When I got pregnant and we thought about having a baby girl, I expected he would be pretty involved. But then we all know that we did not have the typical baby experience. What did it mean? It means he has had to step up to the plate to be highly involved. There is just too much to do with Luca for him to take a back seat. Sure I am home with Luca during the day. But when Ian gets home after a full day at work, he and I work together to get everything taken care of. I imagine he is much more involved with her than he would have been had she not had medical hurdles.
He really is into parenting with his entire heart. He gets home and takes over so that I can pump and get dinner out. He takes care of all of her meds every night, so that they are ready for me the next day. We take turns doing bedtime. He preps her feeding pump every night. He takes care of sending out our bills. I never have to handle the trash or recycling. He takes the 3am and 6am diaper changes, and adds food to her feeding bag overnight at the 3am. He gives her morning meds before he leaves for work. He lets me sleep in every single weekend.
And the way he is with Luca makes my heart melt. You know when you see a Dad with his daughter and it makes you all "awwww", yeah that's totally my reaction everyday when I see him care for her. He is gentle and sweet. He consoles her. He talks to her. He laughs his head off at any and every thing she does. He raises and lowers his voice in animation when he reads to her.
Oh, and let's not forget that he got cut open and gave a portion of his liver to save her life. No big deal.
I got him a new coffee mug (he drinks a lot of coffee these days!) with pictures of him and Luca together. Then I got this picture framed. It's one of the first photos of Luca with her Dad just minutes after she was born. I hope he had a great day!
I still laugh about when Ian was telling Jeremy about the things he didn't realize when it comes to parenting a baby girl (most notably the whole concept of wiping front to back).
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