Firstly I would like to thank everyone who left comments about the birth, and special thanks go to the people (Harv, Tammi, OneHappyDog and Bou) who did little posts. We were both very touched. Guys, send me an email each and I'll send y'all pics of the little man at his wide eyed best!
Welcome to the surreal world of sleep deprivation.
Both Sally and I are feeling the effects of little Jamie's first night of broken sleep. Now, normally he feeds and then sleeps for around 3 hours before getting up for another course, but for some reason last night he was both very active and very hungry. Oh, and full of wind.
As an aside Jamie's favourite place to relieve his wind issues is on me. Without fail. Any time, any place, in front of any and everyone, as soon as he is handed over to me these miniature eruptions start and with such force that he physically shakes when he is on me. And a look of such contentment crosses his face it's hard to do anything except laugh about it.
Anyhow he decides that last night is the night where he is going to do his full all singing all dancing baby cute things. From about 2:00am until about 6:00 am he was awake, gurgling, looking around, occasionally grizzling but generally being a fairly happy baby.
It still keeps you awake though.
So now I am at work wondering how I got here, what I am doing, why the scripts I am looking at have suddenly turned to Latin, planning on sleeping anywhere except on the drive home and looking forward to seeing Star, Sally and Jamie all smiling at me and making me feel that the sleep deprivation is worth it all.
On Monday 21st May at 11:11pm, after 18.5 hours of gruelling labour, baby Jamie decided to make his appearance. He was one week early born on exactly 39 weeks. It was all a bit of a rush at the end but he made it, Sally made it (although she said for a second baby he was hard work!) and I made it. Not that I could do much.
On reflection, standing there watching her go through it, trying to help but (realistically) being as much use as a chocolate fire guard, made me realise that I am glad to be a man. But standing there watching it all unfold, watching the end of a process that had taken 9 months to come to fruition. And as Sally will tell you it was worth every second of that 9 months to see him.
Suddenly there is a new life in our life.
There is no pause.
You cannot even stop for breath.
Immediately after you are thrown head first into this strange, scary, fascinating, exciting, rewarding world. Everything seems both hyper-real, distant, tiring, adrenaline fuelled, loud, worrying. Sleep deprivation kicks in for both of you (we're working in shifts with him at the moment). Little Star is doing her best to help but wonders why we're just a little more short with her We have tried very hard to keep her included and we're reaping the dividends. She loves to hold him and even manages to occasionally feed him! She won't do nappies (or diapers) yet - I'll train her though!
I have pictures - people who know my email address can email me directly and I'll send a picture or two of him, but in keeping with my policy of no-pictures-here-not-ever they will not be made available for general consumption.
I'm off now to sleep and work.
It's all been worth it though.