Welcoming our new babies

Our house is all a twitter. We haven’t had a newborn baby in it in more than a decade and now we have two. Oh, what a joyous surprise. 

They’re beautiful like all babies are. They’re soft and fluffy and have that smell that only newborns can have. They need constant attention and food. My wife is doing well. She’s exhausted, but can’t stop smiling. There is a minor catch: I’m not sure how to put this delicately, but the babies were a complete surprise. We thought we were done with having children, but it just goes to show you that life has a way of making things interesting. 

I’ve been a bit rocked by the newborns too. When our oldest daughter was born, I must admit that the first few days overwhelmed me. They were unlike anything else that I had ever experienced. I went from joyous tears to fear in no time flat. She had entered the world only minutes earlier and in that moment I knew that I would do anything for her. She had my heart, my emotions, my being wrapped around her precious little pinky. 

When she was born, she was a bit jaundiced and had to sleep in a lighted vest. It’s actually pretty common, but this was new for me and quite scary. I was used to worrying about myself and my wife, but now this little ball of softness had me up in arms. I was worrying all the time. Was I holding her too tight. Was I holding the bottle the correct way? Was I too tough wiping her little bottom? Was she going to be healthy? 

I think I scared my wife because I was so on edge. She had never seen me like this. As time went on we got better and by the time we had baby number two, we were better, but it was still scary. When we left the hospital after our second child, I drove so slowly on the highway that my wife had yell from the back seat that I might want to speed up or I was going to cause an accident. Hey, I got a baby here, I yelled at the other drivers. 

With baby number 3 we were used to the pregnancy thing, we were old pros by this time. We had our bags packed well in advance of any contractions and when my wife started delivery she was the one giving the nurses direction. We knew our stuff. 

But we’ve been out of practice. As I mentioned earlier, we haven’t had a newborn in the the house in years. My wife though has been resilient and fell right back into the old routine. She checks on the babies every few minutes. She’s quite protective as you might expect. She oohs and aahs and gives me constant updates. She’s sent out pictures of the babies and watched over them like a hawk. She’s such a great mother. 

I guess I should mention, it’s not our babies, she’s checking on. 

No In-Vitro Fertilization, no egg donor, no adoption, none of that. No, my wife has been checking on the Robin family, including two baby Robins that have taken up nest in the rafter of our deck. The birds tweet, tweet constantly during the day. 

My wife stops to check on the robins every time she goes out to the deck. She gives me a play by play on their progress. We havent’ had babies in a long while, but it’s great to remember our lives as new parents. We can look back now with a fresh perspective. 

My wife likes to check on babies, but shoos me away from spending too much time because the mother and father don’t like it when we’re on the deck. They flitter and fly around trying to get us to go inside. 

Yea, I don’t know much about birds, but I can instantly relate to the mother and father Robin. Life as a parent of a newborn is tough business. Your job never ends.

Good luck Robin family.