It’s over a week since our new baby was born and as this is the first entry in the baby blog I will go back to the beginning and give you some background into the first few moments of the baby’s life outside the womb. The birth – a fathers perspective
Day One - Sunday 14 September 2003
Jaden-Taylor was born a very healthy 3.4 kg at 19:45 after what to me seemed like a short labour, although suggesting this to a woman who has just pushed something the size of a boulder out of something the size of a pin head wasn't a very good idea. The whole saga started early that morning, and I do mean early, about 0500, with a few random contractions. These random contractions continued with varying strength and frequency throughout the day fooling us into thinking the baby was coming soon, to the extent that we even phoned the hospital to say get ready. Not so false labour After hours of searching for information on the net we finally conceded that this was false labour and nothing was going to happen today. How wrong we were, becuase at about 1730 the contractions became very strong and very regular, about 5 minutes apart. A call to the hospital and a bath later and we are rushing to the maternity unit in the car trying to stop Sammy from pushing the baby out under the seat. When we finally reached the hospital after hitting every red light and traffic hold up and not finding anywhere to stop, we went straight to a delivery room where Sammy had to try and get onto a bed that seemed to be about as high as a um…. Well onto something very high. Fortunately the midwife lowered the bed and Sammy was able to slide on. Well, sort of. The birth I spent the next 45 minutes looking and feeling like a very useless lemon. The midwife was nice, and she tried to make me feel at least a little bit useful by putting me ‘in charge’ of the baby monitor which basically entailed pushing a button to turn it on, another to turn up the volume, and passing through a bit of cable with a chunk of plastic on the end to monitor the babies heartbeat. Oh and I can't forget the goo, the stuff to make the noise come through that goes on the end of the plastic chunck. That, and the essential part of any soon to be father's job - being beaten to a pulp by mummy every time a contraction starts and any time in between if she feels like it! It all happened in a total blaze, one minute we are struggling with the bed and finding out that Sammy is 8cm dilated, the next out pops baby boy looking all wrinkled and purple (I don’t care what anyone says newborn babies are ugly). The midwife clamps the chord and for the second time (I got to do it with my daughter three years ago) I cut the cord and out squirts puss, goo and gunk. The baby, who was cleaned and wrapped up like a dodgy wrapped parcel at Christmas time, was shown to mummy then passed on to me to hold while mummy was cleaned and wrapped herself. The first moments together I know I have been through this before with my first child but the experience is still as powerful, holding your child for the first time, watching them take their first breaths, opening their eyes for the first time. It is an experience that lives with you like a constantly playing video. Even the cries are heart warming after waiting for nine months to meet him, but this is soon going to change. After holding the baby I passed him over to mummy and started taking photos and getting the video camera out (yes it stayed away during the birth). I went home that night leaving mummy and baby to rest while I looked after baby number one, although if you call her a baby you will be met with a stern face, hands on hips, screaming 'I'm a BIG GIRL'. I think that is a good place to leave this entry as the next stage includes the first moments baby one meets baby two and the first LONG night at home. by Ryan Morrison
E-mail ryan.morrison@bbc.co.uk if you would like to comment on this article. We reserve the right to publish any comments sent in to us.
| 
