I’m going to talk about my first day as a parent.
Near the end of the pregnancy, we were told that X1 had polyhydramnios. For those of you who didn’t bother clicking on the link, polyhydramnios is a condition where there is too much amniotic fluid during the pregnancy. In the case of X1, this meant that Kid 1 (fetus 1 at that point?) wasn’t dropping the way babies do near the end of the pregnancy as they are getting ready to be born. So at the last (or may be the next-to-last) doctor’s visit, the OB (obstetrician) tells us he’s going to schedule a cesarian section delivery.
I had heard of c-sections before so it didn’t seem so drastic, and this was a decision being made before ever stepping foot in the delivery room so it made sense. It took a little bit of the “we’re having a baby!” shenanigans that you’d see in an old sitcom away but it didn’t make things any less drastic. The last appointment was on a Thursday or a Friday (i want to say Friday) so the delivery was scheduled for the following Monday. As were leaving, the OB pulls me aside and says: “Of course if her water breaks before then, you need to get her to the hospital as fast as you can since it can be life threatening for both mom and the baby”.
No pressure or anything.
Thankfully, the next 60 hours were uneventful and we went to the hospital on Monday morning. As first-time parents, i don’t think either of us really understood that when we would leave the hospital in a few days, we would be bringing home the ultimate “plus one”. My parents made the trip down from Michigan, basically coming right from the airport to the hospital.
I remember they were completing the delivery and seeing our son for the first time and i had my “holy shit” moment. X1 saw him briefly, but she was heavily drugged with her arms in the “Jesus Christ pose” for surgery; so I went to the back with Kid 1 as they cleaned and wrapped him up to keep him warm.
From there he was off to the natal unit (?) where they would monitor him for a bit and get his temperature up. They place him in this thing that i can only describe as a plastic tote with a pad in it. The way he was swaddled, it looked like they had just paced on oversized burrito onto a lunch cart for delivery. We made our way down the hall – pretty quickly I may add – and passed the waiting area where my parents were. I didn’t even see my Mom, and I only had enough time to say “Hey Dad! Look what we found in X1!”
The Old Man had an awesome sense of humor. I know this isn’t true, but I feel like he was telling Dad Jokes before Dad Jokes were even thing. I figured he would appreciate this wise-ass remark from me.
Once X1 and Kid 1 stabilized and everything slowed down, I would go back and forth from home to the hospital. Mostly, that was to let the dogs out, but it also helped me to decompress and process everything. It was late March in the Lowcountry so the weather was already quite nice. I was casually driving down I-26 with my windows down and “Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta” by the Geto Boys in my CD player. I felt larger than life and I hadn’t even done anything! As far as i was concerned, I was the king of the world. I had become a dad that day! The lines ” ‘Cause now I got the world swingin’ from my nuts / And damn, it feels good to be a gangsta” were epitomized how was feeling.
Overnight, my perception of the entire universe changed. Everywhere i looked, everything I saw, I was now thinking “how will this affect my son?” I immediately had a newfound admiration for my grandparents. Maybe this was because my parents had just become grandparents themselves. It had occurred to me that for as much of a mind-job as having a kid myself was; it must be utterly surreal to be a parent and see YOUR children having children themselves.
A few days later I would be bringing both X1 and kid 1 home. This was another mind-scramble. No instruction manual. No how-to video. We now had an occupant for that car seat in the back. We entered the hospital as a married couple and were leaving as a family. There is no experience in this world that prepares you for that car ride home. My mind immediately switch to another Geto Boys lyric “now i got a little boy to look after” from the song “Mind Playing Tricks on Me”
In the days and weeks to come, X1 and I would become estranged from the act of restful sleeping. We would close our eyes and we would render ourselves unconscious. However it is debatable if what we were getting was actual, restful sleep. But that’s another story for another day.
Tell me about your first day of school, at a job or as a parent. What were you thinking and how did you feel?
Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, follow and comment below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts below…
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The article “Feeling like the Geto Boys” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.
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