A high drama of new youth, parenthood and smelly nappies

Posts from April 2006

08:57pm Saturday, 29th April 2006

g’evening all. again, apologies for limited updates of late. despite spending most of the day asleep, gethin seem’s to be occupying most of our waking moments (but then, that’s babies for you!). what between the washing and sterilising of bottles, preparing and delivery of feeds (boil the water, let the water cool, mix the formula, put it in the fridge, take it out the fridge, warm it to room temperature, administer to geth gob), washing of clothes, changing of nappies and the obligatory catching up on sleep there isn’t very much time left in the day for the updating of blogs.

having said that, as i type gethin is himself catching up on some well-earned sleep, exhausted from a day’s best behaviour plus a couple of well overdue poo’s!

since the last update peta has been faring very well indeed at being a home-alone housewife and mum, whilst cole has been enjnoying his new job in edinburgh (although not so much the daily commute). gethin has been very well indeed, although until today he has still been quite constipated causing noticeable distress for the boy and some sleeplessness/VERY early mornings for the parents.

today peta, cole and gethin headed into edinburgh to meet ryan and shelley. cole successfully managed to dismantle and reassemble the buggy in record time and gethin seemed to enjoy his first train trip (if sleeping qualifies as enjoyment). upon arriving in the big smoke the henleys split up, peta and gethin visited gorgie city farm with shelley and her friends whilst cole and ryan thought they would make the most of the lovely scottish weather and headed to the pub to watch the manu-chelsea game and play a few games of pool. a grand day out was had by all, despite the footy result, and we made it back in time for gethin’s evening feed without him getting too upset.

right. going to go and relax to the last of the mohicans. fine saturday evening fodder i think you will all agree: you stay alive, no matter what occurs, i will find you…

10:02pm Wednesday, 26th April 2006

sorry for lack of updates. the good news is that gethin is not reporting any ill effects from sunday’s paternal clumsiness.

yesterday he got to meet his health visitor for the first time who was most impressed with our wee smasher (or ‘bruiser’ as i think she called him). he got a little red book to keep track of his developments (a bit early for this is your life?) and according to the chart in the back of the book he is in the top percentile of height for 3-week old babies and will apparently be just shy of 2m tall by his 20th birthday. he’ll be in dad’s hand-me-downs in no time at all!

Gethin went into hospital this morning for his follow-up weigh-in and joy of joys he has regained his birth weight and a bit more, now at 4.49kg! The doctors are quite happy with his progress and the paediatrician felt there was no need for us to go back to hospital for any further check ups, even though he pee-ed on the nurse. with the hospital being in nearby livingston cole was once more at the mercy of public transport to get to work and quelle surprise, what should have been a 24min train journey from livi to edinburgh ended up taking well over an hour. and people wonder why we are a nation of petrol-heads determined to get to places under our own steam!

we are still trying to refine gethin’s feeding routine and almost have it sussed. he is pretty much feeding every four hours now (…3-7-11-3-7-11…), although the last couple of days he has been getting up a bit earlier than normal so some fine tuning still required. the good news for all concerned is that he is spending most of the time between each feed fast asleep and pulling an amusing variety of faces. peta too is at long last getting to catch up on some much needed sleep (though with less amusing facial expressions) whilst cole is successfully managing to slumber when the evening feed comes around, though sadly not when the evening nappy change comes around.

sadly, peta, cole and gethin had to bid farewell to moomin elmore today who headed back down south after providing some much appreciated helping hands since the weekend. who is going to make cole his morning coffee and eggy bread now? why are the dishes suddenly not magically washing themselves up? come back moomin elmore!

