Photo by Courtesy Photo

Mr. Matthew Stewart, debate teacher, lays with his newborn child.

Mr. Matthew Stewart, debate teacher, welcomed a daughter on Sept. 16, making him a father of two girls. Compared to his first daughter’s birth, Stewart and his wife felt less prepared this time around.

“Our first daughter was born during Christmas break, so we had the whole break to get ready and set things up. This one was a bit harder because it’s in the middle of the school year,” Stewart said. “We didn’t have the nursery set up until maybe the week that our daughter was supposed to be born, compared to months in advance with our first child. So yeah, it felt a little bit more rushed. But also, I feel like we were a lot more calm about it.”

After COVID hit, the local daycare Stewart’s first daughter attended became inconsistent and the prices were expensive which led them to switch to family for daycare. Once Stewart’s wife returns to work, his sister-in-law will watch his daughters.

“We’re fortunate that my sister-in-law is staying at home right now because she has two kids as well. And she’s kind of in the region. So we’ve been able to use family to take care of our kids,” Stewart said.

After his youngest was born, he returned to work within three days, around the end of the six-week mark which caused difficulties for Stewart. He finds the balance between school and home life difficult– attempting to reconcile his fatherly duties with his working schedule, and how to separate the two.

“It’d be cool if we had things like maternity leave that were mandatory,” Stewart said.

Along with Mr. Stewart, amid a busy band season Band Director Andrew Nance welcomed his first child, a boy, on Oct. 19. He was allotted 15 days off of school, which started the day before his son was born.

“Bringing a new life into the world kind of helped me reassess my priorities. In that when I’m here, I’m working and when I’m not working on spending time with my new kid,” Nance said.

Regarding preparation, Nance and his wife had all the supplies they needed. They built and set up the baby’s room making it all ready for him to come home from the hospital, however, they didn’t know how to prepare for the change their lives were about to endure, physically and emotionally.

“I don’t know if we were truly prepared for what it was like him coming into our lives and just the adjustment that was going to take. So I don’t know if anyone’s truly prepared,” Nance said. “My sleep schedule is wildly off. I get about six hours a night if I’m lucky, but never six hours straight.”

Similar to Nance, Stewart’s had to adapt to a new sleep schedule. His youngest daughter wakes up almost every hour, although thankfully her sleeping schedules are becoming more consistent and things are mellowing out now. Stewart realizes the importance of prioritizing his sleep in order to succeed at work for his students. Stewart finds the most downtime for himself on weekend nights after he gets his oldest daughter to bed around 7:30. He uses this time to decompress and do whatever he needs to get done.

“She now is on a day-night sleep schedule. She was reversed for a little bit and that was a nightmare,” Stewart said. “Reconciling that has been a huge thing. I think, okay, well I need to at least be awake for work so that I don’t fall asleep on the job here. My sleep schedules have been pretty consistent and fine, but only in the context of if I didn’t, I’d be failing here.”