The 300
And not the Spartans who battled at Thermopylae. But this is my 300th Blog post, wow. A large figure indeed. If I had it in cash form, I'd probably by a gadget of some kind, maybe a camera. But anyway, what to say for the 300th? I could mention the birth of my son, Joshua Douglas, who arrived in circumstances that would not be out of place in an episode of casualty or Eastenders, the scene where you think to yourself; That's so far fetched it's ridiculous. Well it can happen, it happened to us. I kind of think it would be nice if it hadn't but it did. Are you sitting comfortably?
One thing you should know. The plan was always to leave our eldest daughter at home, as we would bring her nanny down to stay the night and babysit while we went to the hospital, which is 20minutes away in Sutton. That was the plan, to disrupt the child as little as possible.
My wife, oh my sweet, stoic wife, who could challenge Thrasea Paetus himself came in at about 5:40pm breathing heavily and looking a little under the weather. I asked if she was okay, as I am caring like that. I then said should I go and get my mum just in case we were going to hospital. She acquiesced and I said I would go and fetch mum, I rang and told her I was on the way so she needed to be ready, while I did this I nipped over to one of our friends to see if she would go over to my wife and keep an eye on our daughter who was still up and would start a nuclear war if Terrie was unable to go after her. I then drove to my nannars.
At Nannars, I found my mum sat and about to start a fresh cup of tea. I pointed out that this may be a little unwise as we needed to get back. My mum looked at me a little bit and said okay. (destiny decision 1). We put her overnight bag in the car and began the journey home, the traffic was virtually non-existant (destiny action 1). We arrived home at 6:15pm to see my wife and Janet and Grace in the front room, my wife was on her hands and knees breathing very heavily. I initially thought that she had misplaced something under the sofa, I then realised that she was in labour, on our NEW front room carpet! My first thought was that my wife had waited for 8yrs to have a new front room carpet and was now going to have a baby on it after 1 month of it being down. There are those that christen new things, Champagne and boats, etc. New Baby and new carpet I had yet to hear of.
I ring the birthing unit at the hospital. I spent the first few minutes going through the usual rigmarole of names and dates, etc. They then ask, how far apart are your wife's contractions? I ask my wife and reply, there is no gap between the contractions. Ah, she says. Does your wife feel like pushing? Um, yes. Yes she does. Is that good or bad? Well, she says. It means that you are not going to come to hospital. It means that we are sending the emergency midwife and the fast response paramedic. Ah, says I, that sounds very exciting. This was roughly 6:20pm. My mum had been sent upstairs to sort our eldest daughter out, whose bedtime it was and as much as she was helping by rubbing mummy's back, she needed to sleep.
The emergency midwife arrives at 6:25pm, it turns out that it was her week for call out and that she lives on the 2nd road from where we live (destiny Action 2). She tells us she was just about to sit down and have dinner when she was called but rushed straight over. She went about preparing the floor, as our neighbour had already put so many towels on the floor I though she was half german and there was a sunbed about, it was impressive. What was equally more impressive where that they were MY towels! My wife now is in complete labour, the midwife, having arrived at 6:25pm delivered our son, who decided to arrive at 6:30pm! She arrived just in time. The fast response paramedic did not arrive in time, proving the irony of his job title as he arrived 5 minutes after our son was born in the front room and our daughter was already back in the room meeting her brother.
So, all in all, it was an evening we had not quite planned to unravel in this way. There were a few things we were exceptionally grateful for, which had it gone any other way would have meant I may have missed the birth, or would have delivered my own with our friend.
one, that my mum's wasn't staying more than 2miles away, as had I it taken 40minutes I would have been too late. I am thnakful my mum decided not to finish her cup of tea (i know she wanted too, she loves tea). That there was no traffic on the way there or the way back meant we were not delayed at all. This could have been catastrophic.
That our friend agreed to come over and look after Grace, then found herself dealing my wife, her friend, in Labour while also trying to look after our 20month old daughter.
That the emergency midwife lived 2 minutes away from us and it was her turn to be on call. Had it been any other midwife we would have been stuffed and our friend and I would have become temporary midwife's. The fact she also arrived just before the birth, as opposed to the emergency paramedic who arrived afterwards was also very helpful.
