3 Months

13 weeks

It's been a while since I posted anything here and I do regret not having kept momentum with this blog. My last post was made a few days before the due date of our baby boy. It was an understandably tense time for my wife and I had plenty of things on my mind too.

The due date was Saturday 11th April. We had been advised to return on Friday 10th for further monitoring in triage and to see an Endo doctor in light of my wife's gestational diabetes, to ensure everything was going OK with her and the baby. The team suggested we should be booked in for an induction. Looking back now it was a stroke of good fortune that they couldn't see us until Monday 13th April, as the events of that weekend will testify.

The due date, Saturday 11th April, was spent very much as normally as possible. We visited my folks in the morning and did the weekly shop for them. Then my wife and I went to the Toby Carvery for a roast lunch. If I recall correctly we also picked up some Thai food in the evening - something spicy in the hope it would move things along.

Sunday morning, my wife wakes up a couple of times to visit the toilet and experiences a new set of pains. These contractions were definitely stronger in pain and more frequent. Not taking any chances, we call ahead to triage and make our way there - it proves a struggle for her to even reach the car, but we're well prepared and have everything for the hospital packed and ready in the boot, and a car seat too.

She spends a couple of hours in triage and in a lot of pain. We're moved to the labour ward by around 9am or 10am and are assigned a midwife who, luckily, is present with us the whole day and her whole shift, so no changing of the guard. My wife has an epidural to ease the pain. Things really start happening from 3pm onwards and at 5:06pm, Sunday 12th April 2015, our baby boy is born into the world.

It really has been a rollercoaster of emotions and we've experienced some very tough times since then. I will want to spend some time to reflect on that in another post and describe how much of a positive impact that has had on my family. But only in the last week have things really become tough owing to my wife having a bad case of adult chicken pox. It really has made the past week a grulling and emotionally and physically draining period, especially as it's come at a crucial time in our son's development.

I really do hope things improve from here.