Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long in the update stakes! We had our little girl yesterday - 10/10 on her due date, which was surprising, considering her mother's propensity for tardiness...
Claire started with contractions about 6am on Wed morning. By 10.30, we'd called the midwife, who confirmed she was about 4cm and that we should be heading to hospital. The ride to the maternity ward seemed to take forever. The ward was a 3 minute walk from the entrance, ridiculously, so Claire had about 5 or 6 contractions on the walk there!
Anyway, we eventually got to the delivery suite and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl at 3.25pm. 7lb 15oz, which was a bit away from the 9.5lb the community midwives had predicted - THANKFULLY!
We've called her Pippa Honey Rose. It's her first night in her new home tonight and her big sister Phoebe (almost 2) is being extra cute to get more attention than the new addition.
All's well that ends well as they say, as Claire was diagnosed earlier this month with Thrombocytopenia (mouthful innit?) which is a low blood platelet count which can stop your blood clotting if you have a bleed. Luckily, she didn't have any complications and her count is starting to increase.
We just want to thank all of you again for your advice and encouragement in the past few months. We really didn't know where to turn and you helped us a lot with your reassuring stories. No matter what the outcome would have been, we were sure we could have coped thanks to you all. We were greatly touched by all of your help and encouragement.
I'll try to get some photos uploaded if I get a minute (and with 3 girls and me in the house, you can imagine how unlikely that will be!).
Take care and hope to hear from you soon...
James, Claire, Phoebe and Pippa x