All this things and scenerio's could have been affected in a small way and would have had potentially catastrophic consequences. Though they didn't and that means we now have a family of four. Each different heights and genders. Two boys and two girls. Father has the casting vote, obviously.
Good times. I love it. Wouldn't want to go through this again though. Not at home.
One thing you should know. The plan was always to leave our eldest daughter at home, as we would bring her nanny down to stay the night and babysit while we went to the hospital, which is 20minutes away in Sutton. That was the plan, to disrupt the child as little as possible.
My wife, oh my sweet, stoic wife, who could challenge Thrasea Paetus himself came in at about 5:40pm breathing heavily and looking a little under the weather. I asked if she was okay, as I am caring like that. I then said should I go and get my mum just in case we were going to hospital. She acquiesced and I said I would go and fetch mum, I rang and told her I was on the way so she needed to be ready, while I did this I nipped over to one of our friends to see if she would go over to my wife and keep an eye on our daughter who was still up and would start a nuclear war if Terrie was unable to go after her. I then drove to my nannars.
At Nannars, I found my mum sat and about to start a fresh cup of tea. I pointed out that this may be a little unwise as we needed to get back. My mum looked at me a little bit and said okay. (destiny decision 1). We put her overnight bag in the car and began the journey home, the traffic was virtually non-existant (destiny action 1). We arrived home at 6:15pm to see my wife and Janet and Grace in the front room, my wife was on her hands and knees breathing very heavily. I initially thought that she had misplaced something under the sofa, I then realised that she was in labour, on our NEW front room carpet! My first thought was that my wife had waited for 8yrs to have a new front room carpet and was now going to have a baby on it after 1 month of it being down. There are those that christen new things, Champagne and boats, etc. New Baby and new carpet I had yet to hear of.
I ring the birthing unit at the hospital. I spent the first few minutes going through the usual rigmarole of names and dates, etc. They then ask, how far apart are your wife's contractions? I ask my wife and reply, there is no gap between the contractions. Ah, she says. Does your wife feel like pushing? Um, yes. Yes she does. Is that good or bad? Well, she says. It means that you are not going to come to hospital. It means that we are sending the emergency midwife and the fast response paramedic. Ah, says I, that sounds very exciting. This was roughly 6:20pm. My mum had been sent upstairs to sort our eldest daughter out, whose bedtime it was and as much as she was helping by rubbing mummy's back, she needed to sleep.
The emergency midwife arrives at 6:25pm, it turns out that it was her week for call out and that she lives on the 2nd road from where we live (destiny Action 2). She tells us she was just about to sit down and have dinner when she was called but rushed straight over. She went about preparing the floor, as our neighbour had already put so many towels on the floor I though she was half german and there was a sunbed about, it was impressive. What was equally more impressive where that they were MY towels! My wife now is in complete labour, the midwife, having arrived at 6:25pm delivered our son, who decided to arrive at 6:30pm! She arrived just in time. The fast response paramedic did not arrive in time, proving the irony of his job title as he arrived 5 minutes after our son was born in the front room and our daughter was already back in the room meeting her brother.
So, all in all, it was an evening we had not quite planned to unravel in this way. There were a few things we were exceptionally grateful for, which had it gone any other way would have meant I may have missed the birth, or would have delivered my own with our friend.
one, that my mum's wasn't staying more than 2miles away, as had I it taken 40minutes I would have been too late. I am thnakful my mum decided not to finish her cup of tea (i know she wanted too, she loves tea). That there was no traffic on the way there or the way back meant we were not delayed at all. This could have been catastrophic.
That our friend agreed to come over and look after Grace, then found herself dealing my wife, her friend, in Labour while also trying to look after our 20month old daughter.
That the emergency midwife lived 2 minutes away from us and it was her turn to be on call. Had it been any other midwife we would have been stuffed and our friend and I would have become temporary midwife's. The fact she also arrived just before the birth, as opposed to the emergency paramedic who arrived afterwards was also very helpful.
All this things and scenerio's could have been affected in a small way and would have had potentially catastrophic consequences. Though they didn't and that means we now have a family of four. Each different heights and genders. Two boys and two girls. Father has the casting vote, obviously.
Good times. I love it. Wouldn't want to go through this again though. Not at home.
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