It's been some time since my last post.  This is for good reason.  My wife gave birth to our first child on the 8th of February 2006 - Thomas David.

 

Jen had been having contractions for several days - mild but contractions none the less.  On the 7th of Feb, she'd been booked in to start the induction process so we headed over to the hospital to see what we could see.  As it turned out, she was already 2cm dialated so they told her to go home, get a good night's sleep and come back in the morning.

 

8th Feb - we headed back to the hospital and met our friend Katy who Jen had asked along as an additional support person.  Jen had gone up to 3cm overnight and the obstetrician broke her waters around 8:30am.  The plan was to wait a few hours and see how things went before making the decision to put up a drip to move things along.  After the obstetrician had gone back to his office, the senior midwife decided that the drip should go up sooner, made a call and got things rolling.  This was not the best for Jen.  Contractions came on really hard and fast and they were pushing the dose up to get things going.  Jen wasn't handling too well so she asked for an epidural.  While we waited for things to be organised, the midwives administered a shot of pethadine and turned down the drip.  By the time the epidural was administered, Jen thought she was ready to push.  The midwife checked things out and sure enough, it was game time.

 

30 minutes of pushing and Thomas David was born.  The labour was about five and a half hours all up.  The ceremonial cutting of the cord was left to me and I was pleased to hear that Jen and Thom were fine.

 

Since Jen and Thom came home, life has been interesting.  Day three is known to be difficult.  This was the day they came home.  As Thom got used to using his digestive track, Jen and I got to experience sleeplessness on a scale never before known to us.  The baby classes didn't really emphasise how hard it is.  Word to those who have not had children - a new baby is harder than can possibly be imagined.

 

A few weeks in, everything has settled down.  Thom sleeps well and feeds like a champion.  We're starting to catch up on lost rest and he's growing and changing every day.  Can't wait till we're shooting hoops together!

 

Slideshow added.

Last night was the tour of the hospital at baby class.  They took us around and told us all about checking in, showed us the rooms where it all happens and various other aspects of what to expect.  The thing most women in the group could have done without was the BLOOD CURDLING SCREAMS coming from one of the delivery rooms.  Think of a scream from an old school horror flick and then add actual pain - that was the sound we were exposed to.  At least I now have an indicator of when to drive Jen to the hospital.

Been going to baby class - Jen and I are expecting in early Feb.

 

Haven't learnt that much that wasn't already known but somehow it's stimulated concern in me - that Jen will be OK, that Jr will be OK too.  Before baby class I was quite calm about it all but now there's a niggling uncertainty.

 

What not to do at baby class - pass out right after the "educator" makes a joke about passing out.  Well I didn't completely pass out but I got giddy and felt my sight closing down to tunnel vision.  Took a quick lay on the carpet and all was well.  It wasn't even in response to a video.  Just felt bad - response to the weirdo flu I have that a colleague kindly brought to work.

 

On that - it's my belief that contractors are bad for the workplace.  They don't get paid sick leave so are hesitant to take a day off.  This contaminates others (read me) and others (read me) get upset.

 

<frown>

I get a bad back.  It's the result of hours in a chair at a computer, lack of exercise and being a really tall bugger.

 

I also get relief from this back pain through a magical little device called "BakBalls".  I can't recommend this enough.  Just minutes ago I had a muscle spasm in my back causing quite a bit of pain.  Five minutes later, I'm feeling good - all thanks to BakBalls.

 

If you get back pain, you can also get relief - http://www.bakballs.com/

 

 

So there you go.