Life As A New Dad: The Journey

I’ve been thinking about my time as a new dad. Last Father’s Day, I hadn’t had enough time to reflect just yet. It is certainly an understatement that the last 18 months have been the best and most fulfilling time of my life. Having Sebastian has given us so much additional love and motivation. We now have this little human being that is completely dependent on us and it has organically created an even stronger partnership with Olivia & myself. All this being said, it’s tough, scary and extremely tiring. But it’s all worth it.

Preparation

Before Sebastian arrived, I was actually quite relaxed. Not worried or even nervous to be a new dad. It may just be my mellow personality but I tend not get worried about the unknown. Olivia and I were just so excited. We were anxious to meet him and knew we would figure it out as we went along. Throughout the months leading up to Sebastian’s birth, I had many conversations with my Dad, my brothers who are already fathers, and good friends to get their advice on what to expect and frankly, what to do. They are fairly similar to me from a personality perspective, very relaxed and go with the flow. This made me feel even more at ease.

Perspective

The one thing I do wish I did more of in preparation for becoming a dad was read. It would have certainly given me a mix of perspectives and frankly just more things to think about that I simply wasn’t at the time. In particular about raising him in a big city like New York. Olivia talked a bit about that here. There isn’t another city like it. Even though we have managed quite well and know the city in and out, there are certain things we found out along the way to make life easier. It can be challenging getting around the city with a newborn so it would have come in handy to hear from local parents more on tips and tricks.

After all, gaining different perspectives is what we do in our business lives so why not do it in your personal life as well. So, while I didn’t, I would strongly encourage reading and gaining different perspectives, practices, and knowledge prior to welcoming your new little one. Some advice you will choose to put into practice and others you won’t. But more knowledge and options are always a good thing.

Delivery Day

The day Sebastian was born, like most Fathers, was the best day ever. It just seemed like everything went perfect. That morning started off a little crazy though. As we approached the hospital in our cab, there was a long line and cars simply squatting in front. Our cab driver got out of the car and screamed to everyone, “Hey, this lady is having a baby here, get the hell out of the way.” It was like the parting of the Red Sea. We got inside in no time. He was awesome!

I will say that while I was very relaxed throughout, the one thing I was nervous about was Olivia. Would everything go as planned? Would they need to intervene and do a c-section? How would her recovery be? How would she feel? What could I do to help if that happened? She is a champion. Everything worked out great. Both healthy as a horse and we left the hospital two days later. I remember everything about that day and look back on it with so much joy and just thankful for how everything turned out.

Everyday Life

I tend to like structure in my days and when you have a newborn, that for the most part goes out the window. This is particularly true given our line of work but we just made some adjustments (and still are) to be able to maintain our business and take care of Sebastian. The one thing we heard from friends was to not deviate from your life too much. Live your life and bring the baby along. Don’t schedule your life around the baby. This was perhaps the best advice we had received.

I love that we have brought Sebastian pretty much everywhere with us. He is now used to being away from home and it has allowed him to adjust much better to different settings. No trip seems to be the same and rarely are they a walk in the park. However, we have gotten to experience so much with him and we are so grateful for it. Even though he won’t remember any of it, we will have memories and pictures to last a lifetime.

Looking Ahead

Our lives are only getting busier with work so we have some decisions to make for the end of the summer. Daycare or not. We had him in daycare a while back but we missed him too much and were traveling all the time so it just didn’t make sense. Now we are going to have in daycare just a couple days a week and will most likely transition to full time starting in the fall.

We are going to milk every minute with him and I can’t wait for our long trip at the end of the summer. As much as I’m excited, I’m also pretty nervous. Even though he has traveled all over the place already, he still likes being in his comfort zone at home. I honestly don’t know what to expect and it’s frankly kind of scary. Traveling is stressful for all of us, much less a little kid so we shall see how it goes. Either way, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading everyone. Have a great week!

Matt

Olivia Jeanette