Well where to start...Reuben Christopher Tring was born on 12th January at 22:44 at 39 weeks gestation - what a crazy experience!
I apologise if I miss anything but there is so much to remember, everything went so well when we were in there and Katherine gave birth to our boy in the bath..no not the birthing pool an actual bath in one of the delivery suites and she was FANTASTIC!
We were scheduled to be booked in for Induction on our due date 19th January as baby Tring was very quiet leading up to the latter weeks so they didn't want to risk anything, Katherine had a stretch and sweep a few days before the waters went.
It was a Sunday morning that was to change out lives forever - about 8:30am Katherine came and asked for my help (luckily she made it to the bathroom) as her waters had gone, there was no doubt about it the bathroom floor was covered, I told her to go and relax whilst I cleared it up and we went and watched some Breaking Bad.
At around 10am the contractions started coming so we used a contraction timer and Katherine was sat on the birthing ball with me using the iPad for frequency - we were told to go up the hospital to be examined and were told she was 1cm dilated so off we went to our friends who live very close to the hospital!
The day seemed to go rather slowly and it was the late afternoon when we were back up the hospital and now 4cm dilated - yet more time passed but now in our own delivery suite!
I was given Katherine's food which was a yummy jacket potato with beans and cheese which I wolfed down as the contractions were getting more intense and closer..after the eating was done we noticed the pain was getting worse and Katherine was asked if she wanted some gas & air on standby which was light pain relief.
We got to a stage where she was in a lot of pain so she started on the gas and air and then asked to be examined when we were asked 'Do you want the good news or the REALLY good news' only to find out Katherine was 9.5cm dilated and soon enough the midwife/s were prepping for delivery to our sudden surprise!
After a few moments and being fully dilated Katherine mentioned the sudden urge to push and really wanted a bath so we ran her one and focused her energy towards each contraction being closer to meeting our little boy/girl - it was about 10:25pm when we all went into the bathroom in the suite being monitored every 5 ish minutes to make sure the heart rate was correct and baby Tring wasn't tired etc but it turned out 120bpm was the same throughout!
More and more pushing and channeling Katherine's energy into each push without wasting any energy we got to 10:40 and the midwife mentioned that the heart rate had dropped to 80bpm which meant baby was getting tired - it was then that Katherine found some energy from somewhere and was making these contractions look easy all whilst being in a tiny bathroom.
I asked to look when the head was out and the midwife mentioned that it looked like a boy which I agreed with, they then manoeuvred the lateral shoulder out and delivered out beautiful baby boy, he was then placed on Mummy (skin to skin) and we both just sat there for a while staring at him whilst he was crying after being stimulated with bath water.
He was then handed to me so Mummy could go and deliver the placenta and must have wondered why I was crying on him! It honestly couldn't have gone any better and Katherine did so well considering the trouble we went through during some stages of the pregnancy!
I would also like to thank the midwifery team at Basingstoke Hospital as the midwife & student we were given were FANTASTIC and made us both really comfortable.
We have been slowly adapting to being parents but it's the greatest thing in the world!
I will never forget the experience and both looking at each other and straight away agreeing on his name - Reuben Christopher passing on Grandad Kehoe's first name to Reuben's middle name and I am too Jack Christopher.
This time I will make sure I update this blog..pictures below!
