Lachlan's Birth

Lachlan Paul Waddell was born at 10:01 AM on the 15th February 2010.

The birth itself was very, very different from Liam's. Due to Sophie's back injury he needed to be born by Caesarian Section, so the date was booked in a month in advance. This is opposed to Liam surprising us by being born almost 3 weeks early. It was a very strange experience on Sunday night, packing for the hospital the next day and knowing that we would have a baby in 13 hours' time.

On Monday we got up at 5:45 and got ready. Only I had breakfast as Soph wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight. Liam was staying with my parents (he had been staying there Sunday nights while Soph was injured so his routine didn't need to change at all) so we could just head straight to the hospital.

I was being optimistic as usual and assumed that it would all happen very quickly but we ended up waiting for almost 3 hours. Soph and I played Scene-It on my phone to pass the time - was quite good for the $1.19 I paid for it!

We went down to the holding ward (or whatever it's called) for pre-operation instructions. As Soph was having a general anaesthetic (due to her back injury she couldn't have an epidural) I was not allowed to be in the operating room. I got sent to the 'Daddy Chair' at about 9:30 to wait.

I read a book on my phone, mainly so I wouldn't just spend the whole time worrying. Just when I decided that it was time to stop reading and start worrying, a nurse came to get me. She said that everything had gone perfectly, and that I had a baby boy!

He was in an enclosed cot for transportation up to our room. The most striking thing about him was his hair - it was very light blonde, almost white in places! A big surprise after Liam came out with dark hair, which has subsequently turned blonde. I was delighted to have another boy, I was really keen for Liam to have a brother to play with.

We went to the weighing and measuring room, where he came in at 3.1kg and 49 cm. Then at 10:30 it was off to the 'Recovery Room' where he and Soph would be spending the night before being moved to the proper room. I was then left alone with my new son, waiting for Soph to wake up from the operation and be brought up.

It turned out to be quite a long wait - over 2 hours. Soph woke up in a lot of pain and it took some time to get it under control. So the baby (he wouldn't get a name until Soph met him!) and I had a lovely time cuddling and walking around the room. He was clearly hungry but he still did very well and hardly cried at all. I sent a message to my Mum to say that the baby had arrived as she had said she would worry if she hadn't heard by 10:30. She still had to wait to find out the sex though which must have been torture!

Soph was brought up at about 12:30. She was rather groggy from the painkillers that had been pumped in to her, but she was still delighted to see her new boy. She immediately attempted to breast-feed, and (unlike his brother, who took a few days to get the hang of it) he latched straight on and had a really good feed.

I was keen for us to decide on a name so we could start calling people - especially Soph's parents who hadn't heard anything yet (I wanted Soph to be the one to tell them). We decided on Lachlan Paul - Paul after Soph's mother, Pauline. We could then start the happy process of calling, messaging and posting the news of the birth of our son!