Prince Harry Gets His First Baby Gift as a Dad — and Reveals Archie ‘Slept for the First 24 Hours'
Prince Harry is getting a major lesson in parenthood when it comes to the art of sleeping!
The new dad, who welcomed his son Archie with wife Meghan Markle on Monday, traveled to the Netherlands on Friday to kick off the official countdown to the Invictus Games, and he opened up about his son’s first few days at home.
“He said it’s amazing but it’s hard work. He said that [Archie] slept for the first 24 hours like all babies do . . . and then he woke up,” Harry’s friend JJ Chalmers tells PEOPLE.
“I said to him that when my daughter came home from hospital, three years ago, she slept all the way home and for 10 minutes in the house and she then opened her eyes and never went back to sleep!”
The former Royal Marine met with Harry at the launch of the Invictus Games in The Hague. They have become friends since the first Games in 2014.
“I see the guy with a buzzing smile on his face still. Like any father, he lights up even more when he speaks about his son and how proud he is of his wife and what she’s doing right now in his absence,” Chalmers adds.
The prince is very enthusiastic about the Invictus Games and was determined to be there to help kick off the year-long countdown to the next contest in May 2020.
“It’s remarkable that he’s here,” Chalmers says. “I did say this was his first baby. In some ways it shows you just how much it means to him, to drag himself away, because I know what it’s like being a young father – you don’t want to leave and if he had the choice he would be at home.”
“Like any father he’s learning the hard way that you have to celebrate the moments of joy and endure the rest of it!”
Harry will also be going home with a few gifts for Archie: a new soft rattle toy, some newborn socks with “I love Daddy” written on them and a special Invictus Games onesie for Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
The prince was all smiles as he held the tiny outfit up for the cameras.
