An Announcement

I am pleased to announce the birth of Jonathan Dean Baddeley at 2:32 am on the 27/12/07. He was 8lb 10oz or 3.9kg at birth. Jennie handled the seven and a half-hour labour so well that the attending midwife 'thought it was a shame' that the final stage had to be done with the assistance of forceps as young Jonathan got a bit stuck. That's possibly not surprising given his size.

The birth was induced. The medical types had been concerned about Jennie's blood pressure and some other issues in the final weeks, and this grew in the final days. We spent the day before Christmas at the hospital as a routine check-up with Jennie's GP ended up in a long stay at the Radcliffe Hospital as they ran a bunch of tests on her. This meant that Jennie pretty much slept through Christmas Day, as you'd expect. Then on the 26/12/07 we were back at the hopital not-so-bright-eyed but certainly early. They decided that they'd like to induce as soon as possible and it just so happened that there was a vacancy that day...

From here the news gets a bit grimmer, but it's nothing to panic about. Due to the concerns that led to the inducing they kept Jennie in for five days for observation and some regular tests. That's ok, except that being in a ward of four new mothers, each with a child, and with Jonathan (after the first day) eating with increasing franticness and regularity (eating for almost three hours straight one night), and with the Hopsital's own schedules of meals, tests, and me not being allowed to be there for 12 hours a day Jennie was getting between 1 to 3 hours of sleep out of every twenty-four, day after day.

I'm not sure how she's managed to cope - I doubt I could have, and certainly not as well. But it certainly has taken a toll. We both got the whole 'less sleep' thing going into this, but I feel that keeping her in for five days with an unsettled baby turned this into something of an extreme sport. (The tone may be light here, but understand that there is a lot of anger here at the inability of an institution to have a suitable policy in place for someone staying in for more than one or two days. Which is a shame, because otherwise the Radcliffe has been on a scale that begins at 'highly competent' and ends at 'amazing').

I know that many of you were entitled to a personal notification of the birth. I'm sorry it hasn't been forthcoming, but I've been trying to be at the hospital for the full twelve hours I was allowed to be there to pick up what load I could, add in a couple of hours of travel time, and there wasn't much time (or energy) left over for me either. I apologise, however. Nonetheless, we still mightn't have gotten around to it even today if it wasn't for the developments of today.

Today was the day that Jennie was going to be released as they were increasingly happy with what they saw from her tests. However, almost as an afterthought they thought they'd just give Jonathan one more check over with the paedatrician. The midwives also thought he looked a bit dehydrated.

The results were fairly concerning. He'd lost about 20% of his birthweight in 4 days, where 12% in 7 days was enough to push alarm bells. As a result his ammonnia (I think that's right, some element however) is imbalanced and his 'infection count' (which is probably his white blood cell count, although I didn't think to ask) is high. Unfortunately that meant they had to eliminate the (highly unlikely) prospect of meningitis. That required a lumbar puncture. Unfortunately it didn't work, so they're going to have to develop the blood cultures to see whether there is an infection there or whether the result is just due to the dehydration (the most likely scenario). But until the results come in Jonathan is on a course of antibiotics.

I had gone back home to get the stuff Jennie and Jonathan would need for another few days while the new rehydration regimen did its work when the results for the infection count came in. So Jennie was woken up five minutes after she hit the bed (again) to get the news that her new son was about to have a needle stuck in his spine and had to deal with it on her own. This has been a truly awful day.

Nonetheless, although we've been fairly rocked by today (when I got the news that they were keeping them in another two days, and before we found out how serious things were, I had to walk away I was so angry at the thought they were going to subject Jennie to another 48 hours of no sleep without doing anything to help), there's a lot we're grateful for and would like people to give thanks for. We're grateful that the problem with Jonathan not getting enough food from the breastfeeding was picked up before we went home today.

We're grateful that it doesn't look serious at this stage (they decided not to put him in intensive care, which was a really good sign). We're grateful he's responding so well to the new regimen--eating everything, and sleeping between feeds,and already more alert and active when awake. Everything looks very promising.

And we're grateful that Jennie has her own room now (it happened immediately after I walked away when the midwife got a glimpse of how upset I was, and not after the two previous occassions when I talked calmly and respectfully, yet fairly forcefully, on the two previous days-so not happy about how we got it, but still very grateful it's been given). And has already gotten a couple of hours sleep as a result. This in turn will help with milk production as lack of sleep inteferes with the milk coming through.

Nontheless, things are, it seems, potentially serious and so we would value prayer. Especially for Jonathan that God would preserve his life and enable him to come through this unscathed. For Jennie, that she would start to get enough sleep (even five hours broken up over the day would be a big step forward at this stage). And for both of us that we'd be wise and godly parents of new Jonathan.

I'm assured by the multiple female staff (including a cleaner) that he's very cute. Apparently it has something to do with the long eyelashes he was born with, which is a bit of a rarity among baby connoisseurs.

Apologies if this has been a bit too light in tone in places given the gravity of the news at this moment. But Jennie and I don't always like inflicting our somewhat black-shaded view of the world on others (while we've cried today, neither of us were really surprised at the development) and I'm probably not at my best to calibrate properly. And I also didn't want to take away from the great news of Jonathan's birth, and that God has looked after him so far. In the midst of the frustration and concern, we have been blessed. Please pray, but rejoice with us as well.MDB