Welcome Conrad!

Our very punctual little baby boy was born on his due date, 9 June, at 7.40pm – at home in our living room as planned. He is lying asleep in a carry cot in our living room right now and as I write this I keep glancing over to admire him. His birth weight was 3.98 kilos (8lb 13oz) and he has, it seems, dark hair and dark eyes – the latter presumably dark blue these first few days but it’s hard to tell as they haven’t been open much. He has cried a few times already, especially during last night and early part of the morning, but calmed down as soon as he was picked up and held.

Conrad in his carry cot in our living room the first morning

I have gone through the motions of breastfeeding a few times, too – not successfully so far, of course, as my milk has not come through yet and Conrad still doesn’t know what to do. At about midnight we prepared a bottle of formula, to make sure he wasn’t hungry, and he had about 20 ml. We’re pretty sure it all came back up again, though, as he was coughing up quite a lot of mucus in the night, but the milk probably helped the process of clearing his little tummy of whatever he swallowed during the birth.

Ian and I went to East Surrey Hospital just before 4am yesterday morning (Ian’s parents kindly scrambled out of bed to come over and wait in our house while Jessica was asleep upstairs), for me to get checked over after a small bleeding. But everything was fine – it turned out I had started to dilate already and the bleeding was only a signal that things were beginning to happen. And, sure enough, my contractions started not long after, although they stayed irregular throughout the morning. Ian’s parents went back home to catch up on some rest and Ian went to work, while I spent the day at home with Conrad’s big sister Jessica, making notes of the time between contractions. At about 12.30 my contractions were getting stronger and settled into a regular pattern of every 10 minutes, then every 5 minutes at about 3.30pm. Ian left work ten minutes early to hop in a taxi home. His parents had come over to ours again early afternoon, as the plan was for them to take Jessica home with them as soon as things started to happen in earnest, and while we were waiting for the two on-duty midwives to arrive, we started to clear the living room.

The midwives, Hazel and Liz, arrived and settled themselves in pretty quickly. They were relaxed, friendly and professional and made us feel at ease straight away. They left me pretty much to it as my contractions started to increase in strength and intensity, but stepped in to monitor the baby’s heart beat and my blood pressure and pulse every so often. All was progressing well – apart from the increasing pain, of course, for my part…! Ian gently rubbing my lower back, a warm bath and then gas and air helped ease it when it started to become difficult to cope with.

Both Ian and I were so chuffed that we could have the home birth we wanted and that everything went well. Conrad’s cord was short and looped across the back of his shoulders, so every time I pushed, he pulled in the opposite direction, which made things extra tough. But when – with excellent support form the midwives and Ian – I managed to find that extra bit of strength from somewhere, things happened very quickly until, suddenly, there he was, in my arms. He quietly peered at Ian and me with his big dark eyes, presumably thoroughly confused as to where he was, who we were and what was going on.

The midwives did a few checks, packed up, ran me a bath and then left us to it and Ian and I spent the rest of the evening on a bit of a high, looking at Conrad, unable to believe that he was finally here with us! Conrad spent his first night (quite a warm one, after a hot and sunny summer’s day) with us in his cot in our bedroom.

Conrad\'s first night in cot

The next few weeks and months are very likely going to be exhausting but so exciting – we’ll do our best to log Conrad’s progress here and hopefully you’ll enjoy reading about it!

Gabriella

A little note: Conrad has already lifted his head off our shoulders a couple of times this morning…!

2 Responses to “Welcome Conrad!”

  1. Mia Ölmestrand says:

    Wow! Incredible! A new person in your home. Congratulations to you and a warm welocome to Conrad! Impressing work you did Gabriella having Jessica at home and Ian at work during the first hours. And of course impressing getting him out of you…
    Lot´s of love, Mia, Niklas and Kajsa-Lotta

  2. Mia O. Eriksson says:

    Exciting indeed and impressive work by each and every one of you Lillsunde and/or Reads! Again; welcome amazingly punctual and beautiful Conrad! We are looking forward of hearing a lot about you 😉
    Love,
    Mia with family