again. I’m exhausted, I can only imagine how my wife feels. She’s such a trooper, I have always said that she is much tougher than I am, she is definitely proving that this week.
