21st April

Events occur in real time.

Depending on the speed of your reading.

On the 20th of April, N, C and I went for a walk on the North Downs for fun and to get me out of the house (I was feeling a lot of cabin fever from the glandular fever but exertion was still making me a bit dizzy at this stage and I was tired and dehydrated a lot). Some friends round in the afternoon and off to bed early ish aware that baby could  arrive at any moment.

21st April
I was awoken at 0700 by N who told me that contractions had started. Please could I gt Catherine up and dressed, get myself showered and sorted and we'd all meet for breakfast. Mother in law and Jo given the secret words to come take care of child 1. Mid shower I was just thinking about how civilised this all was (Though I maintain I wasn't taking my time) when I heard N call to me to hurry up, she might be sounding calm but she did still have a baby on its way. Up a gear and down to breakfast.

N and I left C with Jo and plenty of Play Dough then headed off to St Peters. We arrived to be allowed into the triage in the maternity\labour ward but there were no midwives. We sat around a bit lonely for a while till one turned up for work. Lucky there wasn't a baby coming out. We were asked to go for a walk for an hour and we had a really delightful walk around Botley Manor's grounds, adjacent to St Peter's Hospital. The morning mist burnt off as we strolled along toddler less and if it hadn't have been for the occasional contraction (not me, her) it would have been a very civilised morning perambulation.

After midwife was happy that there was a baby coming and it wasn't just N with a pillow up her jumper making things up, we were allowed into the labour ward. The midwife, I was pleased to discover, was really nice and put up with my jokes. All progressing well till Anaesthetist got involved and he, all in, took about 4 hours to get an ineffective epidural into N. Most of that time she was suffering and even after it was in she continued to be an absolute trooper. I was thinking about the energy required for giving birth and the sections where a large amount of exertion is called for, definitely comparable to Ironman! Poor me, at one point in the very hot room, not having eaten much I got a glandular fever style dizziness hit me and the world around the edges of my eyes darkened. Sure signs I was about to add a casualty to the medical staff's day so I got a drink, pulled a pew and called for reinforcements.

My food replens took place with my sister delivering a large quantity of food that I bolted for lunch and Alex (who makes an awesome sandwich I have discovered) brought enough sarnies and cake for N and I to have for dinner.

Anyway baby boy ('E') arrived safe almost exactly 12 hours after N felt first contraction. Although I wouldn't say it was easy it was a lot less traumatic than when C arrived. I didn't cry when he got here which I did with C which I'm sure the Freudian minded amongst you will have something to say about.

There were some complications with N's back afterwards which made the first week pretty tough but family and friends were all amazing and really helped so thanks to all.