Dave’s Blog

Blimey. What a roller coaster. Sions and Curig were let out yesterday lunchtime, and it’s fantastic having them home. Sions is catching up on some much needed sleep upstairs, and Curig is napping down in the front room with me.

Yesterday was another eventful day. He met his Auntie Maria who’d come to visit, then we Skyped down to my folks, so he’s virtually met the rest of the clan. Then Cerys, Deio and Janet arrived, followed not too long after by Hywel and Blodwen. Many many photos were taken, and I had to get rescued from behind a chair by Janet after I’d fallen trying to take a picture.

He’s been waking for feeds, which is brilliant. The current system is Sions feeds him for an hour while I go and do stuff (been to school, shopping trip next one), then I change and play with him for a bit while she goes back to sleep, then he naps for a while until he wakes up and the whole process starts over again.

Photo count now up to 247, although in my defense, some of those are duplicates that I’ve been playing around with in iPhoto.

Oop, I think he’s waking up…

Blimey. What a few days!

Last thing I wrote (but didn’t publish at the time) was this which took us up to 8.30 on Tuesday night. In talking to many people I forgot that most of you didn’t know about the home birth being off, so a bit of confusion crept in. I’m on orders to go to bed, so in as long as it takes the washing to do, I’ll quickly run through the rest of the events (as I remember them).

So Tuesday evening the hospital basically said not to bother going in, as things still weren’t regular. We could go to the day assessment unit in the morning, or go in if things got too much, which they did by 5am Weds morning. Contractions were getting more intense and coming about every 3 mins, so we packed our bags into the car and set off.

By the time we got there things had quietened down a bit, and at the examination it turns out we were only 2cm, and the midwife said the waters were intact (we later found out that it’s likely the hindwaters had broken, leaving the front ones intact) so we were sent down to the ward to ‘await events’. All day Weds they were coming (uterine tightenings, the midwives called them, although I thought that was what a bloody contraction was), but not regularly enough to warrent another check. All day Thursday likewise. By Friday morning the doctors came round, confirmed Sionedwyn’s waters had broken by now, and agreed that contractions still were not regular enough for this to be established labour, and if nothing had happened by the morning, then she’d be induced.

All of this time, all she’d had for the pain was cocodimol and her Tens machine. She hadn’t slept properly since Monday night. I cannot explain how amazed I am at what she did, or how proud of her I am!

By 4 o’clock (ish) a new midwife arrived, who said that she’d come back and check around 8pm. 5pm things got too much and a different midwife came, did an examination, and announced that we had to go upstairs now, and Sions was actually 8cms. 8cms. On a Tens machine. That may mean nothing to you (it wouldn’t have to me until very recently), but that’s pretty damn impressive.

By 6pm we were upstairs with the midwife from 4pm (Amy, who along with half of the rest of the maternity wards that day, came from Amanford!) who was absolutly fab. 1 hour 22 minutes later, Curig arrived, safe, well, and gorgeous!

Since then he’s had his first bath, met his Mamgu a Tadcu, Wncwl Owain, Anti Cerys, and Deio, been photographed over 130 times (I got carried away with the new camera!) and passed all his obs. As soon as he gets this breastfeeding thing sussed (and he’s getting there) then they’ll be home. Everything crossed, that should be some time tomorrow.

Washing’s done. I’m off to bed. I suspect some errors have crept into this report. I may correct them another day. But then again, I may not…

On Friday, November 23rd at 7.22pm, weighing 6lbs and 9oz, Curig Gomer Stacey arrived. Mum and baby are doing really well, and I can’t stop grinning :0D

Details, and the last few posts which got written and not posted as we didn’t want to tell everyone things were kicking off, will follow at some point before too long. Suffice to say I’m indescribably proud of both of them, Sions was amazing and he is just beautiful. I’m a very happy man tonight :0)

Written (but not published, for obvious reasons) Weds 21st @ 7.30am

What I didn’t write in the last post (because we agreed not to make it public) was that not only did the consultant put the kibosh on the home birth, she also booked us in to be induced next Wednesday. It was a bit weird, we felt pretty railroaded and unhappy. Nothing was really explained, and we left pretty confused as to why they’d want to do a procedure with so many risks attached to it, if the baby was fine. It took another lovely midwife (I’m becoming a big fan of midwives here by the way) to explain that if the water level continued to drop there were risks of the placenta becoming less effective (or something), so we left feeling a little better, if still really dissapointed, and a bit worried about next week.

