it's a boy!

the baby arrived at 8.30pm on 21st January 2007. i'm trusting you all to be intelligent enough to work out which of the people above are the baby. the two midwives were incredibly helpful. the one on the right is a student, and this was her first proper delivery. both baby and mother are very well. we couldn't have hoped for anything more. it all went very well, and there were no real complications to speak of. that's if you don't count the 30 second blackout and giggling fit i had after messing about with the pain-relief gas.

we came home from the hospital in the morning after being checked out following the water breaking (see previous post). the contractions started not long after we got back, and gradually got more frequent. we went back in the afternoon when the contractions were every couple of minutes, but after an hour or so came back home to relax. sarah had a long bath, and we went straight to the hospital following that. she was then examined, and told pretty much straight away that it was time to get to the labour ward. she was incredible during the labour, and there's no need to go into too much detail here. those of you who have had babies will know what we've been through today (i still can't hear anything in my left ear). there's no need for anyone who is yet to have children or may never have children to know any more details. i know you may be curious, but take my word for it - there's some things best left unsaid.

the baby weighed in at 7 lbs 12.5 oz, which is smaller than we'd been led to believe it was. he has lots of black hair and dark eyes. he's tongue tied like his father, and has the traditional black family chin-dimple.

we'll post more details later, but here's some trivia to whet appetites

• born in the wisley room of heatherwood hospital, ascot. directly accross from the famous Royal Ascot horse-racing course
• baby was measured as being 53cm long
• sarah and i have been narrowing down a list of names, but aren't quite there yet. looks like atticus is a no-no
• one of the midwives mentioned that marti pellow was born in a toilet. sarah and i had been discussing this on the way to the hospital
• no-one fainted, or was sick. i couldn't stop laughing after the baby was born, and that time it had nothing to do with the gas
• unbelievably, it appears that no 3M products were used in the birthing process
• magic fm (105.6) was on in the background during birth. i brought about 12 cds, but in the end we had more important things to worry about, and left the radio untouched. the baby missed being born to suspicious minds by elvis, chasing cars by snow patrol, that horrible time of my life song from dirty dancing, more than words by extreme, something by barry white, oh mandy by barry manilow, she's the one by robbie williams, some george michael song, time after time by some random 80s band, a couple of other things, but was eventually born to - sexual healing by marvin gaye! I'm still not sure exactly how to define irony, but i reckon that's getting pretty close