I woke up at 7.30 this morning. I hadn't really slept, I'd been so shocked and nervous and I felt faintly sick as a dragged myself into the shower. I hastily ate breakfast and then phoned around immediate family before jumping on a packed Metro up to Hospital La Paz.
After last night's experience of being told I couldn't go in at every turn I was fully psyched up for a good row with some nurses but I was hardly opposed - the receptionist told me the room number and I went straight in to find a happy, if slightly sore Kate cuddling our daughter Rosie.
Like me Kate hadn't really slept but she seemed happy enough. I was amazed at her resilience considering what she'd been through, and indeed she was up and moving about a bit by the end of the day. It felt so good for all three of us to be together, and we spent most of the day just sitting, talking quietly and taking it turns to hold her. She's such a miracle and I can't explain how I feel. This blog post is horrendously inadequate in that sense!
As she was over 3 weeks early she's quite small - just 2.3kgs - and has spent most of the day sleeping and making small snuffling noises. She was wheeled off to be checked over by pediatricians a couple of times, but they seem satisfied with her. Breastfeeding, however, has not been straightforward, though she seemed to be starting to get the hang of it and is being incredibly patient and persevering. I'm just in awe.
Kate and Rosie are sharing a room with a Spanish woman and her son, Martin, born by Caesarian on Sunday. She and her various visitors have been very helpful, explaining things to us and so on. We have been inundated with phone and messages from well-wishers, plus Rosie's first visitor - Cesar, bearing flowers, which was a very welcome surprise. So may people have phoned to offer any help we need, which has actually just added to my general feeling of "I don't know what I need! what should I be doing?" I'm off work for the week - what a great boss we have - but I don't really know what I should be doing apart from trying to anticipate Kate's comforts (hence tomorrow's shopping mission - big, comfy knickers a la Bridget Jones). Folks, as soon as we work out what we need, we'll let you know!!
Kate's sent me home - I did offer to stay and sleep in the chair, but she said I needed to sleep. She's right - god knows we won't be doing much of that in the months to come!
Exactly a year ago she was a teeny tiny, very red baby with a generous amount of dark hair and piercing blue eyes. She was born four weeks early, showed little interest in feeding, was deaf in one ear and had a tummy button hernia. She was also, as far as we were concerned, perfect. The startling disparity in the size of her newborn feet is a trick of the light.
A year on Rosie is still small for her age, but a giant compared to her former self. Her skin colour is pinky-beige, she's got a generous amount of hair still and those eyes remain a piercing blue, although with tones of grey. Both ears work fine, her tummy button has subsided and as for her feeding? See below.
We still think she's perfect. And her feet are definitely the same size, give or take.
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