When my first boy was born, I had the usual "switch" go off at the precise moment of birth, going from a purely selfish existence to one in which your only focus is on keeping this new person alive and thriving - that in itself was an amazing experience. When he was born, though, he wasn't breathing properly for whatever reason so they rushed him off to the baby ICU, it was the single scariest experience of my life and I've never felt more helpless before or since. He was in the ICU for around 6 hours whilst they regulated his breathing and got him set up for his new life. I got to bring him back to his mother - much emotion as you can imagine.
I'll never forget the feeling, though, there's no escaping emotion like that, so vivid and real, extremely scary!
Anyway, he was fine and my second went much smoother, thankfully. They're now mostly annoying and fight constantly with each other, little bastards!
Woah you know, reading near-death experiences like this really put the struggles of parenting into perspective. Will hug my kids harder later. Thanks for sharing
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