Michael Phelpsâ fiancĂ©e Nicole Johnson celebrated her first Motherâs Day yesterday. Last Thursday, Nicole and Phelps welcomed their son, Boomer Robert Phelps. In November, Phelps, who is training for his last Olympic Games, told the world they were expecting a son. In April, friends and family celebrated with a cowboy themed baby shower. Finally, on Saturday, Phelps introduced us to his son via the Instagram post above. Everyone is healthy and wrapped up in newborn bliss.
Their little championâs here! Michael Phelps and his fiancĂ©e, Nicole Johnson, welcomed their first child together, a baby boy, on Thursday, May 5.
The Olympic gold medalist shared a precious black-and-white photo of his family on Instagram a few days later, on Saturday, May 7.
âWelcome Boomer Robert Phelps into the world!!!!Born 5-5-2016 at 7:21 pm!!!! Healthy and happy!!!! Best feeling I have ever felt in my life!!!â the athlete captioned the snapshot. â@nicole.m.johnson and Boomer both healthy!!! #boomerphelps.â
In the image, the towering 6-foot-4 athlete cradles the sleepy newborn in his arms while proud mama Johnson looks on from a hospital bed in the background.
The pair first announced their exciting pregnancy news via Instagram on Wednesday, November 18, and Phelps, 30, has been candid about looking forward to fatherhood ever since.
âOne of the coolest things about being a father going into Rio is that our firstborn has the chance to see my last race ever,â the 22-time medalist told Us Weekly in March. âI think thatâs something thatâll be really special that weâll be able to share stories with him, you know, from the time he gets old enough to realize, and Iâm excited to have a lot of photos and just to share the moments and memories with him growing up as a kid.â
So Boomer⊠I donât know. Itâs a cute nickname. I admit bias because I am a football fan so the first thing I think of is Boomer Esiason and although Boomer is fine as a person, rivalry requires I cringe at his name. The only clue Phelps gave about his son’s name prior to his birth is that both he and Nicole agreed on the name and that it was different. The name means âloud and notable.â If I know anything about kids, you donât need to suggest the concept of being loud; they figure it out too soon on their own. As a Dutch surname, “Boomer” means one who operates a sluice gate so there is a water connection, intentional or not. His middle name Robert is in honor of Phelps coach, Bob Bowman, which is truly lovely given his influence in Michael’s life. Can you just imagine how ecstatic grandma Debbie is right now?
Phelps backed out of the Atlanta trials this week for the birth of his son but he is training in Arizona and according to Bob, heâs in the best shape of his life. And now he has a new supporter to cheer him on when he gets to Rio. Congratulations Michael and Nicole!
Photo credit: Getty Images and WENN Photos
Now will someone explain why in the hell he’s half-naked in that picture? No need to take your shirt off to show us your newborn, dude, we’ve seen you before. Talk about making the picture all about him — I’m surprised they didn’t ‘shop the new mom out of it…
As for the name — terrible. Maybe the baby can go by his middle name when he’s older.
I can explain it as a postpartum doula, he’s doing very necessary skin to skin contact just hours after the baby is born. Kangaroo care, it helps newborn babies stabilize, it helps them form an early bond with their fathers, and if kept up over the first few months of life, it can have a wealth of positive benefit for both the baby and the father in terms of feeling safe, the ability to soothe with dad.
All of the babies I’ve seen born into the work have very similar pictures of half naked dads holding their babies on their chests. It was the first thing I noticed, aww he’s doing the good ole skin to skin.
Not buying it in this case. All he has to do is roll up his sleeves for skin-to-skin contact, not strip down to his shorts.
Alix; okay don’t buy it. However I am working with twins and a single dad right now and I just glanced over at the mantle and sure enough there is a photo of him in his hairy chest glory with his twins on his chest. It’s far more common than you think, but you seem to have a thing with Michael.
However, the fact is nowadays the first few days of postpartum I can not explain to you how many families I work with where I show up the day they’re home for the hospital and both mom and dad are in various states of undress.
A commenter on another site mentioned that the skin to skin contact helps the baby bond.
I learn something new everyday!
Definitely skin to skin contact. And I’m not sure how rolling up his sleeves would achieve that. Often times its on the chest close to the heart. Moms and dads do this quite often. Nothing to see there
I buy the skin-to-skin explanation only up to a certain point. Why is Mom (who is stunning, BTW) so out of focus? Couldn’t it be a nice picture of all three of them?
I think she’s out of focus because of the composition of the shot. She’s further away so it’s not possible to give them equal focus. I like how she wasn’t cropped out, it easily could have been a photo of dad and son.
And maybe I’m feeling generous but I buy the skin to skin contact thing. Sweet.
Um because it’s a special moment for baby and father. I’m sure they have cute family photos too as well as pictures of just mom and baby.
Such a sweet picture, I love it. Why does it bother you so much that he has his shirt off?
