Hello World - Nicolas Alexander Pedrazas...

.....was born at 7.15am on Thursday 12 November 2009. 

My fears of waking my husband who would then have to wake his parents to take me to the hospital turned out to be entirely unfounded.  The baby was knocking on the door to the world.

It went something like this...

3.30am woke Ivan

3.35am Ivan called his parents while I took a quick shower

3.45am Ivan's Mum & Dad arrived to take us to the hospital

4.00am arrived at Hospital de Mataro at A&E

4.15am a nursing assistant put me in a room that flon my back and strapped monitors to me before admitting that she wasn't quite sure what I was allowed to do and not to do (sorry Cathy if you're reading this...I was desperately trying to move off my back but then the monitors weren't working)

4.30am the midwife came to see me and declared that this was going to be quick, I was already pretty much fully dilated

4.45am the pain was pretty intense and the urge to push overbearing. I was still on my back and beginning to think that perhaps trying to have a natural labour here in Spain where they didn't seem to be comfortable with me being in any position other than my back and not letting me move about was not quite what I'd wanted and perhaps not the best idea.  Besides, my interview for natural labour isn't until next Monday so I really didn't quite know what to expect.  Bring on the epidural.  It had to be now or it was going to be too late...

I think the epidural was administered at about 5am which took most of the pain away and gave me an hour or so to try to rest before the big push.  I don't remember much but do remember that I was being told it was extremely important not to move (try staying still when your having contractions every 2 minutes) and to calm down.  There's no denying that I was very scared.  A few minutes after the epidural I started to tremble and shake - I'm not sure if it was the effect of the anaesthetic or a reaction of being scared and pretty much out of control.

It must have been around 6.30am that Ivan appeared in scrubs looking like an extra from ER and I was moved to what looked like an operating theatre.  Nico made it out at 7.15am.  See the link to Ivan's blog if you want to see some pictures.

I can't quite believe that he's here already.  He's beautiful and every time I look at him I want to cry with relief that he made it out into the world safely.