The Barlow Family: May 2012

Nefin decided to come into the world with a bang on May 7th 2012, one day before his due date. We had been to the Doctor's office earlier in the day and had shown some signs of impending labour but nothing significant. We then went on to meet a friend for coffee. My first contraction was at the grocery store while I was paying for my groceries at 1:45 pm. I hopped in a taxi and had another contraction on the way home. At this point I wasn't sure they were contractions but I thought I'd better warn Gareth to come home after work rather than go to football. Luckily I did as by the time he got home the contractions were coming anywhere between 2-7 minutes apart. I called the Delivery Suite and they told me to come in when they were 5 mins apart or when the pain was too much. I did manage to shave my legs before heading to the hospital! By the time we got there I was 4 cm dialated and the contractions were fairly painful. We were shown to our room and I quickly decided I needed a bath to help ease the pain. Contractions were 5 mins apart. After a quick bath I was on my knees leaning over the bed as the pain was getting pretty extreme. It was all back labour so luckily I had a lovely nurse who massaged my back and Gareth who took over that duty later. Gareth was so supportive throughout the whole labour :)
By about 9 pm I asked them to check to see how dialated I was as I was starting to think an epidural might not be such a bad idea. I was 7 cm. Decided to tough it out. Not long after I started feeling the urge to push. I was 10 cm. I pushed for about an hour and out came this beautiful little boy! Born at 2345 May 7th, weighing 8 lb 9 oz (3.9 kg), 54 cm long. The first words out of my mouth were "it's a boy" as I honestly thought we were having a girl. The next thing I said was "he's so cute" because he was. He wasn't all wrinkling and red like most newborns. The perfect little baby. I could tell Gareth was proud of his little man. Who would have thought, I'll have a little mini Gareth running around soon. I hope he takes after his dad who is so kind and considerate.

After we were done in the delivery suite, and Gareth had given me a lovely present of earrings and a necklace, we headed up to the postnatal unit with our little guy. I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night as I was too excited and couldn't stop looking at my little man.

The next day I managed to get up an shower and we had our first visitors, all of the Outdoor Education department! They brought lovely flowers and a balloon. Unfortunately they thought Nefin was a girl! We hadn't 100% decided on a name by this point.

After 2 nights in the hospital it was time to go home. They wanted to keep me an extra day to sort out the breastfeeding issues we were having however we decided to get help on our own. We had our first bath and the kitchen staff brought us our 'celebratory' lunch.

Soon we arrived home, just in time to surprise Grandma Barlow who came over from England to help out for these first few weeks.

Over the next few days/weeks we struggled with breastfeeding and had to get some outside help (several times!) and there were many tears. We struggled through it though and hopefully have it sorted. We had a busy first week with doctor's appointments, but we try to find some time everyday for a walk.