But now it looks as though that isn’t going to matter. About half six last night Sions started talking about pains, but we weren’t 100%. I sorted out some work for school just in case and we went to bed thinking that things were kicking off. They were! Bless her, she hasn’t slept (needless to say, I managed 40 winks ;0) ) and contractions are now coming every three minutes or so. We’ve phoned the hospital, who told us to have a bath and phone back at 8 (by we, I mean Sions), and she’s just getting herself sorted while I type this.

Maybe the baby didn’t fancy being induced either!

Update: 5.3o pm

We’ve gone from ‘we might have a baby by lunchtime’ to ‘we might have a baby by Christmas as this rate’. After her bath, Sionedwyn’s contractions slowed down and eased up, and we’ve spent the rest of the day just waiting around. They’re still coming, each one lasting between 30 seconds and a minute, but they’re not regular and she can talk through them, which is apparently one of the measures that midwives use. We’ve walked down to Spar and back, fitted the car seat, and now Sions is dozing. Luckly she can sleep between contractions, so hopefully she’ll keep her energy for when things get harder.

So now we’re playing a waiting game. If things stay the same for the next 12 hours or so I’ll go to work in the morning, as Sions would rather have me around after the baby comes. Very strange sensation, know that things have started, but not knowing how long it’ll be until baby time.

Update: 8.30pm

The game appears to be afoot. Water’s went about an hour ago. Hospital told us we could either go in and wait or stay at home and phone again about 9.30. Needless to say, we chose the latter. Contractions are coming more frequently and getting more hardcore. She’s tens machined up. I’ve put the kettle on. See you on the other side :0)

Monday – School. Busy. Janet came round and did more tidying

Tues – On secondment, so working from home. Hospital for more monitoring. Fluid levels still low, so more tests booked for Friday and Tuesday. Came home and got the cover list for my paternity leave sorted. Seems more and more real all the time now!

Back to the hospital today for more tests. They wired Sions up to the same machine as before and monitored the baby’s heartbeat for about 40 mins. Everything seems fine – ‘generally reassuring’ got written in the notes (at least, we think that’s what it says, these people really should learn to write more clearly), so we’re back on Tues to have a chat with the consultant.

But the really surprising thing about the visit was the fact that for about an hour I apparently became invisible. I think my precence was acknowledged twice, and one of those was when we were leaving. I know the priority is, and should be, Sionedwyn (who I think may end up drowning in the birth pool anyone who calls her ‘Sioned’ during labour),  but I would have expected at least some eye contact, a smile, or maybe some of the feedback to be directed to us both, rather than so specifically at her. One of the highlights was the old lady who came into the room, offered ‘cup of tea’, and then turned on her heels and wandered off when Sions said ‘ no thanks’.

‘But you’re not the patient’ a couple of people have pointed out to me. But isn’t the point that neither of us are ‘patients’. We’re parents to be. And while I won’t be the one squeezing the baby out I can’t help thinking that as an organisation, the NHS could do with getting it’s attitudes out of the 80’s and into the 21st Century.

ps. There were going to be photos attached to this post, but I haven’t taken them off Sionedwyn’s phone. We’ll try and do a pic update sometime this week.

pps. I think it’s worth noting here that Rhys just phoned to find out if there was any movements, and if he’d won the sweepstake. No movements yet Rhys, which is just as well as you actually guessed the 19th.

