Once your kid gets to 4 or 5, a lot of the smaller moments from the earlier years begin to fade from a parent’s mind. It’s only natural as they keep making new memories and more and more pieces of ‘art’ for you to keep and cherish, ahem, forever. But the first moment you arrived back home with your newborn is etched in stone. We asked moms and dads to describe what they were thinking when they brought home their first baby. As usual with our community, we got A LOT of honest responses!
“What time are the hospital nurses showing up to check on the baby?” — Omar Isidoro
“Oh crap, what do I do now. My wife is the one who read all the books.” — Thomas Chestna
Communication is key to a healthy parent/child relationship so Kristen Knoble got started REALLY early: “I would talk her through everything I was doing…”okay, we are buckling you in the car, we are going to swaddle you in this blanket, we are going to try feeding you from the right breast….oh, no? Okay, we will feed you from the left breast.” I remember always asking my newborn…”is this okay, are you okay?” Like as if she would give me instructions!”
We’re reminded that for a brand new parent, the only thing worse than the crying is the deafening silence: “ Does this thing ever stop crying?! …. ten minutes later when he’s asleep… Are you still alive, move or make noise or SOMETHING!!!” We feel you, Justin LaPorte!
Parents of dogs keep it real for us too:
**MUST KEEP DOG AWAY FROM BABY** — Tom Beech
“Honey, will the bassinet fit in the doghouse?” — Dustin Dirks
I was 16. So, my first thought was, “well, maybe I’ll have time to play video games while she’s sleeping.” I was so wrong” — Pete Connell
Here’s a perfect 4-pack of the common, OMG reaction to bringing home your first baby:
“They just let us LEAVE? How are we going to keep her alive?? What kind of doctors just let a helpless baby go home with clueless people like us?” — Jenny Kazemba Johnson
I can’t believe they let me walk out the hospital with a human being!” — Amanda Kathleen
“This should be illegal – how can they just give this little baby to me and not be worried about her safety when I don’t even know how to hold her.” — Leah Shimmin
”Oh my god we’ve to keep it alive from here on in” — Alan O’Loughlin
But Marvin Vigil reminds us how things change the 2nd time around, “The first one was “I can’t believe they let us bring her home!!” But the second one was more like”we forgot to stop for more diapers”
Justin Cognetti wonders about the greatest unsolved mystery the world has ever known: “How does something so small pee and poo this much?”
“What’s the return/exchange policy on him? Did we remember to get the protection plan/extended warranty because I know I’m gonna drop him a couple times” — Nick Daniels
“Damn where did I leave the receipt?” — Angelo Molina
Don’t judge Nick and Angelo to harshly, you know you’ve thought these same hilarious thoughts at some point!
In the necessity breed invention category, Alannah K Jones got clever to get clean:
“I remember thinking I have to shower what do I do with my son, I can’t leave him in his crib alone I ended up bring the baby swing in the bathroom.”
Larry Brown didn’t even wait to get home before experiencing his ‘what am I doing?’ moment when he got “a lot of strange looks putting his car seat in the car. I had all my weight in that tiny seat and tightened it down it to the point it almost went through the seat to the frame.”
And to every new parents past, present and future, Angel Vazquez sums up this first moment at home perfectly: “I remember that night, as soon as we walked into our room where his crib sat, and thought to myself “Here we go”
What was your first reaction to bringing home your first baby? Keep the conversation going on the Life of Dad Facebook page!
*Flickr photo by Oakley Originals, shared under Creative Commons license.