Seldom Said

At last!

Aurelia Daphne Albertella was finally born in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning, weighing a modest 7lb and 1oz.

She gave us a bit of a scare at the last minute - mostly because she came out so quickly that the midwives were taken by surprise! At one point we had a room full of doctors and midwives hovering around anxiously, worried that she was stuck, but then one of them figured out that the baby was facing up, not down. With this (rather crucial) information and a superheroic effort from Alice (who was more than a little panicky by this point), it was a matter of seconds before she was born.

More observant readers may note a subtle change in Aurelia's middle name. That's because we were originally going to go with the Italian spelling ('Dafne'), but decided that it didn't look quite right written down. For those that don't know, 'Daphne' was my mum's name, so there was never any doubt that it would feature in our daughter's name in some form.

We had to hang around at the hospital all day yesterday (until 8pm), waiting for the doctors and midwives to give her the all clear. This was rather frustrating, but paediatrician kept being called away to help with emergencies, so didn't make it onto the ward until the evening. Then we had to wait for the midwives to do the paperwork... However, all that's forgotten now that we have her home.

Iestyn isn't sure what to make of his baby sister yet, but she was the first thing that he asked about when we came down for breakfast this morning and he keeps pointing at her and saying "Aurelia!" now that she and Alice have come down to join us.

I now have two weeks of paternity leave to look forward to (including many sleepless nights, no doubt!), so you can expect to see a lot more photos of Aurelia and Iestyn appearing on Flickr. It's been interesting to compare some of my earliest pictures of Iestyn with those of Aurelia. In hospital we remarked on how different her face was from his, but we'd obviously forgotten what he looked like when he was born - they actually look very similar indeed!

At the moment I'm most fascinated by her delicate little fingers and her funny little feet, but that's only because she's asleep. I know that when she opens her dark, dark eyes I'll be lost in them again, just as I was with her brother...

08:27 - 0 Comments

Still waiting

Well, Mk II was due on Monday and it's now Saturday. She obviously isn't going to be a punctual child. No sign of any problems, but no sign of an imminent arrival either. My brother and his wife have been up to visit on the off-chance, but to no avail. The grandparents are still staying with us (it's been nearly three weeks now) and people keep phoning to ask if there's any news.

(deep sigh)

Perhaps today... or tomorrow.... or soon, she'll decide that it's time to make her big debut. Until then, we wait.

09:49 - 0 Comments

Inconsequential thoughts rarely worth muttering out loud