Week One in review

Hard to believe it's already been a week since the kids were born, there are times when it feels like five minutes ago and others when it feels like forever...

Anyways, here's a quick roundup of progress so far:

Birth Day - Tuesday Feb 2, 2010
We arrived at Frimley Park at about 6.30am expecting to be kept waiting for hours as always seems to happen with hospitals. However, we'd scarcely had time to complain about the quality of the food when we were called to the operating theatre so, with Elly clad in two of those buttock exposing theatre gowns and me decked out in blue operating scrubs we toddled off for the big event.

First stop was the anesthetist who gave Elly a spinal, which is similar to an epidural but more appropriate to caesarian sections. To be honest, I don't see what all the fuss was about as I didn't feel a thing but "apparently" Elly had needles pushed into her back to deaden her lower half. It was the first time I ever been (conscious) in an OR so it was quite interesting, there were many machines that go 'ping', a couple of machines that go 'whhhrrrrrrrr' and one that didn't seem to do much at all but just the presence of it lent a certain air of formality to the proceedings.

We'd been told the OR would be busy, as it was a twin birth we'd have two teams on hand to deal with the babies and a surgical team to deliver them. What we weren't told was that there were also students in. observing proceedings so by my best count there are about 25 people plus us in attendance which gave the appearance of a waiting room full of masked people - think Eyes Wide Shut without the dinner suits... or Tom Cruise... and with more... medical stuff...

The delivery seemed fairly smooth, I wasn't allowed to cut the cords as Ell's nethers were a sterile area but the surgical shield was lowered when first Emily, then Faith were delivered. It was a very surreal moment. After so long, and so much anticipation it felt a little detached, but I put down to the fact that were almost entirely detached from the delivery itself. The feeling soon went and within a couple of minutes I had two very healthy, very hairy little people in my arms. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry so did both and actually still do both every time we get five minutes of calm and I look into the eyes of my gorgeous daughters.

A quick look at the pictures shows the difference between the two of them, but in the chaos of the first couple of hours it was very difficult to tell them apart. Looking back a couple of days after the big event, it all seems a bit of a blur. At 8.59am on Feb 2, 2010 I was just another bloke in the crowd. A minute later I was Dad, bank manager, Guru, Oracle and future embarrassment and potential life wrecker to two very small, very beautiful little girls. I defy anyone with a heart not to shed a tear the moment their child is born. It's like gathering everything good that's ever happened to you up, compressing into a pint of emotion then swallowing it and getting drunk as a result - it's a moment I'll never forget.

Since then there have been several moments I will easily forget, due in no small part to Faith's desire to be bright and lively been 10pm and 4am. One tip to prospective parents; when the time comes to take first shift on baby monitoring (bedtime till midway through the night) or second shift (midway through the night to 7am) always go for the latter option as, by then, your gorgeous little bungle of life will have cried/pooed/peed/protested herself into oblivion. Whoever opted for the first shift will be begging for release by shift end and dehydrated from the tears of frustration, the second shifter can administer a quick feed then pop the little one down and watch him/her drift off to sleep in seconds - winner!!

Nappies have been an interesting experience. It turns out Merconium is not on the periodic table, looks like crude oil and is, in short, quite terrifyingly sticky - under no circumstances should it be interfered with as it could, quite possibly, be used as a weapon of mass destruction. Be sure to approach it with caution, however, and all should be well.

Nappy changing is an art form. It's staggering just how wriggly small people can be, especially when it's the first time you've seen a Pampers and you're struggling with the "stick tab A to pad B" type instructions. As long as you get the right end of the child to apply said device to, all should eventually be well although improper deployment of the nappy device can result in a damp child should excess urination occur.

Our pram is an absolute Godsend. A marvel of precision engineering, the Leebruss Zoom is a six feet long tandem pram which allows us to have both kids facing us. It's jet black and really swish, so much so I call it the Death Star - it puts fear into passers-by and attracts more attention than a yeti on a unicycle - in short, it rocks! Pushing it rounds shops generates masses of attention and it folds down so flat it's unbelievable.

So with prams, poo, birth and more covered, I now have to nip off and feed the kids. I'll try and post more soon...