LIFE - Life

Before I say anything else, the big news to announce is I am now a father! As of 1900 on the 21st of January, Megz and I are the proud parents of Kathleen Isabel Hamilton.

Kathleen was born at North Shore Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. At 41 weeks, Megz was scheduled to be induced in the morning of Friday the 20th, however it appeared she was going in to labour of her own accord, so we were asked to leave and come back, and then leave and come back and finally to come back on Saturday.

Megz was induced at about 1130, and we waited for the gel to take hold and then went for a walk. It was evident pretty quickly that the induction was kicking in. Megz was in no hurry to get anywhere quickly while we walked around.

Our midwife, Taanya Halliday, who had attended another birth that morning, took a break so she was fresh for ours.

We were due back at 1400 for an exam and Megz was hooked up to the monitor again and it was found she was going in to labour, and the contractions that were happening at the time were sharp peaks, which the midwife advised were due to the gel and it "...wasn't the real thing" and "...was going to get worse".

Not long later and even we knew from the monitor that the real thing was kicking in, so we started moving Megz around, trying to ease the pain. After a while, that wasn't enough and we moved in to our room and I popped her straight in the shower which helped. Taanya returned at this point.

After a while the shower wasn't enough, and Taanya advised it might be time to move to the bath and use some gas. Margaret was examined and found to be at 5 cm. This was about 4:00'ish. We spent a while in the bath. The contractions were getting to the point were Megz was needing the gas to help get through, and the water in the pool was a great help. The activity around increased as my Mum and Lou started taking a more active role. At this point Megz started feeling an uncontrollable urge to push, and it was suggested we move back to the room.

In changing position, the urge to push was reduced. Taanya said things were progressing very rapidly, and it was clear we wanted to slow things down a little. Mum and Lou were now fully involved. A little while later though, the urge to push couldn't be held back, to Megz was told to use the gas to keep things back while we prepped for the pushing stage.

Nooboo, as she was still known at this time, was well down, and Megz waters hadn't broken yet. These were ruptured manually, and the pushing began. The gas was gone, and the hard work was in full swing. Megz got three to four pushes with each contraction. Nooboo was getting close. Then the head was visible. A few more contractions and she was crowning. A couple more had the head clear and another and Nooboo was born.

I was up front with Megz holding her steady and giving her something to squeeze the heck out of. There was a flurry of activity down below and people were shouting and I heard Taanya call "Time of Birth 7:00 p.m". A few moments later, and Nooboo was handed up from below. It was the moment of truth. Which was he/she? The first glimpse I got wasn't good because the cord was in the way. And then SHE came in to view. She was no longer just Nooboo. Our daughter was here with us, and we could tell everyone her name.

We all spent a little while crying, and cuddling and taking photos. The placenta came, and there was bit of blood around the place. Apparently the cord was a little short, and the placenta was on the small side, but they did their purpose. Upon examination, Taanya advised that the placenta had begun to calcify a little, so it was definitely the right time to bring Kathleen along.

Since the delivery Mum and bub have been resting, learning and getting to know each other in the maternity ward here at the hospital. Megz has a room to herself. Number 6 in fact. And the delivery room we had was number 6. Now the funny thing is, 6 is my lucky number...:-) And I sure am lucky. I have a beautiful baby daughter. It's taking some getting used to and is still a little surreal. But it's amazing. I'm so proud of the both of them.

And so starts the first day of the rest of our lives. All three of us. More to come and more pix to add to Flickr.