Oh, do not say there's no fear involved -- no dad has ever gotten around the "how did I get here and what the heck do I do now?" near panic stuff. Mostly though it's the moments when you find yourself wearing a stupid grin and you just cannot figure out why.
I forgot about how important a watch is. A watch set in 24 hour mode so you can tell whether it's day or night because there will be a lot of times you'll be too tired to care which. But you will care how puke resistant it is.
And a radio or whatnot with really good sound at a very, very low level. Good acoustic blues are nice when you are bedside at 4 a.m. with a kid who has the flu AND is teething. Well, that and you wonder why no one makes disposable shoes (you'll learn why you ask that). You need a good, cheap, toxic waste proof camera. You will want pictures of everything. Pride in your child is one thing but blackmail-payback is every parents pride and joy.
And Kramer5150 you spoiled it! That baby smell is the big secret weapon. Even really big, tough guys get suckered into the smell of an infants head. Makes 'em all goofy. Some woman is going to bottle it and the world will slow down to a crawl (a crawl with a toothless grin that's only for My Daddy to see and your heart will melt and you WILL get a tear in your eye or just plain stop and stand there and cry).
Still stickin' with a good mini light on either a short lanyard or a clip-on. Reading thermometers, checking for the source of that new aroma, and just looking at the child and trying to figure it all out is what makes it all come together. There comes a time when maybe about 2 lumens is the perfect amount of light to let you discover that you have found out that you are standing very, very close to the exact center of the universe. No matter what tint that light has, it will suddenly take on a soft, golden glow.