07:55am Sunday, 23rd April 2006

poor, poor gethin has been a bit poorly with constipation after being on formula for a week or so. it’s not too bad, we are having to top him up with cooled, boiled water between feeds, but it has led to some distress, some quality gurning and the oddest of poos (think of greyey-blue playdough but a bit wiffy-er!)

a lazy weekend has so far been had by all (particularly cole who has spent most of it asleep, though he would place the blame on a deep-fried pizza he ate), and moomin has popped up for a few days to see grandchild and assist with all the kerfuffle that babies entail.

a moment of high drama this morning as cole, trying to do some upstanding dad stuff whilst peta caught up on some sleep, managed to drop gethin. fortunately it was only a wee bit from the floor as cole was stooped over picking something up but pretty scary stuff. thankfully gethin seemed unphased by the whole thing though dad was a bit scarified!

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07:31am Friday, 21st April 2006

cole started his new job yesterday. all was well and gethin’s timing meant he/we cleaned up on the office sweepstake with no takers for the alloted tob.

it was a bit intense taking on something else that was new on top of all the new experiences and learning curve of the past fortnight, cole feeling a bit shell-shocked but that might just have been the early morning brought on by gethin. it has been well worth it though and cole had an enjoyable first few paces onto pastures new.

01:06pm Thursday, 20th April 2006

delighted to announce the arrival of gethin’s cousin, samual joshua withers, who emerged at 05:45 this morning. i don’t know, you wait years for the next generation then two pop along at once!

11:22am Wednesday, 19th April 2006

houston, we have coffee! thanks leiske for your old/new coffee machine. daddy henley is no longer walking around in a sleepy haze and grumpy as a grizzly bear.

as i type leiske is in hospital being induced or prepped for such. so within the next few hours gethin should have a wee cousin. details on the wee withers blog

09:50am Wednesday, 19th April 2006

this is a first – peta is writing an entry on bairn blog. Apologies to everyone who may have wondered where I’ve been! I’ve not had the easiest couple of weeks – hence my withdrawal from polite society – Ryan and shelley/grandparents, you are polite society too!

The birth of lovely Gethin was, in my opinion, bloody awful. Something not to be repeated for a long time! I’m still recovering from all the “damage” and really can’t do very much without having to sit down. the whole day is mostly a blur – cole keeps reminding me of things that happened which then triggers memories, but I can hardly recall most of the day – i think that’s more to do with being out of it on morphine and sheer pain! my contractions were “off the scale”, and gas and air – what’s all that about? by the time you’ve got it working the contraction’s been and gone! still i was glad of something to bite – hard!

Now for a cheesy moment – I must give my thanks and love to coley – without whom (none of this would’ve bloody happened) – no, seriously – he was so cool and calm, and supportive and lovely, and has been ever since. Leiske I think we should have a “who’s husband is the best” competition! He has been a little whirlwind ever since Gethin’s arrival and won’t let me lift a finger – so much so I don’t have a clue how to work the steriliser or make up the formula! eeep! I couldn’t get through the day without you!

And when we thought we were home and dry – Gethin got sick. That first week and a half were so bizarre – trying to get used to a new (cryey) person in the family but also not getting enough sleep. I can’t believe how much weight he lost – and the fact that we didn’t notice. Cole has already described all the strange and horrible feelings we went through – and then to be told yesterday that it was the worst case the hospital staff had seen – is just gut wrenching. Looking back I knew there was something not right – Gethin completely changed, I felt I knew what kind of baby he was from the moment he was born, only to be totally another by the time he was a few days old. Call it mother’s instinct, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It still pains me to think of what might’ve happened, but at least he’s back on track now, chubbing out nicely!

Personally I’m still finding life a little beyond my control at the moment – I’ve seen the doctor and we’re taking a course of action to prevent me getting full blown PND. That’s something that I anticipated whilst I was pregnant – despite being completely happy and bouncey throughout most of it. I know I’m capable of being a happy mummy to Gethin, but it will just take a little time and help. There is light at the end…..

Well – I’ve been totally overwhelmed with the amount of support and kind presents/cards from everyone – thankyou all for being so amazing and lovely – and apologies from me for not thanking you all personally and sooner. Gethin loves all his cutey pie outfits and toys – and I’ve been enjoying the beautiful flowers and smellies that people have given! Thanks again – and I hope to catch up with people shortly!

