Daniel is born

My son is born on Friday 17th June at 12:46am. He came out with his blue eyes open! It is the most amazing moment of my life. Seeing your baby being born is overwhelming. No other experience can equal. Orla was so brave and I told her I was so proud to be with her. Men could not cope with giving birth and the Man upstairs knew what he was doing by not letting us have the equipment.

Orla started contractions at 4am in the morning...things got progressively closer and we arrived in perfect time at the Rotunda at 2pm. At this stage the contractions were every 5 mins. As she was a week early we weren't sure if it was the real thing at first but we were assured by the midwife on the phone that it was!

I have nothing but admiration for the midwife/ nursing staff at the Rotunda. Orla was given a bath and then she asked for the Epidural at about 7pm...there was a queue but we weren't waiting long. After that she was in no pain at all. Until about 11.30pm. I suppose the thought of birth coming so close made her anxious and I tried to calm her as she was shaking from the experience at that stage. I found that I wasn't squeamish at all and I'm glad to say I played a part (the easy part) in the birth.
Mother and son are fine and he came in weighing 7lbs 4oz. What a shock as well...we were sorta convinced we were having a girl 'cos the scans looked like a girl's face. It's a boy!!

What I've just considered is that perhaps Daniel will one day be able to read this blog. So here's a big hello to you now son, I love you.