Shopping today. Christmas cards purchased. Few ideas for presents and stuff. No work oomph today. I suspect I may be in a kind of limbo at the moment. Need to try and get everything sorted otherwise I’m going to be trying to get stuff done while Sions and the baby are napping. To clarify, that would not be good.

Real sweepstake countdown kicks in on Monday. I’ll be namechecking people here as they go past.

Twice today Sions used what we suspect will be the baby’s name, rather than calling the baby, ‘the baby’. Although we’re trying not to do it, in case it turns out it doesn’t fit, it did put a big smile on my face!

Brief one. First date in the sweepstake has been. No baby yet. :0)

Yesterday. Er. Camera arrived. With a Japanese plug. Still, it was cheap(er) and from ebay. And they did include an adapter, it just took a bit of brute force and ignorance to get the thing in. Welsh lesson. Sleep.

Today. Midwife visited and commented that the bump wasn’t growing as much as she’d hoped. Not sure Sionedwyn agreed, but none the less a trip to the hospital for monitoring was needed. Training session at work was promptly cancelled, and I high tailed it home, feeling just a little bit sick (‘what if…’ etc etc, despite being told repeatedly not to worry). Some listening, a scan and some monitoring later it appears there’s slightly less fluid in there than they would expect. Nowt to worry about in and of itself, but because we want a home birth it’s better they get the checking done now. Back again Sunday, and then again Tuesday to meet with a consultant who will be able to give us a yea or nei on the home birth. I guess if it chooses to make an appearence before we’ll have to go in, so I’m hoping more than ever that that doesn’t happen.

Sionedwyn says she’s not sure that is the case (she’s also moaning about my inability to spell as I type. I suppose I should have at least got her name right. She just sighed as I mis-spelt suppose, and then laughed as I mis-spelt ‘mis-spelt’ …) I guess we’d have to see if and when that happens.

Scan was weird. We both went in hoping we’d get one,  wondering how much the baby would have changed. Answer… still not sure. It waved a couple of fingers at us (no, not those two, this is polite child!), but because it’s* so large now, you can only see one little bit at a time! (Good shot of the thigh bone at one point though!)

In an hour and a half we’ll be D Day minus 10 days. Saturday we’re into single figures. Days like today come along and slap you round the face with the reality of that fact I’m not sure anyone who hasn’t been through it can ever really comprehend.

* Feels REALLY weird typing ‘it’ all the time :0S

So we last saw the impending parents looking forward to spending some time with their new nephew. Sunday saw another burst of activity which saw the door go back on the Snook, shelves go up in the kitchen and a new light switch for the bathroom. We spent a happy afternoon taking it turns to have a cwtsh with Deio. In the fine tradition of all babies he took one look at me and started balling, however after being comforted he eventually fell asleep on me (cute photo to follow!)

Sions is still having problems sleeping, so I woke up Monday to a completely cleaned and rearranged kitchen. Fortunately the coffee was still in the same place. Monday saw me escaping work on time to find Janet wielding a steam cleaning thing attacking the fireplace, so me and Sions went shopping! Got a few bits including a new stand for the carry cot for naps in the day (for the baby you understand…) Got back and went to bed. At 7.30.  Slept through, completely failing to wake up ‘early’ to get some work done. Still, Sions slept as well, which I think is a good thing.

Sions seemed to get a twinge in Sainbury’s which gave me a real, well, shock I guess. I mean, it shouldn’t be a shock. I’ve eight and a half months to get used to the idea of this baby, but that ‘it could come right now’ was a bit of a kick up the proverbial. I’ve been happily telling myself that it’ll be late, but of course it could just as easily be early. And I need to get ready. So today, I’ve started sorting out the work to leave for my paternity leave. Just need to spend half an hour tomorrow getting the instructions sorted.

Still got a massive marking backlog, but pretty much everything else is sorted. Need to spend some time on the ICT project soon as well. This post has descended to be being a) about me and b) boring, so I’ll stop there and come back tomorrow with something more baby related.