Colleen's pregnancy continued without incident, she had a couple of scans and nothing untoward was detected. Colleen was keen to know the sex of our baby but successfully keep the news from me as I preferred to wait until the big day.
The due date came and went and twelve days later at around 3 a.m. Colleen went into labour and we set off on the short journey to the local hospital. Labour was progressing nicely during the morning and early afternoon but by early evening progress had slowed and the baby was showing some signs of stress.
The medical team took Colleen into theatre and I was directed to the room where the medical scrubs were kept and told to get kitted out. So there I was, someone who had always been squeamish about the sight of blood, needles and anything medical, dressed up ready to go into an Operating Theatre.
To my immense surprise I stayed upright and didn't pass out there and then !!
On my way to theatre I stopped off to collect a nappy and babygrow from the bag we had taken to the hospital. I unzipped the bag and my eyes were immediately struck by an explosion of pink. The secret was out we were having a baby girl !
In theatre there was an initial sense of panic although this quickly subsided and the team got to work on delivering the baby by caesarean section. I had always thought new born babies cried the minute they arrived and was therefore concerned when a saw a limp silent Sarah being passed to another doctor. The silence seemed to last for ages but in reality was probably less than a minute. I then heard the doctor say "I have a strong heartbeat" followed shortly afterwards by Sarah's first cry. I felt an immediate sense of relief as Sarah was whisked off to Special Care Baby Unit where she stayed for several days receiving antibiotics as there was concern that she had ingested meconium.
After 6 days Colleen and Sarah left hospital and we could start being a family. The initial excitement had passed and we quickly got into the routine of feeds and nappy changes. I am please to say I very quickly developed the knack of sleeping through the night undisturbed by night feeds ! Sarah was a very good baby and cried very little. Her cries were more like little squeaks which resulted in us giving her the nickname "Squeaky" which we still use today.
Sarah fed well, slept well and continued to put on weight. The only unusual thing was when she brought up her milk she was sick thought her nose as well as her mouth. The weeks passed uneventfully and we even had time to spend a relaxing week on holiday in the Cotswolds.
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| Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire where we spent a relaxing week |
Around three and a half months later we were at a family christening and Sarah was very restless, unable to sleep and constantly wanting to be carried. For the first time we noticed a reluctance to feed and our GP referred her to the local hospital. The hospital diagnosed bronchiolitis and Sarah was admitted. Several days later Sarah was still in hospital and although she was not getting better she did not appear to be getting worse. Imagine our surprise when following an examination by a senior paediatrician we were given the news that she had noticed a slight heart murmur, we were told that it was probably nothing to worry about and as a precaution she would undertake an echocardiogram the following morning.
Like the people of Britain in Spring 1940 who I mentioned at the start of this piece we were just about to experience our first bombshell.
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