Welcome to the World....

Since my last post about the baby shower we haven't had a lot to share - mainly focusing on the decoration of the baby's room. Phil wallpapered one feature wall - with a small bit of assistance from myself, we put the curtains up, finished the painting, built the cot, had a new window sill fitted, and put floating shelves up - as well as adding some decorations, toys, a rug and some furniture. Now for the wardrobe...
Although she won't be sleeping in her room for a good 6-months at least (she'll be snuggled up in our room), it was a nice peace of mind to get it nearly finished in time.

On August 23rd 2018, with exactly two weeks until due date, Mercedes had just finished her penultimate day at work before maternity leave - including a mini work baby shower and some ridiculously generous gifts from her work colleagues which blew us both away! We spent the evening looking around Matalan and ASDA for some 'tiny baby' baby-grows in case she came out smaller than we expected. Having spent the evening shopping, tired and with no food in the house, we decided to swing-by McDonald's drive-thru for a cheeky bite to eat on the way home before stuffing our faces from the comfort of our sofa - little beknown to what was about to happen....

Having finished our food and making our way up to bed, stripped off and ready for an early night at 21:30, Mercedes turned to me in bed and claimed, "I think I've just wet myself." Not from the excitement of McDonalds for tea, or caused by the growing bump pushing down on her bladder. I turned to her thinking, 'has she wet herself or have her waters broken?'

Following a bit of a panic and a quick phone-call to Southmead Maternity Ward - they asked us to come in and be assessed. Still not sinking in, we both thought it was likely a false alarm and were going to spend a couple of hours being assessed, only to be sent home later in the night.
How wrong could we be?

After a quick review in the hospital, it turned Mercedes was 1cm dilated and her waters had indeed broken, although hadn't felt any contractions - that quickly changed. Mercedes quickly progressed through labour - although the midwifery team were trying to hold out until 03:00am so that 6-hours had passed since our cheeky Maccies and she was nil-by-mouth. Mercedes' contractions progressed rapidly to the surprise of the staff and ourselves, and was quickly admitted to the Central Delivery Suite accompanied by suitable pain relief - gas and air. I'd been telling Mercedes about how great gas and air was from when I broke my hand - but considering how closely her contractions were apart and for how long they went on for, I don't think it really touched her.

Not long after 03:00am we were taken in to theatre, ready for the cesarean section surgery that would bring our daughter in to the world. But not before I was forced in to scrubs and a dashing pair of Crocs!
At this point I want to give a massive shout out to the staff across the Maternity Ward of Southmead Hospital, from the midwifes, to the nurses, the surgeon, the baby doctors, the anaesthetist - everyone! They were all great and created an unbelievable experience for myself and Mercedes.

A big cut, a few spinal injections, and a short wait later, and at 04:35am on Friday 24th August 2018 - Monroe Harley Hardinge entered the world to join our family!

Weighing 7lb 8.5ozs, despite being 13 days early, Monroe was and is perfectly healthy with a great head of dark hair.

 Everything went swimmingly well, I went over to cut her umbilical cord whilst the doctors stitched Mercedes back-up and then brought Monroe over to her Mummy for her first cuddle and a bit of skin-to-skin.

Mercedes has healed very well and is also doing exceptionally well - and I cannot put in to words how proud I am of my fiancée, not only with how she handled labour and being put through a major operation to deliver our daughter, but how she has coped during 9-months of pregnancy, carrying our daughter around and even working right up until the day before she was born!

Both Mercedes and Monroe were discharged on Saturday afternoon - following visits from my Mum and Phil, and Mercedes' Mum and Dad in the hospital, with not a lot of sleep on Friday night from the ward - Mercedes still in pain and worried about taking her eye off Monroe, and myself cramped up in a hospital chair, worrying about my girls and less so about sleep.

Here are some pictures from the day for you to enjoy - and we will be following this up with news of Monroe's first week in the coming days.

Daddy Dinge
x

The Baby Shower

Last weekend I had the pleasure of being joined by my nearest and dearest for the part every pregnant woman looks forward to. No, not the actual baby coming......the baby shower!

An incredible afternoon at Bitton Sports and Social Club, friends and family traveled from all over the country to be there and I was so touched at the efforts people went to - not just to be there, but in the gifts they gave, and the decorations and organisation that made the day absolutely perfect.

After heading down to the venue with Kathy (Ben's Mum), and Naomi (Ben's Step-Sister), I walked in the doors of Bitton Sports & Social Club, a venue I've spent many years and events at - but I've never seen it like this! It had been transformed in to a beautiful baby shower venue, with pink and white everywhere. Pink balloons, wall hangers, games on the tables, jugs of Pimms (and pink lemonade), even miniature super hero baby-grow bunting - and of course, a lovely group of my favourite people!

