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My little baby girl

Wow! Well over the weekend my wife gave birth to our little baby daughter "Siena Leota King". I knew it was going to be full on, but still it was a lot more intense than I could have imagined!

First of all we have the cutest little treasure ever, my little darling is such a beautiful piece of life.  Her name is Siena, which comes from a town in Italy where she was conceived.

I thought I had it all pretty under control. With our funny DVD movie playing in between mild contractions, we were keeping it together quite nicely I thought.

I was confident we were going to have a relaxed and focused birth. Well just after I uploaded the last article things just got progressively more chaotic.

To cut a long story short Leota was in labour from 2:30am till 7:00pm. From 2:30am till about 2:00pm the labour  was manageable, but after 2:00pm the labour intensified big time.

I was prepared for the worst, but I was still not even close to being ready for what goes down in birth, or at least the birth we had.  I started getting flashbacks of one of the comments from "Jenna" in my "Calm before the storm" article, which said "I'll be interested to read your blog after this event" - referring to my relaxed pre-birth attitude. She was right!

I have never seen anyone go through the pain my wife went through, WORDS CAN'T DESCRIBE IT! Apparently our birth wasn't normal, in-fact even the doctor said it was quite traumatic in comparison to standard births.

Towards the end the doctor had to put a suction cap on the baby's head and rip her out with full force. Her head came out but the shoulders couldn't get past the pelvis and were stuck.

Watching this blue head lifelessly dangling at the same time the doctor saying "we need to get this baby out now", I knew it was serious. I helplessly watched my wife screaming like someone was sawing off her legs. I have never seen that kind of agony in someone's face before.

Then the doctor and the midwife were pulling with what seemed maximum effort, while at the same time cutting her skin with scissors to release the shoulders (no drugs!).

I thought at one point the head was going to get pulled clean off such was the amount of force being used. It's one of those moments when you sink or swim and we both swam.

I snapped and started screaming at Leota "push, push".  I had been pretty controlled till this point, but now it was serious and she knew it.

Leota instantly knew I wouldn't act like this for nothing and dug deep to find strength that I have never seen before in her, as she knew what was at stake if she didn't find that strength.

I saw every vain in her chest throbbing as she exhausted every last drop of energy for this final critical moment.

Finally the baby was ripped out, blue and lifeless! The first thing that went through my head was "she's dead". I looked at Leota and didn't know how she could go on if that happened.

"Cut the cord" - the doctor puffed out to me. In truth I couldn't care less about cutting the cord and as bad as it sounds the baby was the last thing on my mind.

Leota had just been tortured and I could not help but be drawn to how much pain she just had endured.

Eventually the doctors words snapped me back into the moment and I did cut the cord as they whipped her away to get the oxygen and start her breathing. It took a while for her to breath as I darted between her and my wife.

The situation was so hectic I only noticed she was a girl about 2 minutes after. "It's a girl," I vaguely said to my wife as she just gave a exhausted smile back.

It wasn't like the movies where the Dad holds up the baby with a smile and says in that catchphase manner "it's a boy".

After about 15 minutes the baby got colour as the doctors, midwives and myself took a breath of relief.

It was only about this time that my wife and I actually started to enjoy the little human we brought into the world. She needed to be monitored for the next couple of hours after the birth to make sure everything was ok, which it was thank God.

I must say the doctor and midwives at Port Macquarie Hospital were unbelievable, they truly are saints and should be appreciated big time.

I would go out to see Siena every couple of minutes and she would cling to my finger like she is in this photo. I instantly feel in love with my little 8pound 12ounce girl the second she did this.

Her eyes would wander around as she was on her back, but her grip stayed tight. She has all my wife's features, which makes me love her even more. Cute little lips, putty nose and beautiful eyes. The little noises she makes is enough to make you melt.

I honestly believe nothing anyone can say to you will let you know what it's like to have a baby - nothing! I have had stories drummed into me for years and to be honest I didn’t really care for them much or more to the point, didn't understand them.

This is something that words can't describe till you do it yourself. I feel so strong, happy, content and closer to my wife after going through such an experience.

I'm not sure if little Siena brought me good luck or it's the frame of mind I'm in after such an event, but I also competed in the Teams challenge on the weekend and I had 3 perfect 10s in the event - something I have never had in Bodyboarding.

I now know Winny's secret! HA

On a different note my articles have been a bit slow over the past week or so, but I'm back on the program now ... at least after I change this nappy!