2008 has been a busy year for many reasons, but an exciting year for one: by the end we’d probably have our first child. We’d planned this pregnancy, but the finer details are less plannable — How will the pregnancy progress? Will baby be healthy? Will mother be healthy? How will it effect other aspects of our lives?
Late May, an ultrasound suggested a slightly higher than normal chance of Down syndrome. It was a false alarm though — an amnio test showed normal chromosomes and no possibility of Down syndrome, but it highlighted that the possibility of heartbreak that is ever present during pregnancy.
Further down the track, we organised a pre-baby barbeque for early November. It was a lot of work (mostly by my amazing wife Inez) but a heap of fun, and a chance to briefly catch up with many friends we hadn’t seen in ages. All that was left was to have the baby, and so we waited… and waited, and waited.
Almost two weeks after the due date (20th or 26th of November depending on who you believed), the doc decided we should induce the labour. But even then there was a lot of waiting… one step, two steps, and then finally the third step of induction got things going. Very, very rapidly I might add.
Luckily, the midwives managed to slow things down a little, but even so it was a short wait. Within ten hours, at 9:15pm on December 4th, we had our little baby boy in our clutches! Magnificent!
The midwives and doctors were fantastic. I was honestly touched by how caring and enthusiastic they were for our situation, even though they’re involved in scores of births each year. Inez was a champion. She’s a superwoman even in the most difficult circumstances, but she took every twist and turn in her stride and was stoic during ‘crunch time’. She managed to look amazing the whole time, and everyone who visited commented that they could barely believe she’d had a baby so recently. It’s also worth pointing out that during our stay, most of the doctors developed a crush on her. And the most important bit: our little guy is superb, although with a birth weight of 4.392kg, he’s anything but little.
After all the kerfuffle of the birth, it took a couple of days to finalise the name: Frederick William Bolton, named after his two grandfathers (he is the first grandson for both families, so it seems fitting). Welcome Freddie!
Update: Famous/Infamous December 4 birthdays:
And it appears Frank Zappa died on December 4.
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