This may drag on a bit. Bubs due date was 27th April, and the few days before that consisted mainly of "I wonder if he/she'll be on time, or if he/she's late, how late they'll be".

24th April - We paid a visit to the birthing suite as Jess had awoken that morning with a "gush" of fluid, which we suspected was her waters breaking. After 4 hours in the birthing suite resting and being checked out we were told it wasn't her waters breaking, just some fluid and to head on home....false alarm and false hopes #-o

26th April - We had a hospital visit and booked an induction date for ten days later. Jess was not too keen on the idea of being induced and set about trying to talk bub into coming on her own.

27th April (Due Date) - I went to work as normal, and after work attended a job interview for a new position in Brisbane. I returned home to find some of Jess's relatives from Adelaide stopped in for a visit on their way home. Her aunty's final words upon leaving were "We are heading home tomorrow so you'd better have that baby in the morning so we can see her before we go". Jess mentioned that since about 3pm she had been having some pains that felt "different" to the braxton hicks contractions she had been having. We didn't want to get our hopes up, as we'd had a few false alarms. We decided to keep an eye on them and wait it out before calling the birthing suite.
The pains got stronger and more frequent as the evening wound on. At about 9pm we started writing down the times and length of the contractions. Still deciding to stick it out at home and see what happened. We made the decision to stay at home and try to both get some sleep and when the alarm went off for me to get up for work we would make a decision on what to do.

28th April - Jess woke me around 5.30 am and said the contractions had become fairly regular and much stronger during the night and she had decided to give the hospital a call. She rang the birthing suite and explained what was going on. They told her to grab her bag, have a good breakfast and head in to the hospital. Some food, a call to work to tell them I wouldn't be in and off to the hospital we went.

We arrived at the birthing suite around 6.30am and got settled into a room. A midwife checked Jess out and informed us she was dilated to 4cm and doing well. By 10am and a few hours in the shower Jess started asking for some drugs as the pain was getting too much for her. The midwife checked her out and informed us she was almost fully dilated so to hold off on the drugs for a bit longer. Within 30 mins she had started pushing....and pushing....and pushing.

After nearly 2 hours of pushing it didn't seem to be getting anywhere, Jess was exhausted for the exertion, and I was starting to worry a bit. Bub was still calm and wriggling around. Enter the doctor to assess what was going on. He put Jess onto a drip to try and assist with the contractions and pushing. Another hour and no progress and the doctor decided to take Jess into theatre and assess whether to use forceps to assist bubs on the way out. If this wasn't an option then an emergency c-section was the next choice. By this stage Jess was totally exhausted and falling in and out of sleep between the pushes.

Enter the anaestetist (sp?) and a few other midwives - exit Mark for a few much needed cigarettes and a breather. When I returned I left Jess at the entrance to theatre and was taken away to "gown up". By the time I entered the theatre Jess had been given a spinal. I was amazed at the change in her - when she went in she was curled on her side, moaning and sweating and dozing. When I got into theatre she was wide eyed, smiling and chatting away - a huge relief to me. She told me by the time they got her to the theatre that bub was becoming distressed so they avoided the forceps option totally and went striaght into preping for the c-section.

Not too long after this we heard the sucking sound and the first wonderful cries of our baby. We had spent the entire pregnancy thinking we would be having a boy. No particular reason, just a feeling we had. So it was a pleasant surprise to be handed a beautiful baby girl. She was undoubtably a big girl, and on seeing her size the doctor was not surprised she wasn't coming out. All the theatre staff, Jess and myself were amazed by the thick shock of dark brown hair she was born with.

Bub and I went back to the birth suite while Jess was put back together. She was weighed, measured, tagged, bathed and dressed then I was left alone in the room with her. It was such an indescribable feeling to be there, holding my daughter, just looking at her in amazement. A time I will never forget. After an hour we were taken down to the maternity ward to meet up with Jess, where we sat in amazed wonder with our beautiful baby girl.

I found the whole process to be very emotionally draining for me, seeing someone I love in pain and so totally exhausted messes with your head. I spent most of the time feeling useless and unsure of what I should be doing. I didn't want to talk too much in case it annoyed Jess, but didn't want to sit in total silence either. So I did my best to make myself useful by holding the shower head and holding her hand through the tough parts. Jess told me later on that I did great, so that was good to hear. I was, and still am, proud of Jess for the excellent job she did, and considering her normally low pain tolerance level, I'm truly amazed that she got through almost the whole ordeal with no drugs or pain relief at all (until the spinal when she entered theatre). Job well done honey!! :smt023 =D>

Kristanna Gweneth June Knipler arrived screaming into the world at 4.11pm on Thursday 28th April 2005, weighing in at 10LB 7oz (4.740Kg). She was 58cm long with a head circumference of 34cm. I would have to rate the whole process as one of the greatest experiences of my life so far. Thanks for reading.