Harriet Rose Peers...

... was born today, Thursday 15th November, at around 2.41pm. I've now had no sleep for 36 hours and recently left mother and baby who are both recovering after a long and painful process. Toni's waters broke unexpectedly yesterday afternoon at 4pm, so after a brief hospital visit we were sent home to await developments. At 9pm the contractions started, and by 2.30am we returned to the hospital where the contractions got a hell of a lot worse. By 4.45am Toni was finally given an epidural and things appeared to be progressing smoothly from there. By 1pm, she was ready for the final push, but at the last minute the baby decided to turn her head in the wrong direction, forcing a c-section to be called for as Toni's epidural wore off and she was reduced to relying on gas and air for pain relief. After a long delay, and an aborted attempt to perform a local anaesthetic I was asked to leave and Toni put under a general anaesthetic. The next 20-30 minutes were some of the longest of my life, but at 2.50pm I was shown into our original birthing room to be introduced to a beautiful - if bruised where her face had been in the wars - baby girl weighing 6lbs, 12oz. Harriet Rose Peers - the name we'd chosen ages ago - was duly named and weighed and faced a long wait with her dad while Toni came round in the recovery room. Eventually mother and baby were reunited and after a long overdue feed (nobody's fault but Harriet's) I left both of them sleeping as I wearily wended my way home to feed the cats, catch up on a missed night's sleep and try to finish off some work. So here I am, a father of a baby girl I consider to be the most beautiful baby in the world. I just know she's going to break my heart when she's older, but for now, the whole concept of being a dad is still sinking in!