To everyone at work – if it’s okay I might try and venture in next week – my mum is here so I’ll have a little help. I did want to come in earlier with Gethin but I really couldn’t manage it, physically and mentally. I know you all understand! please send my love to all the mums and little ones at B&T!

WOW – that was a mammouth entry – hope y’all managed to wade through it – ciao for now!

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03:34pm Tuesday, 18th April 2006

gethin had his checkup at the hospital today and got the thumbs up from the paediatrician. he is still putting his weight on, though has a wee way to go before regaining his birth weight. all relieved although hadn’t realised how serious it had been. the paediatrician said the hospital hadn’t seen a newborn baby with such dramatic weight loss before.

good news is we can relax the 3-hourly feed and now feed on demand, meaning (hopefully) a better nights sleep for all concerned!

11:02pm Monday, 17th April 2006

a lovely lazy easter monday was had by all as ryan and shelley made a trip from the big smoke to see the three henleys. we ate some, watched some telly, changed some nappies, ate some more, cut some wood (good manly stuff) and went for a walk to the local farm to see some newborn lambs and calfs. a big thank you to ryan’s mum and shelley’s parents for their lovely presents for gethin.

the wee fella has been on fine form today, once more managing to pee over the parents and also do a monster stench of a poo in dad’s honour…and i thought belle’s litter tray was stinky!

01:01pm Sunday, 16th April 2006

first night back home and a marvellous evening it was for all. we had to maintain the feeding programme so up every three hours (and slept through one alarm so Gethin’s feeding routine is now on European rather than BST) but when not being fed Geth managed to sleep through fine. hurrah! hopefully the shape of things to come…

02:16pm Saturday, 15th April 2006

peta and gethin are now home. gethin was weighed this morning and has regained 400g so well on the way to getting back to his full birth weight.

once home he has fed and did his second poo in as many days, but this time managing a magnificent pee on dad mid-change, bullseye!

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09:08pm Friday, 14th April 2006

so far so good. the paediatrician (sp?) wants to keep peta and gethin in hospital another night to ensure that he is regaining his weight and feeding okay but all seems to be going well. gethin is feeding well every three hours, with breast-feeding supplemented by formula. formula is something neither of us had thought about so had to pop out and buy some bottles and formula powder from asda, now suitably sterilised and eagerly awaiting the happy homecoming.

gethin is quite sleepy and back to his chilled out old self (for the meantime at least) whilst he tries to regain his original birth weight. feed, sleep, feed, sleep, feed, sleep…takes after his dad then!

the good news is that gethin managed his first poo today since he was originally in hospital (some eight days ago!) and what an almighty poo it was. fortunately he couldn’t wait for the paternal visit so poor peta was left cleaning up the mess.

10:16pm Thursday, 13th April 2006

third and last entry for the day. just got back from the hospital where gethin and peta are staying in overnight whilst they try to build up his fluids with formula. after a pregnancy in which we have been bombarded with images and pamphlets and advice emphasising the importance of breast-feeding i cannot remember anything that discussed the alternatives. i know how important a resource breast-feeding can be, particularly in the first few days, but such is the emphasis on breast that to have to resort to alternative foods almost makes you feel guilty. there has been little mention in the reams of information we have accumulated about what happens if you can’t breast-feed or cannot fully support the baby’s needs through breast-feeding alone. after today and some lengthy conversations with family i have been amazed at how commonly formula and other such supplements are used, but how little this is discussed.

anyway, all is going well at the mo with peta and gethin but should the poor wee chap be having difficulties feeding through the night then there is the possibility that he might be moved to special care to get some tlc. will keep y’all posted on any developments but all things going well hope to have P & G back home tomorrow.

it’s times like this that the parental emotions go into overdrive. guilt has been the main feeling which deep down you know is silly but there is a part of you that thinks “how did i not notice my son losing a kilogram in a week”, “have i neglected him”? the overwhelming nature of being a new parent means that so much of your time and mental effort is involved in taking on and taking in new things. at times it seems like so much of your attention is placed on providing a safe, warm, comfortable environment for your child that you forget to think about the child itself!

