I am delighted to announce that Piggy has popped and now has a very small Piglet in tow! Max Arthur March was born at approximately 3.10pm on Thursday 28th July 2016 weighing 2.6kg or, by conventional wisdom, 5lbs 7oz. He is more ‘min’ than ‘max’ at the moment but, aside from his small stature, he is completely perfect and both mother and father are rather proud of our efforts.
I confess to finding the birthing process absolutely horrendous but can only imagine what it was like for poor Piggy. Contractions started at about 8.30am on Thursday and gradually progressed until we went to hospital at about 10.30am. There was a scare fairly early on when his heart rate dropped but this was soon put to one side with a few hours of excruciating labour to follow. However, when his rate dropped for a second time just before 3.00pm the decision was immediately taken to perform an emergency cesarean section. Piggy was wheeled out and I was left with precious little information. The only thing that stuck in my mind was “Grade 1 emergency cesarean”. I sat in the waiting room and quietly googled what that meant: ‘Immediate threat to the life of the mother or fetus’. That wasn’t what I wanted to read but a nurse did appear shortly afterwards to assure me everything would be fine. And, about 10 minutes after that, baby Max appeared, sparkling clean and wrapped in a bundle of towels. This was about 3.30pm but his poor mother didn’t reappear until about 5.30pm. She wan’t looking nor feeling her best but gradually improved to the point that I left mother and baby to it at about 8pm last night.
I can report that the baby continues to be healthy and happy and that his mother has improved in leaps and bounds overnight. She is sore and uncomfortable but has mentally recovered from the anaesthetic and trauma of the experience. All being well, they should be allowed to return to Maidwell on Saturday.
It is not long before reality hits. He’s not yet 24 hours old but there’s already a handful of similar stories to this one! Because of his small size, his clothes completely drown him but, on rummaging around at home, I did manage to uncover a ‘tiny baby’ outfit. I took it to hospital this morning, washed him because he stank of sick, checked the other end (which was miraculously fine), got him into his new outfit which fitted very well indeed and, just as I was doing up the last popper, he promptly threw up all over it. Back to square one! Welcome to parenthood.
It is absolutely amazing to have a child but the process of welcoming them to the big wide world is not a pleasant one. I would like to finish with an apology to my mother for the awful things I’ve done since she had to endure the same experience and I suggest everyone else fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do so does likewise.
Max, Piggy and I look forward to seeing you all soon!
