Tough week...but its' been worth it.

All the baby stuff we've acquired now has a use. This makes me very happy.

We're finally back at home, and what a week it's been. I watched my daughter breast stroke into the world at 1.25 on 28th February.. a memory I wont lose in a hurry. Three points spring to mind about labour and delivery of a child:

a) It looks f**king excruciating: being around X has sworn me of foul language (pardon the pun), but watching E's confidence turn into bowel wrenching agony after her waters had broken gives me huge respect and sympathy for womankind. Her gasps and whispers of "fudge" as an early doors contraction worked its' way through her became full throated bellows and screams of "F**K!!!" several hours down the line. When the midwives finally gave her gas and air to numb the pain I watched in some shock as she sucked it up like a kid with an enormous smoothie. I tried some too - bit trippy, but not my bag to be honest. E would like a canister to take home as a souvenir though..
b) The damaged wreaked is extraordinary: that three and a half kilo bowling ball knocks everything out of its way and brings a load of blood with it. The recuperative powers of the body must be remarkable to squeeze a baby down a gap only a couple of centimetres across and recover from it afterwards.
c) My first sight of the placenta was an eye-opener: we idly discussed the merits of taking placenta home to fry a piece up, I said I was game. It looked like an enormous bloody steak with a bicycle padlock cable sticking out of it so I decided to give that a miss.

Once Baby Isadora was out (her "what the hell did I just go through?" expression was particularly priceless), we discovered all wasn't as rosy as we had hoped. After passing a particularly uncomfortable looking poop she was admitted to the neonatal unit for a week. During that time she experienced reflux which drove us all to distraction, being cooped up on the midwife unit at Kingston Hospital took it's toll on E, especially after all we had gone through. However it has all worked out well in the end. We are home as a family, and are ready to experience our future together. I myself have been introduced to the world of nappies and baby waste and have not been filled with horror. This is a plus. Isadora meanwhile possesses a Zen-like calm which we just marvel at. She also happens to be the most beautiful child I've ever seen.

I'll admit I am biased and of course people always say the nicest things once they see your baby. However, she has the Old Lady Seal of Approval already - our hospital check-up today produced a clutch of elderly admirers.


... so we must've done something right.  

All feels good. We drove home from the hospital in the early spring sunshine and I couldn't help think that Isadora had brought it with her. However I've heard the first couple of months with a new wee-one are tough so I'll be tempering my joie de vivre with a sense of guarded realism. We'll see how things go..

A.