Certain things in life just will not wait. Our son Luke was scheduled to be delivered by C Section at 11am on Wednesday 4 June, but true to form, the contractions started on Tuesday evening. Being new to all of this my wife was not even aware that she was having contractions, so it was a bit of a surprise that when we checked in for the regular C Section early on Wednesday morning we were told that we are now bumped up to the 7:30am slot.
After an Epidural that was only partially successful followed by General Anesthetic the rest of the theatre process happened very quickly. A Caesarean is surprisingly brutal with quick well-trained hands cutting away through the layers and then there is some ripping, tearing and lots of blood followed by a heart stopping, moment when you hear that first cry. It touches the soul so deeply that words cannot describe it. Perhaps this is true love at first sight.
The lump in my throat subsided as they handed Luke to me. In 2 minutes he was examined, cleaned (well semi cleaned), weighed and I performed my first duty as a parent by cutting the Umbilical Chord. Its quite squishy!
While they were stitching my wife up again I had him in my arms and after a few minutes my voice returned. He would recognize it from they 9 months in the womb and hopefully it would calm him down.
After a few minutes he was placed in an incubator where is vital signs could be checked and I stripped out of the overalls. We waited in the nursery while the Pediatric medical staff monitored him and I was able to touch him and feel his soft skin.
The hospital was a few days of haze with visits, being back at work, information from everywhere and many visitors. I was determined to be involved from day 1 and gave him his bottle with confidence I did not truly feel. Burping, changing diapers, wrapping him up in blankets, etc was all new, but you pick it up quickly.
3 nights in hospital for mom and baby gave me time to think about how to approach this new chapter in my life. After working very hard to list a company on the JSE in 11 months, 2 overseas trips in 12 months and dealing with a close family member being diagnosed with Cancer I never had time to think about parenthood much.
Saturday was upon us and soon we were home after treating my wife to Prawn Curry. After a 9 month Prawn fast she was not going to pass up the opportunity. I was advised by a business colleague to consider a night nurse for a few evenings in a week to help us out for the first few weeks. The night nurse arrived at 7pm to get us through the first night at home, so the real test came on Sunday. We decided to invite friends and family over for tea on Sunday as there would not be time for us to visit friends and family in the coming weeks to meet our little one as I was due back at work by Wednesday.
I was on leave on Monday and Tuesday, and the night nurse is assisting 2 nights a week (Tuesday and Wednesday), so to date sleep has not been an issue (phew). I have to confess that the multitude of people asking with glee whether I am getting sleep and whether my life is now totally upside down make me want to put their heads through their own arses. I am out of 1 hour sleep a night and have countered that by going to bed earlier, so I am still getting my 7 hours a night. I guess I can put that in the win column for this week.
Its almost 1 week since Luke came home and although the first 2 weeks are meant to be relatively easy, I must say that I am relieved to report that we are all healthy and happy at this stage. The dogs (2 very large Boerboels) accepted little Luke like one of their own and apart from 1 feed where he was fussy we have not had another glitch. I am sure that my life will change progressively over the next weeks and months as he becomes a little person, but for the time being I am trying to make use of good old fashioned common sense, some positive energy and being very selective on advice given by others to get us through it all.
My approach have been one of breaking it all down in 4 hour sessions (from feed to feed). At present I am responsible for 2 of the 4 hour sessions in the week and since he sleeps for most of the time, it really boils down to taking 2 hours out of my day to change, feed, burp and bath young Luke. It is really not a big ask and I sometimes feel that the 2 hours speeds by very quickly.
Lets see what the next week holds.
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