Amélie Iris Bagnall

At 14:14 (BST) on the 28th September 2010 in the hospital of St. Peters, Chertsey, Surrey our second child Amélie Iris was born, weighing just over 8lb 5oz (3.784kg).  Like her sister Éowyn she has the Badger family ears and the Bagnall nose (another that needs to learn the Bagnall nose rub!).  However, unlike her sister she has dark hair.

Unlike Éowyn, Amélie’s birth was straightforward and as easy as a birth should be.  Lucinda woke at about 04:30 with very mild contractions, they got steadily stronger and more regular through the morning.  We arrived at St. Peters at 12:16 (according to the car park ticket) and went straight to triage.  The midwife there took us straight to the labour ward.  We had to wait for 45 minutes for a birthing room and within 45 minutes of being in the birthing room Amélie was born.  The only pain relief that Lucinda had was one paracetamol, a TENS machine and gas and air during the delivery.  I am very proud of her.

The only reason that I have come home alone tonight, is due to the ward being so busy and a number of sick babies (my heart goes out to those parents) which meant that we were left longer than we should have before being admitted to the Ante-natal ward.  At least that is better than coming home alone 7 nights in a row, as was the case when Éowyn was born.

So, tomorrow at 08:00 I should arrive on ward and hopefully it will not be too long (before 12:15 please as my car park ticket will run out) before my girls are discharged and we can introduce Éowyn to her new baby sister.

Again, before people ask about our choice of name there is no psuedo-history or importance behind the name Amélie, we both just like it.  Iris, on the other hand is in honour of my Great Auntie Iris (Amélie’s Great-Great Auntie Iris) who passed away last year.

Amélie is of Latin origin and is associated with French speaking countries (also a great film), while its variants Amelia and Emily are more common in Germanic and English speaking countries.  All have the same meaning of  ‘hardworking‘, ‘industrious‘ and ‘striving‘.  Interesting coincidence: Amélie (d’Orléans) was the name of the last Queen Consort of Portugal, and she was born on the 28th September (1865).

Iris on the other hand is of Greek origin and has the meaning ‘Rainbow‘.  Obviously, it is also the name of a flower.  Iris was a messenger of the gods who rode rainbows between heaven and earth to deliver messages from Olympus to mortals thus linking the gods to humanity.

Éowyn will now have to share this website with Amélie and I will keep you all regularly updated with the growing pains of both my daughters.  Lucinda and I would like to thank you all for your kind messages and look forward to introducing Amélie to you all in the coming weeks and months.

A special thank you to Lucinda’s parents who looked after Éowyn today, I hope she behaved herself.  And a happy 30th birthday to my baby sister for tomorrow.

Peace and Love

Baggie

The real reason you are all here:

Coming home?

At midnight tonight (the start of Wednesday 22nd October) Éowyn should be receiving the last of her antibiotic doses via her canula.  This is the last of a five day course which implies that she was born with an infection, although the doctors have been conspicuous by their absence for us to question them about this.  They have also, not given her the BCG injection that they said that they would give her on Monday.  Assuming that all is well (and she receives her BCG) then I should be able to take mummy and baby home.  However, if the release of other mothers in the ward is anything to go by it will be nigh on 9 o’clock (in the evening!) before everything will be signed for them to leave.  I will be in from 8 o’clock (in the morning) to bug them into letting us leave early.  My car park ticket runs out at 17:45!

I’m afraid there are no new photos in today’s news as we took some photos on Lucinda’s camera but it is still with her in the hospital, however there should be plenty of new ones in tomorrow’s news.

Just a quick aside, I need to confirm this but I believe that Éowyn is the first Bagnall, in a direct line of ancestry, to have been born outside of West Bromwich for nearly 200 years.  However, I am still going to saddle her with the burden of being a Baggies fan.  Poor girl!

I’m off to bed, tomorrow is a very important day, our family life can truly begin.

Peace and love

Baggie!

Meeting the Family

Éowyn has now been out of ICU for over 24 hours and on the transitional care ward in a cot next to Lucinda, and although Éowyn had a good night’s sleep, Lucinda didn’t.  This was partly due to the worry of being a new mum and having your baby in a cot next to you, but mainly due to the snoring of two of the other mums and the crying of three other babies.  Not conducive for a good night’s sleep.  Unfortunately Lucinda didn’t really get much chance to grab a nap in the day either, with feeds and doctors and nurses checking up on her and running tests on Éowyn, and having just spoke to her I don’t think tonight will be any better.  I can’t wait until I have the go ahead to take my girls home and start our family life.

Éowyn met her two uncles and two of her aunties last night (Lucinda’s brothers Steve and Mike along with Steve’s wife Zöe and Mike’s girlfriend Cristina) and her first Bagnall auntie, my sister Mary this afternoon.  This evening Lucinda’s parents John and Jenny saw Éowyn out of ICU for the first time, so she is slowly meeting the family.  My mom (who only saw her in ICU) and youngest sister Liz will meet her on Sunday when they come for a visit from West Bromwich.

Today we have had more good news in that it appears that her bilirubin levels, a measure to determine the severity of jaundice in neonates, stopped short of the treatment level and has begun to drop, meaning that she should not have to have phototherapy treatment, prolonging her stay in hospital.  Also, she has already begun to put weight on after the usual post-birth drop, indicating that she is feeding well, which is excellent news as she is solely breast feeding at the moment, so mum must be doing well.  She also had an extended hearing test today (a matter of routine for babies that have spent more that 48 hours in ICU) and she passed with flying colours.  We actually had no worries there, as she is a very inquisitive baby and constantly likes to know what is going on.

Please forgive me a moment of gooey-ness.  I wasn’t expecting new father pride to kick in quite so early but I am very proud of my little girl, she has proved herself a fighter (worthy of her name), she is very contented only grumpy when in need of food, has wind or needs her nappy changing (like her father) and when I look into those eyes my heart melts, I think that she has all the makings of a proper little daddy’s girl, judge for yourself in the photos below.

Hopefully in tomorrow’s update there will be news of her discharge.

Peace and Love

Baggie and Lucinda x

Who's your daddy?
Who's your daddy?
Father's Pride
Father's Pride
I'm still awake daddy!
I'm still awake daddy!