Newborn Baby Greets Dad With a Beaming Smile the Instant She Recognizes His Voice

Courtesy of Flávio Vilela

From the archives: This story was last updated in September 2019.

Flávio Dantas, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was looking forward to fatherhood. The anticipant father-to-be spoke to his unborn baby girl every single day, but little did he know how much his efforts would pay off on the day she was born.

“He always told her that he loved her so much,” Flávio’s partner, Tarsila Batista, said as per the Brazilian magazine SoNoticiaBoa in August 2019. “‘Good morning’ when I went to work,” she continued, “he said ‘I’ll always be there,' [and] kept stroking my belly.”

Photo courtesy of Flávio Vilela

“Amazingly it always seemed, at the same time every day, she started to move,” she further added.

Dad and baby’s bond was strong, so on the day of baby Antonella’s birth, at Marcilio Dias Naval Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, she had the most appropriate response on hearing her beloved dad’s voice for the very first time. But it was still a response that could surprise anyone in the room.

As medical staff handed baby Antonella to her parents for their first embrace, Flávio leaned in close to say “hello” to his baby girl. He repeated the same words he had told his daughter throughout Tarsila’s pregnancy, but this time, Antonella responded.

Hearing her father’s familiar voice, the baby smiled.

“They put her on top of me, sleeping, and as soon as he spoke to her, Antonella opened her eyes and smiled,” Tarsila recalled. Flávio, overwhelmed, described his love for his baby daughter as “too big to fit inside his chest.” Tarsila described the couple’s new arrival as “a gift sent by my Lord.”

Antonella’s broad, beaming smile says it all. The adorable moment was luckily captured on camera and shared on the couple’s Instagram page. “Quando vi minha família pela primeira vez,” reads the sweet caption. “When I first saw my family.”

Photo courtesy of Flávio Vilela

New mom Tarsila also shared the picture on Facebook, captioning the photo: “And it’s that moment that we forget all the pain and focus on the most sincere smile of all. Born my princess,” she wrote.

Antonella had had plenty of time to get used to her father’s soothing voice. According to the Mayo Clinic, babies are able to start processing sounds just 16 weeks after conception. By 26 weeks of age, a baby in the womb will noticeably react to noises from outside and can even be soothed by the sound of their parents’ voices.

Photo courtesy of Flávio Vilela

“I thought I knew what a feeling of true love was,” Flávio shared, marveling at the bond between a father and newborn baby girl. “Until, I looked at that most sincere smile in the world.”

“It was [there] that I could be sure what love is,” the proud father added.

Photo courtesy of Flávio Vilela

Tarsila has been bitten by the love bug just as intensely as her partner. Posting an adorable picture of herself with her baby girl, both back at home, the new mom shared her love with the world. “If wealth were measured in words I would sum it up in one: you,” she wrote.

“My rare jewel cut by the hands of God,” she further added.

As if her beaming smile wasn’t enough, Antonella had another gift for her father on the day of her birth. She was born on Aug. 11, 2019: Father’s Day in Brazil. It is surely a day, and a date, that Flávio will most probably remember for the rest of his life.

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