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
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