I’m definitely not bothered by the fact that an Olympic swimmer in the best shape of his life has his shirt off. He can have his shirt off. Plus BAYBEH, it’s so damn adorable that I’m melting. Love this idea of skin to skin contact. Mommy is beautiful and lucky.
It’s such an adorable picture, how can anyone not like it? Nice to see some male flesh for once, Lord knows we see enough of the Kardashian clans goodies.
There’s the skin to skin contact that other’s have mentioned (against the chest near the heart is best-is prob also why mom is basically just covered with a sheet for the photo).
I also heard that she did some laboring in a birthing pool, so he might have been in the water with her.
It helps to regulate their body temperature. It was a requirement for us postpartum and I couldn’t do it because I had a cesarean and was being tended to, so dad did it. It was either he do it or the baby be put in the warmer and I didn’t want to do that when skin to skin is much better on so many levels.
@Alix- I totally hear you. This is not a spontaneous photo- skin to skin not withstanding. They could have posed it anyway they wanted. Explains the” guns” and the hulking Tag/Hauer whatever watch on prominent display- it’s bigger than the babyđ! Rio 2016!! All snark aside- congrats on their new son.
Exactly!!
When it comes to newborns rolling up your sleeves isn’t adequate. That’s why now you see a lot of fathers without their shirts just after their child is born because it was what is best for the baby. I’m not sure if you watch Gteys Anatomy but a few seasons ago they spoke about how much it does for the baby and all the positive aspects of it
Skin to skin is so big right now. We just did this with our baby. My buff, hot husband had a lot of nurses coming in to ‘check’ on us. Ha!! It’s one of my favorite pictures of my husband and baby!!
My bro-in-law did it with both boys. They are VERY close to their dad, even now (almost 18 and 16).
I used to wear scoop neck T shirts when I cuddled them as infants; it definitely contributes to bonding. I’m glad to say, I’m a very proud Auntie to two amazing young men, and we still have a great relationship đ
He could also pull up his pants.
He has his shirt off because his chest is sexy. His face? Not so much. đ
Maybe they are giving the baby some comforting skin contact? Baby Boomer’s mom is also showing skin.
another sports fan here…I wonder if one or both are OU fans? As far as celebrity kid names go, though, Boomer isn’t too out of left field. Name aside, congrats to the new parents! That little guy is a cutie!
I don’t mind the name, it sounds good with Phelps and it seems appropriately athletic given his parentage.
And yes, congrats, he is a little cutie.
another sports fan here…I wonder if one or both are OU fans? As far as celebrity kid names go, though, Boomer isn’t too out of left field. Name aside, congrats to the new parents! That little guy is a cutie!
In Australia a Boomer is a large Kangaroo. There is a christmas song called 6 white boomers so if he goes to oz people will think he got names after a Kangaroo. The name is just weird why not a second name and give the kid the choice?
It’s the Aussie Basketball team’s nickname too! That’s what I thought of straight away.
Maybe he’s fan đ
Good luck to them all. He’s a beautiful little baby. Good luck to Michael in Rio, but not so much that he beats the Aussies!
Also, mushrooms…those kind.
They’re not Australian, they don’t live in Australia, and considering the difficulty and cost (though admittedly the latter wouldn’t wouldn’t be an issue for him) for us citizens to get a visa to visit Australia, I doubt he’ll be spending much time there. I don’t think it’s a great concern in this case.
Congrats to the couple and welcome here baby Boomer!
Baby Boomer….. Isn’t he a generation late for that?
What a ridiculous name.
Michael is from Maryland and Boomer Esiason went to umd, so I guess that’s a plausible connection. Don’t like the name at all. Sounds like a nickname or a cartoon name. But I guess I’ve heard worse. Congrats to them.
I definitely think he’s doing skin to skin for baby. And if my husband tried to share a pic of me right after I had a baby with millions of people, I would not be cool with that. Maybe that’s why she’s out of focus in background?
I actually think she looks stunning. Utterly gorgeous. Her eyes are full of so much love. I’d be fine if anonymous future hubby shared a picture like this. I’d want it framed in my living room
I had a friend growing up whose birthname was Boomer but EVERYONE (including his parents and teachers) called him Boomer so much that he legally changed it. He was an athlete and it actually fit him, he LOOKED like a boomer. Now hes an adult and I have no idea what hes up to but I imagine him saying “Boomer Cruz for the defense….” in a court of law and its hysterical.
Poor kid is going to get endless fart jokes on the playground.
what a ridiculous name
i wonder if he picked it when he was high
On Pintrest, the new thing is mommy is out of focus in the background because she just labored and is exhausted, feels gross, most likely has no makeup on, etc etc. BUT it’s the new trend. I think the picture is lovely.
Boomer? BOOMER????
May God bless this child, seriously. Now we gotta have laws to make parents do a drug test before registering their children.