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Jonathan William Baker

7 May 2015. This morning Karen & I both woke up at about 3am, and couldn’t sleep – very unusual for us, and we went and watched TV in the lounge (Hells Kitchen).  About a week ago Dr Dumbrill suddenly started expressing urgency that the baby be delivered soon. He recommended an induction, and was keen on doing it on Monday or Tuesday. We were keen on a natural birth, so he said we could wait one week. Karen was drinking castor oil to try advance the birth – she says it’s the worst thing she’s tasted. The other suggestion was to go for a long walk/hike – like up Lions Head – we skipped that part.
I drove to a meeting I had with Flightsite in the morning, got home and after a while Karen said she’s started having contractions, and not the fake ones (Braxon Hicks). The midwife, Marianne, said to come over now (we were having the baby at her spot) – she delivered Ali, and arrived a bit after her trainee midwife (Mandy) delivered Quinn. So, we packed the birthing pool etc…and headed off to 5 Belvedere Road, Muizenberg (next to the Muizenberg junior school).  Having unpacked the birthing pool, I discovered it didn’t have the electric pump to fill it with air (like the previous ones we’d hired for Quinn and Ali).  Also, the hand pump they’d provided was extremely noisy, and I estimated it would take a few hours to fill with air (ie baby would be born already).  So, Marianne & I grabbed the birthing pool and carried it to the petrol station around the corner. We used one of air pumps there and started filling it up. Marianne went back to Karen, and a passing cyclist helped me carry the birthing pool back to her house.  We then started filling the pool with hot water.  
Karen got into the pool once it was full. A trainee midwife, Debbie, then joined us – she’d driven from Hermanus to Muizenberg.  Things progressed quite quickly, within about half an hour of getting into the birthing pool out popped Jonathan at 16h20 – Marianne said she thinks he was holding his face with his hand, as he was coming out.  He was crying a bit, but when comforted he settled down.
After a bit of time with Mom in the pool, they passed him to me, and I held him on my chest, whilst they attended to Karen.  I had my shirt off – skin on skin, and Jonathan just wanted to suckle – gave me 2 hickeys on my chest! hen Mommy was ready, he was delighted to get straight onto the boob.  After a while we weighed him – 4.1kg, our heaviest baby at birth.  I then cut the umbilical cord, and put on a nappy, and it was onto the other boob with Mommy.
Karen was a bit hungry, so I drove around Muizenberg…only corner cafés were open, so I got her a couple of apples, some yoghurt and peanuts.  Afterwards, I drove home to help Angie look put the kids to bed. Quinn and Bella were amazed at the video I’d taken of Jonathan’s birth, and we watched it over and over again. Ali was upset that Mommy wasn’t home, but calmed down after a while.  This was the first night Ali had spent without Mommy, and I became Mommy for the night – we were inseperable J  Ali and I went to put Quinn to sleep at the top of his double bunk. Then Ali and I went to put Bella to sleep, and he fell asleep with her.  In the morning Ali loved watching the video as well.
I dropped Bella off at school, then Ali and I went take Quinn and his classmates to the Honeybee Foundation, and then headed off to Muizenberg to fetch Mommy & Baby Jonathan.