A Look Back: Our First Days as Parents

Our first days as parents are a bit of a blur to me. If you’ve read Jack’s Birth Story, you know I had a pretty scary labor and delivery story that ended with an unexpected c-section and a perfectly healthy baby boy. So in those first days, not only was I learning how to be a parent, I was also recovering from 10 hours of labor followed by major surgery.

After they made sure I was stable, they wheeled Jack in his bassinet and I in my bed, with Jon walking next to us, to the room where we would spend the next 4 days (you automatically stay in the hospital for 4 days after a c-section rather than the typical 1-2 days after a vaginal delivery).

There waiting for us were both sets of our parents and my older sister. This was probably one of my favorite moments ever, when everyone got to meet Jack after months of waiting for him and the past 16 hours of a roller coaster of emotions. They rolled us into our room and I finally got to say, “Everyone, meet Jack Brian Stiles.” We had kept his name to ourselves to announce once he was born. Jon has always wanted to name his firstborn son Jack and I chose Brian after my dad, so his name was and is very special to us.

Between the relief that he was okay, the fact that none of us had gotten really any sleep, and finally meeting him, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Each grandparent got a moment to hold him and then my sister. It was beautiful to watch each of them meet this sweet little boy who we’d been waiting to meet for so long and who gave us quite a scare right at the end there.

After that, I’m honestly not 100% sure what happened. My husband said everyone left to give us time alone and hopefully rest. I was so happy and exhilarated that our son was finally here and safe in my arms, but also the sleep-deprivation and exhaustion from the past 16 hours was seriously catching up to me.

The next 4 days in the hospital included Jack’s first bath, learning how to breastfeed, my milk coming in at full force (!), a lot of pain and pain medication, the sweetest skin-to-skin time for Jack with both myself and my husband, my husband’s twin sister visiting, a few friends from church visiting, extreme exhaustion and time of not feeling up to any visitors, getting woken up at 5 or 6am by doctors doing their rounds to see me and Jack, changing lots of diapers, learning how to take care of Jack after his circumcision, Jon taking care of Jack between feedings so I could get a little sleep, eating my first Jimmy John’s sandwich in 9 months (I’d been craving one since I couldn’t eat deli meat while pregnant), Jack’s hearing test, getting Jack’s birth certificate information taken care of, realizing none of us had enough clothes since we didn’t expect to stay so long plus a myriad of bodily fluids getting all over the clothes we did have, my mom and sister doing laundry for us and bringing clean clothes back for us, taking a few walks through the hallways with Jack in his bassinet, getting room service (the hospital food was actually pretty good!), and just finally getting to spend time with this sweet little baby boy we had waited so long for.

We were finally discharged home on July 1, 2019. My husband did so well driving us home on the not so great streets of Worcester, MA and we finally pulled into our home. As soon as we walked in we introduced Jack to our 3-year-old puppy, Scout, who was not so sure about him. Then we settled back into our home. That night we went for our first family walk with Jack in the bassinet attachment of his stroller just to the end of the road and back (that's as far as I could go at that point before being in too much pain).

The next few days we just settled into a new routine of nursing every 1-2 hours, Jack taking turns napping on different people, enjoying all of the baby snuggles, my mom and husband making sure I stayed fed, my dad mowing our lawn, and my mom and husband making sure laundry was kept up with and any cleaning that needed to be done was done. We celebrated Jack's first Fourth of July and one of my closest friends came over to say hi and got some really cute pictures of us.

My parents finally left to go back to Vermont on on July 6, 2019 and then it was just us, our family. The rest of the summer was a dream. Jon was on school break so we got to just focus on our new little family. We worked as a team, during the night I would nurse Jack on one side, Jon would change his diaper, then I would nurse on the other side and put him back to bed in his bassinet. We slept in his room for the first 3 months so we were right there with him. I had a terrible fear of SIDS and though we had the Angelcare movement sensor, I was still terrified and woke up frequently. So I would nap while Jack napped during the day, and Jon would bring him to me when he needed to nurse since we didn't give him a bottle for the first month. My husband was incredible. He changed so many diapers, made sure all of the laundry, cleaning, and cooking were done, made sure I was doing okay as I recovered from surgery and made sure I was okay mentally as well. We also went to Jack's first doctor's appointment and he was already almost back to his birth weight (that boy loves his milk)!

We were in true baby bliss. We just wanted to take the time to enjoy every moment with this sweet, little boy after a not so easy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. We had a few visitors, including my aunt and family friend who is basically family, Kristina. Kristina owns Kristina Nalette Photography and has captured our engagement, wedding, maternity photos, and surprised us by taking some newborn pictures of Jack during her visit. While she claims she's not a newborn photographer, she captured some of the most precious photos of our baby boy.

Our first days of parents brought a lot less sleep, plenty of crying, and a lot of fear when nighttime came. But it also brought my husband and I together as we worked as a team to learn how to take care of this sweet baby boy who God had blessed us with the responsibility of raising. In those first days, I don't think we could have felt more in love with each other or our new baby boy. I will cherish that special time we had forever.