The birth of my baby boy.

Here he is, our little bundle of joy.

Theo James was born at 6.52am on 26th January weighing 6lb 9oz.

He was delivered via Emergency Caesarian and came out strong and healthy.

My contractions began at around midnight and progressed very quickly. When we arrived at the hospital at 2am I was 3cm dialated and my waters broke on examination.

When my waters broke there were traces of meconium so I had to be whisked from the spacious midwifery Ward with birthing pool and en-suite bathroom to the cramped room on the delivery ward sharing my yells of pain with the other mums to be on the corridor.

I asked immediately for an epidural, who was I kidding trying to be strong. those things hurt and I didn’t want to feel them Anymore!

Theo was a bit of a pickle and his heart rate was wavering. They put a probe on his head to get a better reading but that caused quite a panic when he wriggled so much it came off and around 7 nurses came charging in to the room to see why the alarms were going off. Thankfully they were able to reconnect the readers and although his heart rate was still struggling, it was, at least, there.

They made the call at this time to re-examine me and found that I had not dilated any further in the time I had been at the hospital, it was then they decided that it was safer to get baby out while they could still control what was going on rather than leave him to get anymore distressed.

I remember feeling almost calmed by the fact I was going to have a c-section.. that they were acting fast to get my little boy out safely and that I would soon get to hold him in my arms.

Although the epidural worked well for my contractions, it wasn’t working to numb the area  where they needed to cut. They dosed me up with other medicines including Ketamine which made me instantly sleepy. I don’t remember any thing else about Theo’s birth, but Marcus tells me I was crying that I was in pain and constantly in and out of sleep, so it’s probably just as well as it didn’t sound too nice!

The first thing I remember after that is waking up to a tugging pain in my belly where they were finishing up the stitches, and opening my eyes to see Marcus next to me, holding this gorgeous little thing next to my head so I could see him. My eyes were heavy from the drugs and that stayed that way for most of the day.I tried to wipe them to see my baby clearer but it was all quite blurry to start with. According to Marcus we had the same conversation about 10 times, me asking if that was my baby, if he was ok.. if he was really ok?! If they were sure about that and then if he could wipe something out of my eyes so I could see him. Apparently I would then drift back to sleep, only to wake minutes later to have the same conversation, me crying each time with tears of joy as they reassured me he was fine. Marcus says he didn’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry for me for having to go through the emotion again each time.

Once I was with it a little more I had my baby boy in my arms and Just did not want to put him down. He breastfed almost immediately, and the rest of the hospital stay was pretty much plain sailing.


Marcus was a great help and during the 2 weeks he had for paternity leave he ensured that I didn’t have to struggle or move too much, so that I could heal nicely. (Although he could do nothing about the coughing - that was the real killer on my stomach) He did, however, manage to time his return to work with the start of half term!

That’s pretty much how our little Theo came in to the world. He is so very loved and adored by  his big brothers, who still, after 2 months, can not get enough of him.