The First Week

becoming a dad, changing priorities, slowing down.

My life has changed a lot in the last week—my daughter is now one week old!

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into the hospital for her delivery, but it was much different than I had envisioned. Maybe it was just our labor (53 hours for my wife, who is so strong), or maybe that’s how it always is with inductions, but I experienced such a vast number of emotions during it that I still haven’t processed them. I also feel like I have to get some stuff off of my chest.

First off, inductions suck. I know they’re necessary, but using Pitocin to artificially mimic labor is, of course, going to lead to a lot of women experiencing the so-called cascade of interventions. Like most things in healthcare, there’s got to be a better way.

Second. The fetal monitoring. Why do they make it so difficult? I know they need to be the most accurate, but we have rings that accurately measure our pulse, O2, glucose, steps, movement, sleep, etc., and yet laboring mothers are still stuck with giant bands going across their stomach? What year do we live in? Someone build some small stick-ons already.

Alright, now that I’ve gotten those two things out of the way, I can get on to the actual important topics. Namely, my wife and daughter are healthy.

My wife is an absolute rockstar. Even though almost everything on her birth plan was thrown out (luckily she didn’t need a c-section), she still rolled with every punch. And she took a lot. I have no idea how women do it, but it’s incredible.

My daughter is perfect. Her name is Magnolia Jean Duncan. We call her Maggie a lot, and we’ll see what she likes as she gets older. She’s the most precious thing I’ve ever seen.

My pets are both obsessed and unsure about her. My golden retriever, Willis, has to follow her everywhere we go. He’s a great supervisor. My cats are a little more trepidatious, but they’ve both laid by her already. I’m excited to see their relationship as she grows.

I wanted to write this as something of a diary entry. I haven’t decided if I’ll do it every week or not, but I’d like to try.

It’s the best gift in the world being a dad. It’s tiring, sure, but there’s literally nothing like holding your own child in your arms as they sleep.

Life makes more sense now.

Thanks for reading,

-Bruce