Kendal Oliver Hands...

We finally gave birth to our beautiful baby, Kendal Oliver Hands at 12:20 a.m on 16.6.05, weighing in at 7lbs exactly. The final stages were quite traumatic for the little fella, he was suffering from the after effects of my Gestational Diabetes, and his heart rate and breathing were pretty worrying. He was taken straight into the Special Care Unit, we didn't get to see him till a few hours later, when he was wired up to all kinds of buzzers and bells.

We're at home now, all three of us exhausted, Kendal is still not feeding properly by himself, (he won't latch on at all) but I'm managing to express enough milk to feed him with, (using a specially designed cup instead of a bottle).

I haven't had a chance to look at any emails yet, so apologise for not responding to anyone, I'm sure you'll understand. We've got to stay at home for a couple of days now, waiting for the midwife etc to come and check up on us, I lost a lot of blood during labour, so am still a bit shaky on my feet, but hope to be up and about properly toute suite.

Babyness...

I will be going into hospital at 08:00 on Monday 13 June, to be induced. This because the consultant is concerned that my blood sugars haven't been too good this past week, and he doesn't want to put the baby under any more stress than is necessary.

So, all being well, this time next week, I'll be snuggling with Mini Mint!

Any last minute advice?

Say it isn't so!...

Obviously, due to Gestational Diabetes, I have attempted to cut out all processed sugars from my diet, and have been careful about 'natural' sugars too. However, on two occaisions I have had a couple of squares of Green and Blacks Organic Dark chocolate. It's got 70% cocoa-solids, and MUCH less sugar than milk chocolate, and my sugar readings have been OK afterwards.

I haven't had any for ages though.

Last night I was seriously turkeying for some chocolate, so 'im indoors (being the love that he is) went to our corner shop to get me some 'plain' choccy. We knew they wouldn't have the G+B variety, but I quite like Cadbury's Bournville so wasn't too bothered.

Imagine my glee when he returned with a little bar of choccy just for me, and made me a nice cup of decaff tea so that I could 'dunk' a little bit.

Now - imagine my scrunched up, horrified face when I realised just how sickly sweet, gritty and horrible chocolate is when you haven't had any sugar for months! I usually love the bitter taste of plain/dark chocolate, but this.... Nasty, evil blech stuff. I couldn't eat it!

The world's gone mad.

Dave ...

... has the first of his finals today.

Employment Law. Blech!

He's studied so hard for this, I'm sure he'll do marvellously. He has another two exams next week, (Monday and Thursday) and then he's finished - and will hopefully have his degree under his belt.

Fingers crossed that Mini Mint holds on till after Thursday!

Consultant Appointment ...

Had to see the obstetrician consultant and diabetic nurse again yesterday.

Both are happy with my and Mini Mint's progress, and don't want to administer insulin yet - thankfully my sugar levels seem to have sorted themselves out again this week.

The consultant told us that he's happy to let us continue as we are, but he might look to giving us a date to 'come in' during out appointment next week.

Eek!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY...

Dave's mum and dad celebrate their wedding anniversary today. 34 years!

We hope they both have a fabu day together.