Long Day's Journey into Night

Long Day's Journey Into Night is widely acknowledged as playwright Eugene O'Neill's Magnum Opus premiered in 1956, about a day in the life of a dysfunctional family in Connecticut dealing with various family trauma, but as far as I'm concerned it's the day MJ and our welcomed our baby Yan into the world December 12, 2025. Alternate title: The Longest Day (a film in a totally different genre about D-Day). It started really early in the morning at 5AM when MJ and I set out sleepy-eyed from our home, leaving as a couple but coming home a family. The next few days were a complete blur, with a range of emotions from nervous about meeting the anesthesia doctor who explained the various options available for inserting a spinal block to block out the pain, to being relieved everything was going forward and we would be moving ahead, to waiting for baited breath for hearing our baby coming out of MJ's stomach (wanting that telltale sign of life of baby crying) to elation when finally seeing the baby come through and see us for the first time through the screen (because doctors were still operating on the other side of the screen to stitch MJ up), to getting to touch the baby and being with her, to quiet satisfaction of getting baby back immediately after the pediatrics department was done inspecting her because her APGAR score was high enough to avoid the ICU, to the sudden shock of knowing, "oh shoot parenthood just started" and realizing I was only going on 4 hours sleep, and we were just getting started with the sleep deprivation. Taking care of a newborn is not hard in the sense of "oh shoot rocket science" hard in that most everything is pretty intuitive and just getting tasks done, but the number of things to watch out for and keep in mind and juggle at the same time is hard, especially for the first day when mom just got done with major surgery (if C-section) or gone through labor (if natural) and isn't exactly 100%, and baby could have a number of different things that aren't typical or prevent him/her from eating, or pooping, or sleeping. There's also trying to get breastfeeding done, and learning the delicate art of changing diapers, wiping butt over and over again, checking out the color of the poop to make sure it's right......and if delivering at the hospital like most people do, the endless turnstile of nurses and doctors and hospital administrators coming in to check on the baby. Most of these people are just doing their job and following hospital protocol, but it certainly gets to be a little tedious while in the room to repeat the same answers all the time and check vital signs for the umpteenth time, despite all of the other vital sign readings being very normal and not showing anything concerning. It's a wonder how anybody ever gets any sleep at the hospital, what with the interruptions but also the uncomfortable patient bed that MJ had and a small cot in the corner resembling a footstool more than a couch for me. Oh and always watching the baby. We had some great nurses the first couple days that facilitated the process and answered a lot of questions as well as changed some diapers for us, but I completely understand why some parents want to get out of the hospital as soon as hospital (they do have good lactation experts to help get the breastfeeding process started, and MJ was able to get a bunch of good tips from it.....and the view outside of the hospital room was decent.....it snowed one night, almost to signfiy our Christmas winter miracle! One pet peeve I had was how everyone was trained to say "Congratulations!" upon seeing us even if it was just to take our vital signs. Yes, it's fine to recognize the joyous occasion, but when everyone says it as a matter of routine almost like they've been trained to do it out of obligation, the "Congratulations" loses a bit of meaning, like "Thank you" has in many situations. But enough complaining, now we're parents! It's a wonderful feeling. Baby Girl Yan is everything we could hope for and more. She eats well, poops well, sleeps well, cries but stops crying after predictable remedies to her crying (usually she's hungry) and even smiled on one of the first days. If this is what parenthood is like the whole time, sign me up!- I say naively as we're only barely through the first week and more dangerous times lurk ahead. But we passed one checkpoint: survived the first week of parenthood! (just barely, as some of those long journeys into night the first couple days were not greeted with life-giving, joyous sleep at night, more like continuous monitoring of baby to see if she was hungry or pooped). Those first nights in the hospital were some of the most difficult days just from a sleep deprivatino standpoint I've ever had, sleep deficit compounding like interest into the next night until my body couldn't compensate anymore and got cranky. Both MJ and I were really at wick's end towards the end. And we haven't even talked about the hospital food yet! (TL;DR: it wasn't that bad, but predicatibly plain and surprisingly small quantity).