Emily Hope.

posted by Jaitu at 09:08

Almost exactly twenty four hours ago my beautiful wife gave birth to our equally beautiful first child. Emily Hope was born at 9:18 weighing 8lbs 4oz. I won't go in to any great detail but the birth was almost entirely free of complication. I'll leave the telling of the whole story, at least as much as she would care to share, to Naomi herself. It was a long day as we barely slept before Naomi's contractions started last night. It wasn't a good feeling having to say goodbye to them both and leave them in hospital overnight but I had my first uninterrupted night's sleep for a few months and undoubtedly my last for some considerable time to come.
For now, here are a couple of photos.

Waters Broken

posted by Jaitu at 15:57

Naomi's waters broke at home at approximately 12:45 this afternoon. The hospital confirmed this and now a altogether new flavour of waiting is unleashed. Apparently 86% of women go into spontaneous labour within 24 hours of the waters breaking.

Finally Some Scan Pictures

posted by Jaitu at 07:59

Okay, these aren't of the best quality as they are digital scans of thermal prints.
These are from the twenty-ish week scan that was done back in January.

Update(Update):(The thumbnails should now open the correct images)

NCT First Meeting.

posted by Jaitu at 07:42

We attended our first NCT meeting last night. I think it would be fair to say that we were both a little nervous at the idea of meeting with a group of complete strangers to be taught about pregnancy, birth and looking after a newborn. I turns out there was no need to worry at all. The four other couples in the group are all around our ages and completely friendly. The group leader split us into expectant-Mums and Dads-to-be for a couple of exercises and both groups seemed to have a very good time of things.
The NCT (National Childbirth Trust) is not free but does allow you to meet a smaller group of local people in the same situation as yourself. We know of many people who used NCT in the past and are still in regular contact with the people they met there.