A surgery nurse came out and said, "Congratulations! Your wife and son are fine." Then ran back inside telling me to wait.

An orderly came out with my wife on a gurney and said, "Congratulations!" My wife said, "αξφδφοςε λφξελςξφ οες φςοεφ" or something like that. I'm not sure, I was pretty exhausted. Then he wheeled her back in to recovery and told me to wait.

After a bit, I don't have any idea how long, my wife's doctor came out and said, "Well that was bloody frightening."

Finally, someone who was on the same page as I was. We sat down and he explained, "Your wife is okay. Your son is okay. You look terrible but you are a dad, and you seem to be okay too. I'd need to run some tests to be sure though."

funny...

breathe...

okay...

So the doctor gave me the run down of what had happened in the last hour or so. I looked at him and nodded in the places I thought were correct. I am not sure if I got it right but he seemed to be satisfied with my level of attention. When he was convinced I had relaxed enough (and to be honest I'm pretty sure he was wound up as well) he simply said, "Lets go meet your son."

With that we went and saw my son for the first time. It was the middle of the night. I had slept two hours in the last two days. It was like the strongest smoothest espresso had been dumped into my head by unhinging the top of my skull.

It was exquisite.

Then he took me to see if my wife was to her room yet. She wasn't but I'm glad he did. I'm sure I couldn't have found it by myself. So he told the nurses I was nearby and took me to my new home for the next few days (and quite a few afternoons since) The Dead Dads Lounge...

There were exhausted sleeping zombified dads sprawled on the couches. He waved his arms and said, "We all were here once. We are dads. Being near is our place."

And with that I realized that I was not alone. Here was a group of people I would never know except to see them sleeping, waiting to go see their families. To have them see me as I shut down and went to the blackness of exhaustion induced sleep. To only later realize we would look back on those days and think, we really are dads, as we watch our little ones grow.

Welcome to my stories of a brand new dad learning the ropes and getting dumped into it before I expected while learning how a NICU really works. Oh, and discovering what it really is to be tired...

January 2^nd, Athens, Greece. How my wife and I started the new year with a bang.