Well, Thursday 24th started off as a normal day! I got up to get ready for work & Chris was making the most of a bit of a lie in as he was working close to home, when I discovered a lot of blood. I called the hospital & they advised me to pop in on my way to work for a quick check. About 5 minutes later my waters broke!

When we arrived at the hospital they checked me over & then hooked me up to monitor the baby. We were told that the baby was definitely arriving today but it could still be hours away. They gave us the choice of going home & waiting for the contractions to start naturally or staying so they could start them for me. We decided to go home!

My contractions started just before we left the hospital & were bad during the short drive home. By the time we got home I was in a lot of pain & lay on the bed to try to cope with the contractions. I quickly discovered that by lying on my left side, closing my eyes &  concentrating on my breathing I was able to deal with the pain silently. After being home less than 2 hours we realized that we really had to get back to the hospital as my contractions were only a minute apart!

I was taken into an examination room by one of the midwives (Karen) so they could check how far along I was. When she went to take a look I realized that the baby was coming! There was no time to move me to a birthing room so Karen quickly went out to get another midwife (Corinne) & the equipment they needed! Chris was great during the birth - encouraging me & telling me how proud he was of me! Both midwives were great too. 30 minutes after arriving at Manly Hospital, at 2.02pm, our beautiful baby boy ANDREW JAMES FARRELL was born, weighing 3.2kg (7.1lb).

It was an amazing feeling to hold Andrew for the first time & watch while Chris happily cut the cord. I even managed to breast feed Andrew a little before I was taken to surgery. Chris held Andrew while I was gone & was there when they tagged him, weighed him & cleaned him up a little. When I got back to my room, which I was sharing with another new mum, Claire, I was able to feed Andrew properly. We then phoned our families to tell them the news!

Andrew had his first visitors a few hours after he was born - John & Vikki. Vikki was delighted to get to cuddle Andrew while John took lots of photos with his new camera. Chris finally left me to head home for the night at about 9pm - it had been a long day for both of us! After feeding Andrew at 10pm he was taken to the nursery to let me get some sleep & they brought him back for another feed at 3.30am.

I had breakfast & a shower before Chris arrived at the Hospital on Friday 25th with a beautiful huge bouquet of lillies for me! He was exhausted after the long day yesterday but was happy tos it there resting while he cuddled Andrew. It was a afirly boring day & I would have loved to have been able to go home with Chris & Andrew. In the afternoon I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from everyone at work (along with a teddy & a balloon)! In the evening Peter, Christine & their 3 month old baby Andrew came to visit.

I waited for Chris to arrive at the Hospital on Saturday 26th so he could sit & cuddle Andrew while I was gone. Chris had to leave at 12pm to go to Mona Vale to have the baby capsule installed in the car. While he was gone I had visitors - Lilii & Kim from work, who both had cuddles with Andrew.

When Chris got back we took Andrew along to the nursery so they could show us how to bath him & to take blood for various tests they had to carry out. The midwife also took a blood sample as she noticed Andrew was slightly jaundiced. An hour later, when the results came back we were told that Andrew would have to stay in another night so that he could have 24 hours under the lamp. I was devastated as I was so looking forward to taking Andrew home.

When Andrew was settled under the lamp I asked if I could go out for half an hour to get some fresh air. We went to the beach at Manly & got some food supplies for me before getting ice cream from "Ben & Jerry's" which we had sitting at the beach.

Chris left the hospital much earlier as I was needing to try to get as much sleep as possible between the 3 hour feeds I had to do along in the nursery for the 24 hours Andrew would be under the lamp. Thanks to Karen & Corrine - my lovely midwives - I had the room to myself so I was able to sleep well between feeds.

It was a bit later on Sunday 27th when Chris came to the Hospital, just before Andrew's 12pm feed so he could have a cuddle with him while he was out of the incubator. We went out for a while to North Head to get some fresh air as they weren't going to do another blood test until 3pm. 

Nicola, Mark & Conor came to visit just before 4pm, after we had been told that we could definitely take Andrew home. It was 5pm when we left the Hospital. 

After Andrew's first trip in the car, we got him home & wrapped him up ready to take him to the beach for the first time in his pram. We got take away & sat on the picnic rug next to the beach for a while before heading home. We chatted to my mum & dad on Skype so they could see Andrew, then it was Chris' parents turn!