Harrison Myles

I apologise in advance for this rambling entry. As a most significant milestone in our family's journey, I've recorded details here which are likely to be of very limited interest to most of you, yet fondly recalled by us. So in order to spare you, the short version is that in spite of worries about complications and potential for enduring but not life threatening health issues, we are the delighted parents of this beautiful baby boy, born to us at 16:05 weighing 3.025kg (6lb 10oz). We can't wait to have him home with us.

Fred Jellybean has a proper name. We settled on the first name I identified from our family tree, way before he was conceived as a 'name I'd like for a son if we ever had one'. Harrison first appeared as a surname in our family in 1837, when John Moss married Harriet Harrison. Their grandson born in 1873, was named William Harrison Moss. The connection to Harrison Myles is less clear to me in terms of the actual relationship so bear with me; I'm keen to record the details. William had a brother named John Arthur and by his second wife, a son named John (no middle name). This John Moss is Harrison's great grandfather (my grandfather on my mother's side) and here endeth the history lesson.

His middle name, as with his sisters' begins with the letter M and appealed to Beloved and so it was set.

After quite some effort and feverish inhaling of laughing gas on the mother's part, he was born at 16:05 this day weighing in at 3.025kg (6lb 10oz). Following yesterday's marathon, another helping hand was given, this time by the registrar named Ed (far too casual an address for a man in his position for my liking). Labour progressed well, yet painfully, partly at Beloved's insistence that she needed nothing more than gas and air. It wasn't the water birth that she wanted, as this boy needed special care and attention unavailable in the Juno unit. The machine monitoring Harry's heartbeat and contractions vied with Mum-to-be for attention and I can't be sure whether it or Beloved enjoyed more from the midwives. Shauna was ably supported by the almost qualified Andi, needing just one more birth to meet the 40 required for full qualification (actually she has done 40, but one remains not signed off). Thankfully, both Shauna and Andi are female midwives, although at one point during the registrar's visit, he was accompanied by his assistant and a young male trainee paramedic, all of whom had come to take a look. Quite an audience, but of course, with prior agreement. Anyway, back to Harry's monitoring. He's a little wriggler and kept moving meaning the sensors repeatedly failed to record. Whether in mid-contraction or not, these sensors had to be jiggled, moved and even held in place. The inevitable result was significant gaps in the heartbeat trace and contractions appearing significantly smaller than the expression on beloved's face betold. At each event, LOC (loss of contact) was recorded in hand-writing on the trace without concern on the part of the midwives. Actually, the heartbeat could be reassuringly clearly heard though most of the LOCs (aren't baby's heartbeats fast: 120-160bpm!!)

So for hours I stood, sat, offered water and words of reassurance and encouragement, massaged Mum-to-be's lower back and mopped her brow - about as much use as I could make of myself in this situation. Soon, I was face-to-face with my son, fighting off tears of joy as is obligatory for fathers in attendance. I had no enthusiasm for cutting the chord at the key moment and politely declined.

Visibly intrigued by the placenta and umbilical cord, Andi offered to give me the full tour, which I eagerly accepted. Two membranes make up the fœtal sack containing the placenta itself and the umbilical chord containing two smaller arteries and one large vein. All of this was now inside out following birth: fascinating.

After a short time alone as new parents with baby, Harry was weighed. He decided this would be an opportune moment to take his first wee, all over the midwife who by now was well experienced in this event.

I thanked them for a very professional job and left to collect Harry's sisters for their first meeting.