being home alone once more is also strange. it is a bit like the jetset lottery program. you get to sample another lifestyle for a week or so but then back to normality. there have been a number of times since gethin was born that i have felt someone will take him away or i will wake up and things will return to the way they were BG. thinking that i may in some way have neglected gethin’s needs have only exacerbated this feeling. not at all that i want things to go back to the way they were eleven days ago, or that i wish gethin away. if anything, today has made me realise that life with peta and gethin is normality, and already i cannot remember a time when gethin wasn’t in my life/our lives. here’s hoping then that we will not have to wait long for things to resume to the new, normal normality!

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05:57pm Thursday, 13th April 2006

donner unt blitzen. shall keep this brief as have to away for reasons that will shortly become apparent but today has been an almightily crazy day. after gethin’s rash got the all clear from the midwife and we prepared to away for peta’s date with some scissors, pat the midwife popped back as she had to weigh gethin.

imagine our surprise when it was revealed that gethin had seemingly lost a kilo in weight since birth. now i hadn’t realised that babies lose weight after birth and then put it back on again but a quarter of his birth weight was some pretty serious losage. a trip to the hospital was in order where some bloods were promptly taken from gethin. it transpired that the poor wee fella was quite severely dehydrated (hence the weight loss) and was not getting enough sustenance from mummys boob.

peta and gethin are staying in overnight where they will try to supplement his breast feeding with formula and take some more bloods to make sure his hydration levels are on the up. so, all a bit scary but no particularly bad news (except peta not getting to have her hair cut). must away now to take overnight supplies to them both. byeee

11:04am Thursday, 13th April 2006

gethin gave us a wee scare this morning. after a grizzly night we went to change him so we could take peta into linlithgow for a well earned hair cut. the poor wee blighter was covered in a rash which probably accounts for his grizzles in the night. well, it turns out all is okay although you inevitably fear the worst for a few moments. think he has had a reaction to something he has worn, although we had prewashed all his clothes in non-bio so can’t figure that one out!

peta’s hair appointment has been rescheduled to this afternoon so stay tuned to the blog where a new look mrs henley will be revealed!

10:13pm Wednesday, 12th April 2006

peta and gethin’s first day home alone as cole skulked off to edinburgh to take a day’s leave from his paternity leave and attend a conference. ‘twas strange being back in edinburgh and cole got to catch up with lots of faces old and new.

peta and gethin both had a marvellous day together and upon cole’s return from the brrrrr all set off to the bonsyde for gethin’s first trip to the pub and to meet up with ‘uncle’ (in the friendly pub landlord, not biological, sense) pete.

gethin got a lovely present from kate murchie, a frankly quite gorgeous grannimal named sacha. thanks kate!

01:01pm Tuesday, 11th April 2006

well, as one life comes into this world we must, sadly, say goodbye to another as cole’s coffee machine passed away this morning after many years good service. krups 963/a, you were an exemplary servant without which cole probably would have never finished his doctorate. you will be sorely missed!

on a more positive note, gethin slept like a dream last night after some nifty swaddling. we think because he is so animated he was often startling himself with his flailing arms. with said extremities now out of the equation he is sleeping soundly and only wakes in the night to feed.

this is, however, taking its toll on peta who is having to sleep through much of the day to catch up not only on interrupted nights but also i don’t think she has caught up with the sleepless labour she had to endure.

anyway, hope you all like the new look for the site. with gethin now a week old cole felt the bairn blog, as it was, was a bit anonymous so has conducted a swift revamp to reflect the new addition to the henley household. enjoy…

10:03am Monday, 10th April 2006

two…hours…sleep… young Gethin, it would seem, is a slumber terrorist. very stressful night for all involved last night (not least wee Geth). Peta and Cole were up for most of the night whilst the wee yin cried and cried and cried some more.

