Horah!!!

I am now the proud father to a daughter although after 4 hrs sleep since Sunday my brain is mush and so this will probably be short.

After a 3 days of contractions for baby no.1, this one was quick!! A day of sickness on Sunday for the wife indicated that she was probably on her way and so we kicked in to action our perfectly conceived plan at 0900.

Firstly, grandparents were engaged. After finishing their breakfast over they came to sit around and wait in case no.1 baby needed whisking off. Come 1600 nothing, so they went home, along with no.1. Early night to bed and then rudely awoken by the wife at 1230 informing me that contractions had been going on for 2 hours and now pretty painful so should go to hospital. Went to hospital, told to go home as only 2cm dilated.
Got home, watched Top Gear courtesy of sky+ and within 30 mins the wife was swearing and calling me names due to the pain (whilst this might not seem that unusual, she is an accountant so I knew he must have been in pain!).

So, off we went again to hospital at 3am. Within a few minutes of getting in to her 'birth garment' i.e. £3 nighty from Asda, a flood flowed to indicate the waters had quite literally burst forth in Noah proportions. After some more considerable pain, a little gas, and only about 5 pushes, she was born at 05:12 Monday 24th Nov - just 1 day before her due date. She weighed in at a healthy 8lbs 5oz and was feeding on 'mummy's boobies' within 20 mins, where she stayed for nearly 2 hrs. I was not particularly 'new age man' in that I did not cut the cord and there was no planting of the placenta with a tree in the garden. Instead, stayed at 'the pretty end', taking her through the breathing and telling her for a couple of hours that, 'it will be all over in a few minutes so stick in there through the pain'.

After being checked out by the doctor, a few issues have arisen. Apparently her ‘back’ bottom is very close to her ‘front’ bottom and so before we were allowed to go we had to check that the right fluid was coming out of the right hole. Cue 2 hours of me watching my new daughters arse to check for poo – surreal and quite humorous on the face of it, but quite worrying when you realise the implications for her of her waterworks being wired wrongly. Thankfully, all is ok but am looking forward to quite a few water infections!

Second issue was a thread of skin between top and bottom eye lid stopping the left eye from opening completely. Not a serious issue but we have been referred to a plastic surgeon to remove it and to ensure no lasting damage. No.1 was on a sun bed his first day due to jaundice and now the 2nd is off to a plastic surgeon!! How Hollywood.
I remember from the first one that he fed for a couple of hours after birth but then pretty much slept for a couple of days. Not this one. Chalk and cheese. Not sure she has actually slept yet in 24hrs. Drank mother dry last night so had to engage the auxiliary reserves i.e. a bottle. Not ideal, but looking across to a screaming little daughter and a tired, sore and crying mother it was quickly used and as I write this at 0920 Tuesday morning, she seems content and sleeping for the first time.

Which is where I am going now!