Lewis Thomas Farrell

Lewis, our new son, was born 11th August. He was 6lbs 13oz.

I know some of you will want the bare facts to be nice and accessible, so there they are. Now I'll tell the story...

Dateline: Wed Aug 6th
Time: 0700 hours
When I was getting up to go out to work, Mel was telling me about contractions. They were coming, but not too regularly. I'd be safe to go to work, as the contractions needed to be closer together before we needed to worry.
Off I goes to work. Every so often, I check in using Pidgin (an IM client, connected to MSN network). Each time, I get told about the contractions.

Time: 1500 hours
All OK, but at 3 o'clock(ish) Jen told me that the contractions were "5 mins apart, but don't worry, you've got hours yet". I had to send this comment out to the whole staff of Other Ocean Interactive. Mike, who's baby (Violet) was born a couple of weeks ago, asked me if I should even be there any more. "We were told that at 5 minutes apart, you should be at hospital," He says.
I'm OK with this for a half-hour, but I soon lost concentration. I turn to Christian (here's his blog) and say "This has no meaning to me now, I'm going home." It's 4 o'clock.

Time: 1600 hours
My work is really close to my house, like 4 or 5 blocks, or 10 mins to you Scots. This is the route I took.

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I got as far as Queen and Euston, and a Co-op taxi (our usual company) goes past. It flies around a guy waiting to turn into Pownal. I'm thinking "You better not turn into Spring Street," (Spring Street is where our house is). It does.
This is when I break into a run. 2 and a half blocks is about the farthest I've run in a while, but as I got around the corner, the taxi was OUTSIDE MY HOUSE! I kept on going the last 100 yards, and just as I got to my front door, the next door neighbour goes out and jumps into the taxi!!!

Puffing and Panting, I walk into the house. "Hi honey," Mel calmly states. Turns out she's fine, but the contractions are still going.

Time: 1800 hours
Two hours later, Mel's contractions are still 4 minutes apart. We decide that we want to go to the hospital, in case the baby is in distress.
In hospital, we get Mel all connected up to the seismograph, and waited. The nurse comes out soon after. "Oh, that one's gone on for too long to be real," she announces. Sure enough, Mel's contractions subside over the next two hours. It's a false alarm.



Dateline: Mon Aug 11th
Time: 0326 hours (exact, eh?)
Mel's contractions begin for real. They're instantly 5 minutes apart.

Time: 0410 hours
Mel decides to go to the toilet, and the contractions stop for 8 minutes. She lay down again, to wait for more.

Time: 0425 hours
Mel gets a painful contraction. So painful that I felt it from the other side of the bed (I've still got the bruise to prove it, lol). So I decided (who decided - Lewis?) that we should get ready to go to the hospital. The bags were ready, but there were a few things to do (like getting dressed and so on). We woke Chris, told him what was happening, and called the Labour and Delivery dept of the hospital, then a taxi.

Time: 0600 hours
In hospital, we get Mel all connected up to the seismograph, again. This time, however, there's no messing about, she's 7cm dilated. Mel has a particularly large contraction, and the nurses go from Happy-Joy-Flowers-Sunshine to Business-Time-No-Messing in half a second. The baby (Lewis)'s heart rate had dropped during the contraction. During the next 30 seconds, Mel's water got broke, Lewis got a probe on his head, and we got moved to another room.
Mel's now got Nitrous Oxide, and just plain Oxygen too.

Time: 0630 hours
The Nitrous is making her feel ill, so she's asking for something else for the pain. The doctor wont give her any painkillers that might sedate Lewis any more, as his heart rate is still dropping during contractions. She's even considering giving her a c-section.
She calls the anaesthetist to get Mel an epidural, but Mel protests. The doctor explains that this is the only course open to her, as anything else might sedate the baby. She's also getting a theatre readied, and gets us to try to take out Mel's tongue stud. It wont budge, even with pliers. They'll have to cut it out if she needs surgery.
Mel gets her epidural put into place, but before the actual anaesthetic can be put in, she gets to 10cm dilated, and tells the doctor that she needs to push.

Time: 0700 hours
The doctor puts her onto her side and gets me to hold up her leg. She pushes once, and the doctor removes the probe from baby's head. She pushes again, and the head (funny shaped) pokes out a bit more.

Time: 0709 hours
One more push, and Lewis comes right out, and tests his vocal cords for the first time. A beautiful sound.
He had a little bit of chord wrapped around his shoulder. Not his neck, but still close enough to impair his breathing.