Parker Aiken Needed Surgery At 1-Month Old

For most parents, the fact that the little baby they brought home is their child doesn't truly hit home right away - and for Clay Aiken, his moment of realization came amidst a frightening health scare with son Parker.

"He had been gassy for weeks and then he started throwing up," Aiken, 29, tells PEOPLE in its latest issue. "Jaymes [Foster, the baby's mother] and I were trying to be calm, rational parents, so we didn't call the doctors too much, but it just got to a point where he was vomiting everything. He was starting to get dehydrated."

Parker was admitted to the hospital, and diagnosed with pyloric stenosis, a intestinal condition that complicates baby's digestion, and scheduled for surgery to correct the problem.

"Parker had been in one day already when I got really panicky," Clay recalls. He woke up at 2 a.m. and headed to the hospital. "I was a little worried, like 'I don't think they're going to let me in the hospital at 2 or3 in the morning.' Then I thought, 'Wait a second, I'm the father! Of course they'll let me in," Aiken says. "It was the first moment when I thought, 'I'm actually this child's father!' "

To read more from the interview, head to this post, and pick up this week's People to see pictures of Clay, Parker and Jaymes.

Source: People; People print edition, Oct. 6

Photo: Michael Lavine for People