By Michaela Gordoni
HOME TOWN star Ben Napier is sharing the “scariest thing” about being a first-time parent.
“I have two warnings and one piece of advice for first-time parents, things that were never told to me,” he told Country Living in a recent interview.
“My first warning is — and I may sound like an idiot for saying it — the first night home from the hospital is the absolute scariest thing you will go through,” Napier said. “We had been in the hospital for two or three days, the baby had spent both nights in the nursery at the hospital — and it was great.”
On the first night, his eldest daughter, Helen, cried all night.
“I was trying to let Erin sleep, sitting on the couch holding Helen, and as long as I kept moving, she wouldn’t cry,” he said.
He also didn’t realize his wife would experience a lot of hormonal changes after the baby was born.
“Your wife has nine months of the craziest hormonal swings ever while she’s pregnant — but then in my mind, it was like, ‘Alright, baby’s here, hormone changes are over!’ And that’s not how it works,” he said.
“I was unprepared for the next three to six months of hormonal changes that were going on. So if you’re a boy who grew up in a house full of boys, just know: That’s coming,” he said.
“Then the advice is to just be gentle with each other,” he said. “Everyone — including the baby — is going to be out of whack.”
Related: Ben Napier Calls Spending Time with Daughter Helen ‘Infinitely More Important’ Than Work
He advises that parents try to be gentle with everyone — and themselves.
“You’re tired, and they’re tired, and maybe you’re hungry, and you’re scared,” the HGTV said. “But it’s going to be okay. Everything is going to be all right.”
He also said you shouldn’t “read into what the world is telling you about, Oh, this is how you should raise your baby.” Napier explained, “Every baby is different and every family is different, and what works for yours may not work for theirs.”
In a Laurel Mercantile blog, he also tells parents they need to learn to sing.
“Learn how to sing or at least pretend like you know how to sing, because when your little girl asks you to sing to her at bedtime, you better be ready,” he said. “Our song is Father and Daughter by Paul Simon. Helen tells everybody that she and I are gonna dance to it at her wedding.”
Ben’s two daughters really are daddy’s girls.
His wife, Erin, said on the TODAY show, “I feel like a lot of my friends are incredibly good at solo moming because their husbands work in a different location from them and so they are used to doing things on their own. But if I have to solo mom without (Ben) for even an hour or two hours, the girls really misbehave and are different.”
Ben definitely takes his role as a dad seriously, and like he says, a little grace, gentleness and patience can go a long way in those early parenting days.
Read Next: ‘We Don’t Fold on Family Time’: Ben and Erin Napier Share Secret to Family Happiness
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