Sorry for the delay — no internet access in our hospital room and I’ve put my back out so not keen on lugging laptops. Will definetely be making a long post tomorrow, in the meantime, here’s one of me and Lyla…
Born 6.51pm 28 November 2006. 3.1 kilos — no idea how long — but pretty long!
S and I will be posted more pics and a long entry about the day a bit later on – prob tonight our time.
Important thing is baby and Mum are fine even if Dad is a wreck.
Thanks for everyone’s kind words and thoughts.
Pic below Lyla is about ten minutes old!
It seems baby has inherited my penchant for early morning action.
S just woke me up to tell me (it’s 4am here).
Contractions five minutes apart, lasting for 45 seconds.
Sam saying going on how painful they are now, she may be a little angry at me later on…
So weird last night before I went to sleep, my belly was really sore and I thought I was having a sympathy belly…
Will update as time and contractions allow!
Update
Ok, we’re going to hospital. I’m not taking the laptop… so you’ll have to wait for an update!
Last night I was off at Bangkokian H’s birthday party and within a half hour of getting there was chatting away to S (not my S) who is due on Dec 5 and having her baby at the same hospital as us. Small world.
She was huge – I guess as she was quite a bit shorter than S the baby was more prominent, but really gave me an idea of how big my S really is.
That morning we’d gone for our check-up at Samitivej and while the Doc said S was well and baby fine he also said the bubster has given no indications of wanting to move out.
We were a bit disappointed about that as today was official full-term day.
S also had a bit of a teary time with the doctor — she had wanted to have acupuncture done during the labour and he over-ruled her saying “No way”. To be honest, as much as I’m a total acupuncture convert, I’ve got to agree with him as the idea of having needles stuck in you while being in labour didn’t strike me as a great idea.
S didn’t take it well and we had a prolonged teary session afterwards before heading off for her acupuncture session. Her acupuncturist said not to worry, that she’d have a way to work around our doctor’s blanket ban.
S came home with a half dozen magnetic tiny little balls stuck in the ear and felt much better.
Here’s a great birth story on another baby blog which S found — a great read.
Last night we caught up with old friend C from Rome who is out here on a short trip. C is also pregnant (with her second bub) though a few months behind S. We met for pizza and spent the night talking baby-stuff.
During the chat I asked her about the pain during birth, and she confirmed in no uncertain manner, that giving birth hurts, hurts a lot, and there is no way she could ever explain just how it feels — especially to a man.
I remember years ago someone explaining the pain associated with childbirth as getting your bottom lip and pulling it over the top of your head to behind your ears — now that has to hurt.
S is still asleep — sleeping more and more and more. Days swing between high energy days when she is out and about and alternates when she is wasted on the lounge.
It really feels like we’re on the final lap now.
Running on from yesterday’s topic, I really should have listened to my body telling me I didn’t need that last beer I had last night. I’d headed down to the backpacker’s quarter at Khao San Rd to catch up with Bangkokian friends W and T for a couple too many beers and S suggested to me when I got home that if she’d gone into labour I’d have been in trouble — I was kinda in trouble anyway, but S being in labour would have worsened the situation somewhat.
That’s how close the baby is now — go out for drinks an expectant Dad and come home a father…
Baby is certainly knocking at the door — lots of Braxton Hicks, S’s belly goes taunt like a bongo drum (similar shape too 
) and while not painful is a bit of a freak-out and yet another signal of what is on the way.
I was wading through another baby book today — “Baby Love” and was struck how on so many occasions the author would go through a dozen different solutions to a problem only to finish with something like “Listen to your body”.
It’s amazing what a great barometer our bodies are, and it seems that in most of the books the solution is to try A through Z and if the problem is still there, then try listening to your body.
Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
I’m not dismissing the value of the books — not at all — after all I’ve learned loads today with Baby Love, including that breastfeeding makes mum feel sexy ( page 70 if you need a page ref 
).
Our teacher at baby school has a similar attitude, often saying “listen to your body” when interpreting the signals your body is sending you.
So it would be great to see books given more space over to understanding just what your body is trying to tell you — of course then you have to actually pay attention and obey what it’s telling you and that’s a whole other dilemma — I really really need that last slice of pizza…
Apologies for my ultra-slackness of late!
We had out latest session at baby-school the other day which centred around problematic births and covered all the main issues — drugs and their side-effects, the whens, hows and whys of C-sections and so on. It was all pretty interesting, but the best bit was that all us men got the opportunity to see just what it is like to be pregnant. The teacher has a harness-like thing we got to wear. It contained a sandbag for a belly that mimicked a pregnancy at about 6-7 months.
While it was heavy, I made the mistake of commenting that it wasn’t so bad… and it wasn’t — if you just stood there.
Moving, walking, bending over, laying down then sitting up, trying to do a pushup were all far harder than I’d expected (and I find doing a pushup hard at the best of times) but at least I know now why S grunts and groans so much when she’s trying to rollover.
