Thoughts of a 2-week-old Daddy

After almost two weeks of hiding in the house, I finally resumed some of my regular activities at the end of the past week. My colleagues and friends were excited to find out how I have been during my absence, especially since I got promoted to daddy during that time.

My answer to them was that it was a very exciting and wonderful experience, but at the same time, I also experienced stress, fatigue, worry and such. It was a mixture of many intense emotions.


I can still remember the moment when I first saw my baby Jia En. It has become one of those vivid memories that got framed and displayed along my memory lane. I was waiting outside the operating room for Pei Tze and the baby to come out. I didn't want to fall asleep as I was afraid that when they come out, they would just go by and miss me. However, the more I tried, the sleepier I got. So after 40min or so of struggling to stay awake, I fell asleep. The next thing I knew was I heard someone calling out my wife's name. I jumped up, and in my half-awoken state, I saw a nurse standing beside a baby cradle. Something in me told me that the baby in the cradle was my baby! I started walking towards the cradle, but that reality still didn't settled in my mind. I was thinking to myself: "This is so surreal! This baby is my baby!"

To be honest, I feel silly that I felt that way then. And to think that I have prepared myself for that day for 9+ months. I guess seeing and touching and holding made me realized things I never realized before. I felt very amazed that there was now another human being that was so deeply related to me.

I stayed in that moment of overwhelming emotions for quite a while. So long that even when my wife came out of the operating room some 30minutes later, I was still seen grining from ear to ear....hee...time definitely stood still for me that day.