I know a lot of people probably think baby showers are a bit of a gimmick or an Americanism that we've adopted, but I honestly can say it was so nice to be able to get everyone together and share probably our last big outing before our bundle of joy arrives. There were so many laughs, stories, advice and words of wisdom shared and felt like both bump and I were especially spoilt.

We played some great games, from prosecco pong to pin the dummy on the baby, from guess the bump size to a special Mr and Mrs. And even a game of 'labour or porn' where we had images of a number of women pulling funny faces and we had to guess whether it was from labour or a porn film! My friends Kate, Ursh and Will came away with a worrying 8 out 9, and
claimed the prize!

My Mum and Em (my Sister-in-Law) did an absolutely incredible job of arranging the whole event, and it was made even more special when Ben came down to join us towards the end - and share the fun we'd had. They thought of absolutely everything, even miniature baby bottles full of sweets with personalised stickers on for all the guests to take away.
Also a massive shout out and thank you to Primrose Pops who made the most incredible pink unicorn caramel and strawberry milkshake cake pops! I think bump and I could've eaten the whole thing ourselves!

After everyone had gone home and all the decorations were tidied away, we had the pleasure of being able to sit down on our sofa and admire the incredibly generous gifts that we had been given.
When Ben and I discussed about having a baby shower, it was never with the idea of receiving gifts - just wanting to get our friends and family together and celebrating with some silly fun before our beautiful girl arrives, but I think it's safe to say our little girl has been absolutely spoilt by everyone and is going to be the best dressed little girl around!

Of course there were people who couldn't make it for various reasons, but we hope they get to read this and share the fun we had - and no doubt they'll be round to meet our little Princess as soon as she arrives.

Now the baby shower is done and dusted, and just over five weeks to go, we better get off and get the nursery finished - and prepare for our first Health Visitor visit this week - it sounds ominous but I'm sure it'll be fine.

A massive thank you to everyone for making my baby shower such a perfect event and a truly incredible day.

Mummy Dinge x

Our journey so far...

So after 33 weeks + 4 days we've decided to get ourselves online and document our journey. Not just so our nearest and dearest can see how we're getting on, but to share our stories and experiences with our pending bundle of joy.

We've seen many people blogging about their experiences with their children, and we love the idea of documenting this to share with our friends and family, but to also look back on our journey and how far we've come - and maybe one day, show our little Princess what it was all like.

With just over six weeks to go until our due date of 6th September, we've gone through a massive chunk of the pregnancy already, learning lots on the way - not only about the baby and pregnancy, but about ourselves as well.

Thanks to the incredible technology and amazing skills of the NHS midwives, we already know that we're expecting a little girl - and we couldn't be any happier.....unless she comes out as a little boy, then he might look a bit odd in dresses and pink fluffy coats, but this is 2018 after all!

We've had the gender confirmed, both in our 20 week scan at Southmead in Bristol with the NHS, and a private paid-for scan that Mercedes got me for my birthday - First Encounters in Portishead.

After putting Mercedes through her paces, jumping around, emptying her bladder and being poked gently by the sonographer, our baby girl finally rolled over, smiled at us and revealed that she had lady parts.

After a few tears of joy and realisation that Pompey do indeed offer pink baby grows, we welcomed our close friends and family to join us at Botteginos for a gender reveal. Inevitably we had a great time sharing our news with everyone, but that wasn't after the stress of trying to blow up a giant black balloon filled with pink confetti - juggling the worries of blowing it up too much and bursting it with pink confetti going everywhere to ruin the surprise, or not blowing it up enough and failing to get this giant balloon off the ground. We settled for the latter and after a few chairs, a hook already on the ceiling, and my Mum's crutches, we managed to hook the balloon and dangle it from the ceiling.

Since then we've been learning lots about what to expect, buying lots of clothes in preparation - getting carried away with miniature designer outfits (mostly by me, oops!), and getting our house ready for her arrival.

Following recent movement monitoring and an additional sonography scan, she is already at least 5lbs and looking like she's already got a good head of hair - just like her Daddy!

As the British summer continues to soar through blistering heat, and Mercedes enters her last 6-weeks of work as she aims to graft all the way up until due date, she's been coping incredibly well. It's fair to say that our new £15 Screwfix oscillating fan has been one of the best purchases of the pregnancy!

Just over 6-weeks left and still lots to do, but the bulk of stuff has already been bought. The baby's room already has carpet, paint on 3 walls (although needs another touch-up), and Mercedes' Dad, Mr DIY, has already cut the skirting in preparation for fitting. Next up - Phil and I will attempt to wallpaper the feature wall before the furniture goes in over the next few weeks.

This weekend we welcome our family and friends (well the female ones!) to help us celebrate and throw Mercedes a baby shower - another first that she gets to experience, that no doubt we'll share with you afterwards.

This is just the start of our journey and can't wait for you all to be a part of it.

Daddy Dinge x