My Firstborn

My son, Liam James Waddell, was born at 4:27 yesterday morning.

It all started at about 7:30 on Monday evening with Soph getting her first contractions. Although I didn't find out until about 8:30 as she wanted to be sure. By 9:30 the contractions were a regular 5 minutes apart, and the birth clinic told Soph to have a shower and then come in. We arrived at Calvary at about 10:15, and already Soph was in a lot of pain and quite keen for some pain relief. However our midwife, Jennifer, had another birth to finish up with so it was a while before she could examine Soph and see which painkillers would be suitable. I'm pretty sure the midwives try and hold off on the painkiller as much as possible due to the risks associated with them all.

The next four or five hours were incredibly tough on Soph as she was in terrible pain each time the contractions hit every 2 or 3 minutes. Although it obviously bears no comparison to what Soph went though I was having a terrible time too, seeing Soph in absolute agony for hours on end and not being able to do anything about it was just awful. Soph was just amazing to get through it all, and she even managed without an epidural. She asked for one a number of times but Jennifer delayed, and suggested using nitrous oxide instead and soon enough Soph had made it through Stage 1 and an epidural was then out of the question. I just wasn't really prepared for how hard the contractions would be for Soph, I had assumed that the second stage of delivery would be the most painful but I was a lot more worried during the first stage. Given that Soph thought the same thing, I think they should stress this more during the ante natal classes! Although I guess it's different for each birth.

When Liam's head finally came out about an hour into the second stage, I wasn't prepared for how pale he was, and I certainly wasn't prepared for the shape of his head! He had come out on his side, and I'm told he most likely hit his head on Soph's pelvis on the way through, so his head was very elongated and asymmetrical. I was quite worried and had to be assured a number of times that it was perfectly normal. So the poor boy wasn't at his most attractive when born, but the swelling started to recede within a couple of hours, and this morning it was almost perfect and he looks wonderful. So the whole misshapen head thing is something else I wish I'd picked up in the classes and the books that I've read, it would have saved a few moments of worry!

Liam managed a small feed straight after birth, and he was then cleaned up a little and measured (he was 3.32 kg and 49cm, although that includes the swelling!) before being swaddled. After that he didn't really wake up until after I'd left last night. So he's certainly been easy to look after so far! For me, anyway, I imagine Soph has other thoughts on the matter as I think I got triple the amount of sleep she got last night.

One of the (many) amazing parts of the night and day was the fact that Liam was born on the same date as my Great Aunt, exactly 100 years apart! Her 100th birthday celebration is on Saturday, and with Liam being a good boy and following his instructions to come out early, the three of us will now be able to attend.

So it was just a magical day yesterday! And at least next time we'll be a little bit better prepared...