I've had a mad few days, woke up morning of 31st to find entire floor of the kitchen covered in dogsick, dog had been to the beach the day before and had obviously drunk too much seawater. Took ages to clear up. Maree went into hospital with my sister in law to be induced but there was no entry in the diary saying she was coming in so they spent ages redoing tests and trying to contact the consultant who had ordered the induction. (meanwhile at home I'd managed to finish Mafia 2, so the day wasn't a total loss
).
Eventually stuff was sorted out, mum in law located and dragged out of shops to babysit, and Maree, my sister in law (who has been at all our kid's births and is great moral support) and I sped off to the labour ward to wait for events to unfold. Labour was induced after the NHS standard wait. I stayed up the head end but it didn't look a pleasant procedure, strange instruments and rubber gloves were involved. I'm very glad I'm not a woman. Her waters were broken and contractions started and went on for about 3 hours before tailing off.
Maree decided under the influence of gas and air that standing up was a good idea. It was, contractions restarted with a vengeance and within 10 mins she was trying to get back on the the bed for the Big Push. Sis in Law grabbed a passing midwife (our midwife had gone to the toilet) who immediately pulled the emergency cord and returned to the business end just in time to catch the baby and about 5 staff piled in. This is normal apparently. I was asked to sex the baby and made the embarrassing/classic mistake of mistaking the umbilical cord for a penis. Turns out it was a girl. Again. Keira Megan Carter, born 7:30am 31/3/11.
Edit: Baby was born, Maree had complications and had lost blood so she was kept in the labour suite on a drip. I went home at 11:30ish, got home, kicked the mum in law out and went to bed
The 1st was my son's 7th birthday and it was a busy day, fortunately my sister in law helped out a lot babysitting. Took the kids to school, popped in to see Maree (bored, but on the ward and off the drip) and baby, stayed there 4 hours, came home, got new baby essentials out loft, admired tank cake Maree had made and various family members had finished off,
did tons of other essential jobs, cleaned dining room carpet as it still stunk, picked kids up from school, massive pressie fest, wish I had got some of my son's toys when I was his age, took son to Beavers, took oldest daughter to see mum and baby, picked up son from Beavers, took him to see mum and baby and to my surprise they let Maree out. I then had to try and several tons of luggage, a newborn baby, one son and a sore wife in my 3 door Fiesta which was a struggle. Didn't get much sleep last night but it was nice to have Maree and Keira home.
Today I have been mostly clearing up and shouting at the kids. I also replaced the dining floor as the smell had taken on a life of it's own. Got some offcuts of hospital grade anti bacterial lino off my father in law, it looks truly awful but it's still better than the carpet.
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