I am writing this entry seated at the table in our kitchen - and next to me Matthew is sound asleep. What an eventful few days!
In case anyone is interested in how it all happened, here is the story. We visited our obstetrician on Friday 04 May. The baby was still very high, and lieing with his back to my back - ie not a great position for delivery. Dr vH said it was very unlikely that I'd go into labour any time soon - and he specifically said that I shouldn't deliver on Sunday since he was playing golf that day.
But on Saturday morning I started having mild contractions. From about midnight they started getting stronger, and I spent much of the night seated at this table trying to distract myself with tea and a book. We went into the hospital on Sunday morning at about seven - the midwife was sure I wasn't in labour and was all for sending us home, but the obstetrician-on-call (Dr HG, who was standing in for Dr vH)disgreed -I was, in fact, in active labour. I was very pleased about this, since the thought of continueing with those contractions indefinitely was pretty daunting - and the epidural was wonderful!
All went well for the next three hours or so. (And for the record, any rumours that we watched the highlights of the Bulls rugby game are entirely untrue...). Unfortunately, though, labour did not progress as it should have, probably as a consequence of the baby being in that unhelpful position. My epidural also stopped working on one side, so half of me was pretty unhappy during each contraction. There were some signs on the baby's heart trace that he wasn't so happy either, and so Dr HG decided it would be best to go for a caesar.
And so we headed to theatre. David felt right at home - I literally had to keep telling him to sit down, hold my hand, and stop trying to help the VERY experienced anaesthetist do his job.
At 16:27 Matthew George Bishop was born, weighing 3.09kgs. He screamed brilliantly and had apgars of 9 and 9.
David went to watch him have his first bath, and we were then reunited in the ward.
Dr vH had a great game of golf, incidentally...
Matthew and I spent three nights in hospital, and arrived home at midday on Wednesday. He was under lights on Tuesday because he was a bit jaundiced, but is looking pretty pink today.
It is good to be back here and we're looking forward to the days and (long) nights ahead with our precious boy.
