Josh Allen is three months into fatherhood, and by his own admission, he had no idea what was coming. The Buffalo Bills quarterback welcomed daughter Harper Haize Allen with wife Hailee Steinfeld in April, and in a recent interview with E! News, he gave fans the most candid glimpse yet into life with a newborn. From the sleepless early hours to rethinking his entire nightly schedule, Allen made clear that parenting has rearranged his priorities in ways no NFL playbook could have prepared him for.
How did Josh Allen and Hailee Steinfeld choose the name Harper Haize Allen?
The name came together early in the pregnancy, though Allen was quick to hand credit to Steinfeld. “It was an early on thought that we had,” he told E! News. When pressed for the story behind it, he laughed it off. “She can answer that question better than I can, so I’ll let her answer that one.”It was a rare moment of the 28-year-old stepping back from the spotlight, letting his wife take the lead on something that mattered deeply to both of them. For a quarterback used to commanding the huddle, that kind of deference said something. The couple married last May, and the name Harper Haize was already in place well before their daughter arrived three months ago.
How has fatherhood changed Josh Allen’s daily routine?
Josh Allen thought he had a plan. He did not.The first night home with Harper dismantled whatever expectations he and Steinfeld had walked in with. “That first day our baby was born, I didn’t expect the baby to be up so much throughout the night,” Allen said. “Everyone talks about how the first two nights they sleep the entire day. ‘You’re going to be fine.’ Our baby was not.”He remembers watching the clock crawl through the night. “I remember at 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock, 5 o’clock, rolling around, rocking the baby, trying to get it to go back down to sleep,” he recalled. “It was then I realized, ‘All right, we’re going to have a tough one here.'”Since then, Allen has completely restructured his nights. The man who once considered getting to bed before 11:30 p.m. a win now has a hard cutoff of 10 p.m. “If I’m not in bed by 10 p.m., I feel like I’m dragging,” he said. “Once that baby goes down, I know she’s gonna be up early, so I gotta get to sleep as soon as I can.”That also means fewer late-night TV sessions. He and Steinfeld have started cutting screens earlier, winding down intentionally rather than drifting into another episode. It is a small shift, but one that speaks to how fully Harper has reshaped their household. “Fortunately, our baby’s sleeping really well, so it’s been good,” he added.The adjustment is a joint one. Allen was clear that none of this is a solo effort. He and Steinfeld are running a two-person operation, and the rhythm they have built around their daughter is, by all accounts, working.
