Schreiner welcomes new baby, experiences, memories
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English teacher Logan Schreiner and his wife Destiny nervously chatted with family members on her baby’s expected due date, Dec. 27. The pair had been anxious about the baby arriving too early that it disrupts Christmas festivities, or too late that their relatives would already return home and miss the birth. An hour after the discussion, Destiny’s water broke.
This represented nothing short of a “crazy” yet “strange” experience.
“I felt like it was action time and I needed to do a bunch of stuff,” Schreiner said, “but we ended up staying at home that night [and] I finished making dinner. It’s not like the movies where you have to head to the hospital right away, but I still felt like we had to get all this stuff ready.”
Two days of labor not only welcomed a baby but also a new lifestyle. From a new sleeping cycle to a different daily routine, Schreiner is constantly adapting and adjusting to his new life as a father.
“Everything’s constantly changing,” Schreiner said. “It’s exhausting but also interesting. It’s easy to settle into your own life and do your thing for a long time and not notice time passing, but that will not be the case with the little one. All of these normal things that you do automatically, you [now have] to talk about and decide on.”
Schreiner returned from his three weeks of paternal leave after his daughter, Aurelia, was born. During his leave, he constantly checked emails and uploaded his lesson plans onto Google Classroom. Although he has now returned to work, Schreiner misses being with his daughter and wife.
“It’s hard to be away from Aurelia,” Schreiner said. “My wife has been spending her first few days alone with Aurelia. That can be pretty difficult [and] I wish I could support my wife a little more.”
Schreiner anticipates many more memorable firsts after giving Aurelia her first bath and seeing her first few smiles. He has also realized the weight of this newfound responsibility of caring for another human life.
“Having to take care of another helpless person is really strange,” Schreiner said. “When there’s constantly someone who needs you, you have to be aware and intentional. It’s an exhausting but weirdly beautiful experience.”
