Henrik and Mommy
Parenting has been quite a ride and it’s only been 2 weeks. It’s amazing that you instinctively know (to a certain point) what to do when and how to do it. One of these things has been changing diapers.
Prior to Henrik, I’ve only changed diapers of infants that were probably 6 months or older… but definitely not a newborn. The idea totally intimidated me and I was already depending on the Honyuk for this one. You see, he has WAY more experience in the baby department than I do. He is amazing with children and they gravitate towards him. He loves being around our nieces and nephews and it is quite clear they love being around him. He has way more logged hours than I do.
So this brings me to one of my favorite memories right after Henrik’s birth and we were still in the hospital.
It was about 3 am when I had just finished feeding Henrik. The Honyuk offered to change his diaper for me because I was still having trouble moving around from the C-section. I watched from the bed as the Honyuk prepared his materials and approached the bassinet. Everything was typical… poopy diaper, content baby, experienced dad and then the fun began. As the Honyuk had Henrik’s legs held up, he started to say, “Oh man… I think he is going to poop.” Sure enough he did. For those of you not familiar with newborns first poops, they are like tar or think of really thick BBQ sauce. It starting oozing out of his back end as the Honyuk grabbed wet wipe after wet wipe trying to keep up. I sat on my bed chuckling at the sight as the Honyuk made it through the episode. The best part was in a rookie move, he had the wet wipes to his right and the trash bin way over to his left. This was not the time to have these two things at opposite ends.
Henrik and Daddy
Just when you thought it was over… the Honyuk starting repeating, “Oh man! I think he is gonna do it again.” This time I started telling him just put the diaper under him and let him have at it. Instead, the Honyuk kept Henrik’s legs high, to avoid the mess, and frantically tried to keep up with round 2. Again, we laughed.
Now we all know the famous phrases: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me” and “All things come in 3.” I instantly thought of them as the Honyuk surveyed the situation only to start saying, “Oh Man! He is going AGAIN!” To which I again said put the diaper under him. But this time… in the midst of trying to keep up on the back end… Henrik decided it was time to baptize his dad and a stream of pee went high in the air. At this point I’m literally laughing and holding my gut because it hurt so bad. I quickly (as much as I could) got out of bed and together we dealt with the situation… laughing along the way.
That is the best part about all of this… learning to parent. I can now change a diaper with one eye closed by the light of Henrik’s turtle nightlight. I feel more confident in myself. Some of it is instinct, some of it is reading everything I could get my hands onto, but most of it is having the Honyuk and laughter.
People often ask how we are doing. We get tired, but we make it happen. We are learning our schedules and how to juggle our time. We learned how to communicated even better and how to laugh at ourselves. Most of all we are a family and we are there for each other. I made up a poem that I say to Henrik all the time:
I love you more than there are stars in the sky.
I love you more than there are fish in the sea.
I love you more than there are songs on the Earth.
Because you made us a family.
I love my family and I can’t wait to add more stories.
The Athlete's Foot 