1 week ago today that’s Thursday 29th of May, I arrived home and Yasmine is faffing around telling me that we’ve got to sort out my bag for the hospital and that she’s got several errands that she wants to run over the weekend (cut her hair, pop into Mothercare for some last minute items). I nod my head, not registering everything after an excessively long week at work.

A few hours later, while sitting (and trying to decompress) on the couch, watching something completely irrelevant, Yasmine calls me from the bathroom. I drag myself to the bathroom to see what she wants.

Honey, I think my water has broken.

In a moment of Hollywood weakness I tried to show that I wasn’t worried.

We’re about to have a baby!

I knew that labour was going to be tough but my god I was NOT expecting the drama that would unfold over the next 20 hours. Obviously I now have a much deeper appreciation pregnant women and what they have to go through. For the course of 9 months they endure morning sickness (stupid and incorrect name, it should be called all day, at any time sickness but maybe morning was more catchy?), pains, aches, heartburn, funny bowl movements, general discomfort when you’re hauling around an extra 16kg of weight.

You’d think that was enough right? Wrong. After they’ve endured all of that, they’re treated to MANY hours of torture. After that is done, then you get the discomforts associated with healing and a messy hormonal system. In my engineering mind I kept thinking, there must be a better more efficient way right (that didn’t involve cutting a woman open for a c-section)?

The 20 hours of labour tested my resolve completely. Seeing your wife in excruciating pain for HOURS is hard when all you can do is wait, pace, loose some sleep and worry. The last 30 minutes before Zane was born was easily one of the most difficult times in our lives together or apart.

However…

I can’t even begin to describe the elation one feels when you see your first born child. It’s a feeling unlike one I’ve ever and will probably ever feel again - for those that have experienced it you know what I’m talking about, for those that are considering it I highly recommend it. I stayed at the top of the bed and when the doctor raised Zane he was blue and red and yet instantly my eyes just became completely overwhelmed with tears. Those tears didn’t leave for several hours. In fact nearly a week later I still can feel the tears starting to come back to me as I write this.

So I sit here 1 week to the day and I marvel at our son and the long journey to bring him here. How did 1 week go by already?