Baby Benjamin has arrived!!

And we are all home! Happy and healthy. :)

Benjamin James Winston Bloomfield was born at 6.51pm on December 27th weighing 8 lbs 6 oz at a length of ~19 inches. He came into the world very alert, looking around, and wailing from the moment his lungs filled with air! As you can see, we've been absolutely smitten since the moment we laid eyes on him.

December 27th was a very long day. We headed to the hospital at 7am and discovered I was already 5 cms dilated. I'd hoped this was indicitive of a rather quick and easy labour. Was I ever wrong!

Unfortunately, Ben was "sunnyside up" meaning his face was towards my abdomen rather than facing back. The result was many hours of back labour (both anaestesiologists on staff that day were already involved in major surgeries and couldn't administer my epidural until ~1pm that afternoon... I was 9.5 cms dilated by then!!) Following that were many hours of position changing in hopes of getting Ben to rotate naturally, but to no avail. Finally they sent us into the OR for a mid-forceps rotation and delivery, which would have quickly turned into an emergency c-section had there been any risk detected in the forceps attempt.

Anyway, it's all in the past now. Both Ben and I are recovering, and Nic is doing an amazing job as a husband and father. I had always expected he would, but even still I couldn't be more impressed.

Our happy little family of two is now a happy, tired little family of three. :)