wet/dirty nappy? nope. hungry? nope. needs a cuddle? nope. too cold/hot? nope. it would seem Gethin was crying because he was tired which was keeping him from sleeping. oh, the paradox! well, he seems to be sleeping fine now but that is what probably got him into trouble last night so will try to keep him awake and stimulated today so he will be tired and ready for kip this evening. fingers crossed!

anyway, hoping to make a family venture into Linlithgow today. Peta hasn’t really left the house since she got back from hospital on Thursday so thought we could show Gethin the sights, sounds and smells of our local town.

05:41pm Sunday, 9th April 2006

almost a week into parenthood and all is seemingly well. the three wise grandparents said their goodbyes to gethin today as they set off back down south. it was really great to have them around so soon after peta and gethin came out of hospital but it is just the three of us now.

gethin is struggling to sleep at the moment but saying that, as i type he is having a nice snooze in the kitchen after spending most of the day asleep. he is feeding well and we are still awaiting his first dirty nappy since hospital. this was a source of some concern at first but the midwife assures us it is quite normal. apparently the local record for a newborn is 21 days without a poop. we can certainly deal with that!

gethin’s sleepiness today is a far cry from the previous two evenings where he has been up alot, definitely a night owl it would seem. most of his nocturnal activity has been dealt with by peta (with cole managing to sleep through most of friday evening) but cole is usually up at five for the obligatory wet nappy change. we are still very much at the ‘what does this cry mean’ stage of parenthood (he is not as quiet as first it seemed but not particularly noisy either) but we both seem to be managing okay so far. cole is still a bit wary about handling, winding, etc and could do with a paternal chill pill at times but is always improving! after the delivery experience, cole has also been quite paranoid about gethin’s breathing but again, that is quite normal apparently and it has not been bad enough to require the ol’ mirror test.

12:29pm Friday, 7th April 2006

peta and gethin came home yesterday afternoon. young geth seemed to enjoy the drive and the cd cole had made in his honour.

moomin elmore came back with us and kindly did an uber-shop so we are nicely stocked up for a wee while. gethin settled in okay but against our pre-gethin wishes we had to resort to the dummy to soothe him. he is constantly in need of oral stimulation and there is only so much feeding peta can manage! since birth he has almost permanently tried to get his fingers in his gob. the midwife reckoned that using a dummy was okay as long as we remove it once a pattern/routine is established and before his long-term memory has kicked in. as she said, “it is easier to remove a dummy than to remove his fingers”.

our first night at home went okay. gethin took a long time to get settled, taking in his new surroundings, and didn’t begin to drop off until about 2am. he was quiet most of the night but peta had to get up to feed him at five and cole changed his nappy shortly after. we have tried him in his sling and he seems quite content being walked around in it. we popped out to see the chickens but it was a bit breezy and (quite wisely) he didnt seem to like the cold.

gethin is looking forward to meeting his other grandparents today. gramps elmore is arriving after lunch whilst oma and oompa henley will be coming up from the midlands this evening. also getting our first house visit from our fab midwife, pat, today. think we might take gethin for his first trip to the pub this evening to meet the locals (thanks to the smoking ban north of the border) but will see how he goes. bit early for a pint of samuel smiths lager

10:13pm Wednesday, 5th April 2006

young gethin was on fine form today. he managed to poo at all the right times (when dad wasn’t visiting) and was generally quite content. peta is doing well and looking forward to coming home.

granny/moomin fiona ‘popped’ up from the south of england to visit and got to meet the next generation. gethin had all his tests today. he has all the appropriate digits and things like that, and was apparently quite cute when having his hearing tested. he is just shy of two foot tall, which is pretty tall for a two day old i gather, meaning that the bundle of 0-3 month clothes we had got for him are beginning to look more like 0-3 days. he also managed to do a quite spectacular vomit all over mum and bed whilst feeding. go son!

well, daddy had better pop to bed as this may be the last chance in a wee while to get a good nights sleep (though given gethin’s behaviour so far he might prove to be quite the chilled child, touch wood).

