Jasper is here

Well the moment we had been waiting for had finally arrived. Wait a minute.... that's not quite right. We hadn't been waiting for anything during the week of the 12th of September as nothing in particular was planned. I was in my 34th week and feeling tired but looking forward to the next five or so weeks of putting my feet up and organising last minute 'baby' things.

However Jasper had other ideas. Perhaps it was the impending All Blacks vs Australia - Tri Nations final in the weekend or perhaps he was saving me from the fact that he would have been a full term whopper! We shall never know but on Wednesday the 10th of September my waters broke VERY unexpectedly. A funny aside here.... Barny and I had been out for dinner with our neighbour David who was about to go on a business trip for four weeks. We had joked about Jasper's arrival date and I was adamant that Jasper would be born early, thus arriving before David returned from England. So a bet was made - dinner with all the trimmings, and off we went home. Well only half an hour later my waters broke and the fun began. That will teach David ( an Englishman) for making a bet with a competitive Kiwi!!

It soon became apparent at about 2am that I probably needed to go to the hospital then, rather than in the daylight so off we went to Soon Chun Hyang, the hospital 5 mins from our house. Coincidentally I had only just changed doctors and hospitals the day before! It was thought that possibly I would be on bed rest =-(eeekk!) for a couple of weeks but on Friday morning my doctor came in and said there was a slight infection so they would have to induce me. I was very upset with this as I had been planning as natural birth as I could but there you are. They injected me and bang off we went.I had gone from never feeling contractions to having them every 2-3 minutes. I did achieve a natural birth without having any pain relief but it was a very tough day. Jasper was born at 10.10 on Friday night, after 11 hours, labelled premature at 2.64kg but fighting fit. Everything working as it should and he was with me, in my room from the following lunch time until Wednesday when I went home.

Jasper was obviously meant to come early as he continues to thrive and grow daily. His particular hobbies at the moment , rugby aside, appear to be milking daisy the cow, filling landfills and dreaming blissfully in his hammock bed. Currently he is about to start work on the Korean alphabet, no simple ABC will suffice for this cherub. Needless to say Barny and I are completely besotted with the new addition to our family and you are all now doomed to endless conversations about our darling son forever more.

Stay tuned for the first pictures!