I have lots to fill you in on but it will have to wait for another time as my Daddy wants to take over my blog to tell you all about his memories of mine and my sister's births. This is because the new series of One Born Every Minute began tonight on Channel 4 and so here is my Dad.
The birth of big sister.
My first memory is of my wife arriving home from a friend's house and telling me in a shaky voice that her waters had broken. This was really exciting as I had just finished building all the baby furniture that night. No, we are not seriously disorganised, our first child decided to arrive 5 weeks early!! Then mild panic set in as my wife and i hadn't packed a hospital bag. While she spoke to the midwife i flew around our bedroom picking up things i thought would be useful. Unbeknown to me my wife decided to grab one of my t-shirts to 'labour' in. Luckily for us she didn't wear it as we realised later that day that the words of the chosen t-shirt said 'push it real good!!'
When we arrived we were greated by a male midwife which surprised me. One overwhelming memory i have is of him stepping behind the curtain while my wife got undressed from the waist down and 6 hours later he was right in the middle of the action helping my wife deliver our daughter. Because of big sister being early my wife was strapped to a monitor. I was amazed at how calm she was during the whole thing, in fact the shot of pethidine she had knocked her out and i was told to get her to breathe the gas and air when the monitor reached 30. Feeling fairly useless, i sat by her side and stroked her arm!
At one point, she woke up and said we would now need to sell the house as she had covered it in blood. I simply told her we would discuss it later.
As for the actual birth, big sister was whisked away as soon as she was born and i remember hearing the midwife insist that Mum needed a cuddle before our newborn was taken to special care. I do not remember having a preference as to whether we had a girl or boy but i do remember a feeling of relief that the labour was over.
Fearne's Birth.
This was a completely different experience. My wife woke me up at 3am and it was almost like big sister knew as she also got up at that point and came into our room... something she never does normally. My first proper memory is finalising baby names in the car on the way to the hospital. When we arrived there was a woman screaming in the room next door to us and my wife promised me she wouldn't do that. The midwife then asked if we wanted someone else to examine my wife as she had realised she lived in our street and would bump into us in the local shops. My wife was way beyond caring at this point.
From that moment on time seemed to move really quickly. My wife will tell you she didn't handle the pain at all well but i think she was amazing. She had pethidine again but she said it didn't help this time. It did however mean, that while high on pain, or drugs, she told me i must leave otherwise i would be late for work! I remember thinking i needed to ring work to let them know i wouldn't be coming in but not knowing when was an appropriate time to leave my wife to do so. When Fearne was ready to be born it seemed like all hell broke loose as when my wife's waters finally went there was meconium and so they had to attach a monitor.
Then it was all over and i had another precious child to hold. I do think the human body is a fantastic piece of equipment and labour itself is a miracle but above all i am very pleased to be a man and that my part during the birth of our children was simply to observe and support!
This blog was written as part of the Netmum's blogging prompt, to coincide with the new series of One Born Every Minute which is on Channel 4, 9pm Wednesdays.
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