11:41pm Tuesday, 4th April 2006

well, after a quality nights sleep, cole got some things straight in the house, updated the rellys and went to the hospital to see peta and gethin. all were well and cole got to change his first nappy. not especially smelly but the contents were an unusual shade of green with the consistency of a chocolate fudge cake that has been left out in the sun for too long. yuk!

dad’s weren’t allowed on the ward over lunch so popped over to the shops to get some essential supplies for peta and a nice lunch at maccy ds. upon wolfing down a particularly unappetising fillet o’ fish cole realised he had only eaten two slices of cold toast and a delightful hospital cheese and coleslaw sandwich (without the coleslaw it turned out) since sunday evening. funny what you can get on with on this adrenalin malarky!

back to the hospital to help peta out with gethin. both mother and child were still very sleepy.

anyway, some early observations of the esteemed gethin william albert henley. he is an inquisitive sort. form birth he has been looking around, taking in the world around him and wondering about important stuff like why are wasps, what does winter smell like and who is this strange man with the beard?

he is also (so far) quite quiet. the occasional cry has not really been particularly noisy or distressing on the ears (certainly compared to the potential realised by the other bairns on the ward). even when changing clothes or nappies, he does not seem particularly phased, rather resting his eyelids. the midwife tells us he is very happy to be handled (again, unlike some of the other babies on the ward).

despite his weight he is not particularly chubby but just big. he does not quite reach the full length of the cot but he is getting there and already there isn’t much room for expansion in his 0-3 month baby clothes. young gethin henley certainly seems quite the gentle giant compared to the trio of six pounders also in the room.

little else to report. still some sleep to catch up on so shall away shortly but firstly a big thanks to everyone for their well wishes (far too many to mention), ryan and shelley for patiently waiting so long, ken and blanche for the lovely flowers, the smashing midwives (all of them) for all their help and support and, as the scribe of this site, i would just like to say a massive thank you to peta for enduring such pain and for bringing a lovely son into this world, and also to gethin for making it and being just what we wanted. sorry, got a bit gushy there but had to be said.

11:22pm Tuesday, 4th April 2006

well, what a long day it was yesterday.

april 3rd 2006

00:00 after six or so hours of contraction-like non-contractions peta begins labour.

02:30 cole somehow manages to sleep through the pain until about half-two in the morning, by which time the contractions were quite heavy, quite regular and quite close together (about five minutes apart).

05:30 peta soldiers on but after a few hours the contractions were proving quite hard to manage, we away to the hospital in livingston where peta could get some nice pain relief.

08:30 after a spot on the trace machine to measure the babies heartbeat and mother’s contractions, peta was admitted to a delivery room where she stayed for several hours.

16:00 after some morphine and much panting of breath, peta was fully dilated and ready for the big push, so to speak.

17:00 after an hour or so of pushing the baby was still not with us. it was well on it’s way but labour was proving too labourious for poor peta.

17:30 the midwife decides that she should consult with the doctors as there was no way this baby was going to come out of its own accord. they elected that the best option would be to get peta into theatre where they could try to deliver with forceps, but if that was not possible they could go for a caesarian.

peta was taken into theatre for a spinal anaesthetic whilst cole got scrubbed up in a fetching blue paper ensemble. it was fifteen minutes before i could go in and join peta and suffice to say those were the longest fifteen minutes of my life. much pacing and over-active imagination later, cole and peta were in theatre getting ready for the delivery of the wee yin.

