Dave’s Blog

One rainy, December day, Mr Jibs decided to go on an adventure.

“Are you coming, Grizzle Monkey?” he asked.

“Waaaahhhhh” repied the Grizzle Monkey.

“Righty ho”, said Mr Jibs, and off they went.

On the first day of  the adventure, they set up camp in the wild flower meadow. They played with Auntie Rhiannon in the afternoon, and she brought them a giant sock! Mamgu and Tadcu met them in the afternoon, and they had adventures together for a while.

On the second day of the adventure they hid in a cave with Mami and Dadi and the four of them had adventures all day. In the evening, they had a picnic and they ate with both Mami and Dadi

On the third day of the adventure they were joined by Grandma Stacey, Uncle Colin, and Palindrome the Rhino and they played together, and dozed together, even though it rained. After they had said ‘goodbye’ to Grandma and Uncle Colin, and put Palindrome in the field with the other animals, they went to the book shop and to Mr Cohen’s giant emporium for fruit juice and pizza,  which they gave to Mami and Dadi as a present.

On the fourth day of the adventure the midwife lady visited and said they were both doing fine. Then they packed a bag of supplies and set out for the village. They got a piece of paper from a nice lady which confirmed that they did, in fact exist. They both agreed that this was good. They went to the best shop in the world, and Mr Jibs met Mami’s friends and collegues while the Grizzle Monkey hid in the bag. Then they went shopping for a posh frock for Mami, but didn’t like any that she found. The Grizzle Monkey popped his head of the bag, where he had been hiding and suggested they went home, and Mami and Dadi agreed. So they did.

On the fifth day of the adventure they were both surprised to see Dadi.

“I thought you had to go back to work” said Mr Jibs

“Waaaahhhh” added the Grizzle Monkey

Then Dadi explained that the nice people at school had given him annual leave while him and Mami were in the hospital waiting for them to arrive, which meant his paternity leave didn’t start until the Monday, so he didn’t have to back to work until the  10th. Mr Jibs and the Grizzle Monkey agreed that that was lovely, and that they liked having Dadi around. Then the lady with the scales came and weighed the Grizzle Monkey and said that he weighted 7lbs 4 1/2 ozs. Then she measured him and said he was 49cm long, so he wee’d on her bag to say thank you. Then in the evening Uncle Rhys came to visit. He brought with him a portable skyscraper, a fleet of ships and a spotty lion.

“Good grief”, said Mr Jibs. “I think we’re going to need to hire a zoo keeper”

“Waaaaahhhh” said the Grizzle Monkey.

Becuase he seemed a little unsure, Mr Jibs hid the Grizzle Monkey, and then Uncle Rhys and Mr Jibs had a discussion about Dadi, and Uncle Rhys taught Mr Jibs some new words. They agreed that the three of them would meet up on Saturday and talk some more.

After Uncle Rhys had gone, Mr Jibs and the Grizzle Monkey told Dadi all about their adventures and he wrote them all down.

“Any plans for tomorrow?” asked Dadi

“More adventures I expect” said Mr Jibs

“Waaaaahhhhh” said the Grizzle Monkey

Over the last couple of days a few things have been said that I thought would make great titles for blog posts. Needless to say I can’t remember any of them.

I know people say you can’t possibly imagine what life with a newborn is like, so I really didn’t try, but even  if I had…

That’s where that post trailed off three days ago. No idea why. So, anyway.Life. The strangest things are actually the normal things that have started to creep back in, especially when juxtaposed with this little bundle of gurgles that, it’s starting to sink in, isn’t going anywhere.

He’s already a little bruiser; he dropped from his birth weight of 6lbs 9 to 5lbs 14 by Monday, but by Wednesday he was back to 6lbs 3 and yesterday when Pam weighed him was was 6lbs 12!!! Not bad going considering the average weight gain for the first few weeks is 4-6 ozs a week! He’s adjusting to life with us, just as we’re adjusting to him. There aren’t really any patterns yet, just changes. He’s feeding for less time now, and going for longer between feeds, but he’s becoming more demanding in those gaps. And you really feel that at 2 in the morning. As well as visually gaining weight, especially in his face and hands, he’s getting better and better motor control every day, especially in his arms. He’s also getting stronger. The ‘wrestle with daddy’ section which accompanies each change of clothes I do is getting noticeably harder work. It’s probably not going to be too long before he’s beating me ;0)

Highlights of the last few days include:

Monday

• Pam visits – Curig weighs in at 5lbs 9oz
• Visits from Cats and Rhian, Cerys, Owain and Deio, and Janet and Hywel. Cerys and Owain eat my curry

Tueday

• Old Dear, Trnce and Pete visit. Or, as they shall be henceforth know, Grandma, Grandad and Crazy Uncle Peter*. That’s odd as well, having a new ‘Grandma and Grandad Stacey’

Wednesday

• Visits from Cat Daf, Cat Hows and Melari. Maybe Janet and Hywel as well? Can’t really remember
• Pam visits. Curig weighs in at 6lbz 3oz
• Major photo taking session in the evening!

Thursday

• We go into lock down. No visitors, sleeping in shifts, really recharging our batteries. Curig is really well behaved :0)

Friday

• Bit more lock down, but more wandering and less sleeping as we’re a bit more recovered. Curig more awake too…

Saturday

•  Pam visits. Curig now weighing in at 6lbs 12oz!!!
• First expedition out. We take a trip to Trostre. Curig sleeps through most of it
• Cord falls off at some point over night

I may be back to this post to add the many things I’ve doubtless forgotten. In the mean time I’m going to hist publish before he wakes up and it goes on hold for another three days!

* Woof, Bark, Donkey 

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)