Patrick Marcus

...was born on 3rd July 2008 at 6:16 a.m. It was a difficult birth, my feet ached from standing, my thumbs became a little strained from massaging Knickers' shoulders and all her moans and shrieks became tiresome.

As far as mother and baby go all went well. The waters broke at 1:20, Knickers woke me up to say that she wasn't sure if both fluid sacks had broken (both? that was news to me too) but a sudden pop, gush, splash confirmed that they both definitely were now.

Too excited to sleep we rose and made tea and snacks and turned Wimbledon on. We were very cosy until the contractions started. I had the same notebook to hand in which I documented the contractions for the Noodle. Knickers was concerned about being turned back from the hospital if she wasn't advanced enough and wanted to have statistics to back up her claim.

Within twenty minutes she had gone from, 'I think I'm having one,' to ',Mother of God make it stop.'

I called her parents to come and fetch the Noodle, who was quite happy to be bundled into their car in the middle of the night. 'Good sleeps' he announced - this signifies for him the end of the sleep process and prefixes the start of the playing and eating. Not a good sign for his poor grandparents, but the least of our concern at the time.

Drove through the near deserted city, past prowling taxis and a lone garbage truck and into the assessment office of the WCH. Knickers was 7cm dilated, so no chance of being sent away. The midwife took her up to the birthing room while I went and parked the car. I was fortunate enough to get a park nearby as I only had one disgruntled possum to compete with.

Knickers was determined to have an epidural this birth but there just wasn't time in the end. She made do with hearty gasps of the gas and Patrick was born within an hour of me returning to the room.

We're still all operating under seige mentality as we adjust to the arrival of the newest member of the clan. Sleep is being snatched in hourly increments rather than swathes of the day, and an outing is taking the hounds for a wander around the oval, but all our friends and family have been fantastic. Of special note have been the care packages from Nana and Granddad containing the finest soups known to humanity; and the books from Aunty Margie Ping is about all I can handle at the moment.