18:04 after the intervention of what seemed, for all intensive purposes, to be a large pair of barbecue tongs, bairn was delivered and helf aloft for cole to check out the bits for himself and inform peta of whether she had had a girl or boy, and as you all well know by now it was a beautiful boy.

bairn was passed to cole who succeeded in not fumbling him long enough to get some quality time, although being in scrubs skin to skin was not on the cards.

it was immediately apparent that this was not a wee fella, and why peta had had such difficulty in labour. at 9lb 11½ oz (that half will be all important later in life!) Gethin (as we had almost instantaneously decided to call him) was a whopper. through the gunk we could see that he had lovely fair hair.

the anaesthetist (by jove there were a lot of people in that theatre, i reckon at least ten. wierdly, i had always imagined that operation theatres were dark places with big bright lights. in fact it was altogether very bright indeed! i digress) started playing with young Gethin’s hand. this is where cole got very scared. you see Gethin came out quite purple, as apparently most babies are when born. something to do with the circulation getting going (bearing in mind they have been dependent on the mother’s heart since that wee sperm first broke on through to the other side). i remember seeing his wee fist and thinking how purple, almost lilac, his fingers were. anyway, the anaesthetist came over to do the googley, googley stuff with our fella and said something about the breathing of the boy. Gethin was rushed out of the room and we were left wondering what was going on? where is our son? why has almost everyone else run out of the room with him? it is amazing how quickly these kinds of questions come to the mind in such circumstances. it seemed like an age before we heard the sound of a crying baby come from the next door but come it did. such a relief!

cole got to handle young gethin a while longer whilst the surgeons tidied up the mess he had made on the way out, before going outside for a much needed cigarette and to inform the exepectant parents, siblings and god-parents. rather bizarrely, after what had been a quite lovely day, upon cole popping outside to make his calls the heavens clouded over and a short, sudden hail storm appeared. most surreal!

19:00 some brief phone calls later and peta was in the recovery room and we all got to spend some quality time together. gethin was delighted to receive his first visitors as ryan and shelley, who had patiently waited and waited since lunchtime, got to see their god-son for the first time. let’s hope it is not long before he gets to meet his other godparents, meli and jo.

21:00 cole takes ryan and shelley to the train station. peta and gethin catch up on some much needed and well-earned shut eye.

23:00 after a quite long day, peta and gethin get to finally go up to the maternity ward and get a good nights rest.

april 4th 2006

00:00 cole gets home very tired, quite hungry and over the moon. sleep……

12:09am Tuesday, 4th April 2006

Well, just got back home from hospital, a mere 18 hours since I left. 18:04 on April 3rd bore witness to a handsome young fella, wee Gethin William Albert Henley, weighing in at a wopping 9lb 11½oz. Like dad he is also quite the long one (so to speak) and emerged (eventually) with a crown of fair hair. Am exhausted so will report with all the gory details in the morning but mother and baby are well.

PS some snaps from offical snapper the lovely ryan to the left

11:23pm Sunday, 2nd April 2006

as yoda might say, “hmmmm, begun it has”. well, at least so it seems. peta has been experiencing regular twinges throughout the evening and has awayed to bed to stock up on some rest as it would seem that it could all kick off at any moment now. how exciting! stay tuned, this is not a drill!

07:56am Saturday, 1st April 2006

COME ON!

6 days late. Now I know daddy is a wee bit lazy and not the most punctual but 6 days! Peta is feeling fine but then her brain has been addled by several thousand tacky mags and she is well on her way to watching every DVD in the house!

Went to see Pat, our midwife, to look at our options. Peta is not too keen on any form of intervention and Pat was fine with this. We are going back on Tuesday which will be 9 days after due date. At that stage bairn doesn’t have to be induced but there will be concerns about the function of the placenta at this stage so there would have to be monitoring of bairn to check that its heartbeat is okay and it is getting enough oxygen. In this scenario Dr Henley will probably have to take his paternity leave as this will require a daily trip to the hospital in Livi. So fingers crossed bairn makes an appearance this weekend ;) Cole is hoping for April 1st. I pity the fool…

Elsewhere, Cole finished his last day of work doing HLA at the Royal Commission on Friday. On Monday, bairn permitting, Cole will be embarking on ventures new into the wild waters of web development. Masts hoisted, decks scrubbed, wish me luck you land lubbers