The one you've all been waiting for!

I expect this is our most anticipated blog yet.

Theodore Kemble Bush was born on Sunday morning at 7:25am UK time weighing 6lb 8oz and 51 cm. So he is a bit of a lightweight but that's probably to be expected given he turned up a couple of weeks early.

Below is an account of the past week, filling in a couple of gaps of information that were left out of the last blog post. Photos are at the end of the post, so I expect most of you will skip the text and go to straight to the photos but it's nice to have the following recorded so we don't forget.

Wednesday 12th October: I get home from work conference, meet/surprise Jackie at the doctors. We're a little concerned about the size of Jackie's bump, the last midwife appointment measured it much smaller than the doctor had. The doctor suggested we come back in a week.

Thursday 13th October: a relatively uneventful day

Friday 14th: Jackie had about 2 hours sleep, couldn't get comfortable.  Most of the days activities are outlined in our previous blog however at 7:30pm Jackie's waters broke. We called the hospital, ate chicken pie and chips, watch most of Ghostbusters (well I did) and then went to the hospital in a taxi - in that order. We thought the hospital was going to be a quick check up. While we were there mild contractions started. We got there at 9pm, left at 3am Saturday morning. Everything had turned upside down. We were told Jackie had 24 hours before she was induced. We had a booking for induction at 8pm on Saturday, the delivery would happen in the 'delivery suite' not the 'Carmen suite' where we wanted to give birth.

Saturday 15th:  Very little sleep, maybe 1-2 hours each. The contractions had stopped. We went for a walk and in search of pastries and contractions. It was a lovely day and we appreciated the fact we could go for a walk in the park. We found a cafe and snarled their last pastries and had smoothies. By the time we left mild contractions had started. Back home we did final preparations and packing for the hospital. I was monitoring contractions, they were irregular in strength, length and spacing. After we were packed and ready to go we had curry for dinner, we knew it was not really going to help bring on active labour but I was disappointed we hadn't got to have a week of labour inducing curries. So Jackie agreed to having curry from our new favourite curry takeaway (see earlier blog). Our friends Marshall and Fiona took us to the hospital which was much nicer than taking a taxi. We got to the hospital and the waiting began. Waiting to be seen that is. 8pm is handover time between shift so it was 9pm before we were actually taken to a bed. By which stage the contractions were getting stronger.

Sunday 16th: To cut what is becoming quite a long story short, by Sunday morning, having had no more than 6 hours sleep over the past three nights, Jackie hooked up to all sorts of things the midwife was concerned that Baby Bush's heart rate had dropped considerably. She was surprised to find that Jackie was fully dilated so they decided to get the baby out. This is when it got very scary. The midwife and doctor team were clearly concerned. They had to get a doctor straight from theatre, I guess doing a c section, to come to us to deliver. The call for a push came. All sorts of things were being said, there was some concern about the cord being around the neck and lots of other things which didn't register with us. Then the yelling started to push harder, Jackie responded and within minutes Baby Bush was out, being rubbed and slapped by the midwives. They had to spend a few minutes checking him over. He was fine and was handed over to scared, relieved, excited, emotional parents.

Right, congratulations to those of you who put up with reading the above before seeing the photos...

Jackie at the hospital on Friday night

Out on Saturday for a walk in the sun

Taking some gas and air in the early stages before the real pain (and pain killers) kicked in. 

Celebratory chocolate milks for a job well done

The Prize! Little Ted sleeping at the hospital

Some Dad time

Dad and Little Ted

Mum and Little Ted. Look at the smile on mums face, you wouldn't know the torment she's been through in the past 36 hours

Little Ted at home in his moses basket. I took this photo without the flash, hence the funky colour

Hopefully there will be more blogs in the coming days covering such topics as the first few days and the name.

Thank you all for your calls, texts, emails, cards and good wishes. We apologise if we can't respond as soon as we would like, it turns about being parents is quite time consuming!