Our little boy, Ted Benjamin, was born on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 1:38pm AEST via a cesarean – eleven days past his due date of August 6th. Because he baked a bit longer than expected he was born a healthy 3.750kg (or 8.3 pounds in the old money) and was rather long at 55cm.

Because Ted didn’t seem to want to come out, Michelle had to be induced. We went in early Monday morning only to find out that Northwest had a surge of women in labor and were told that Michelle was to go home and to try again the next day. It was really heartbreaking and depressing being sent home. It’s hard to describe but there is a lot of untapped emotion stirred up inside while you wait to meet your newborn. To wallow away our sorrows we headed out to Redcliffe for some fish n chips by the ocean.

On Tuesday, we woke up early – again – and made our way back to Northwest for attempt number two. Michelle had prepared herself to throw a tantrum if they told her to go home again, so right from the outset it looked like Tuesday was going to be the day – whatever it took. Thankfully, being eleven days past due date and having been sent home once before, we were a priority and they had a room waiting for us.

The next few hours went by very quickly. The obgyn broke Michelle’s waters at 8:40am, contractions started pretty much straight away, and the labor was nudged along swiftly by drugs administered by a drip. Michelle went from discomfort to needing gas to requesting an epidural all by 12pm. After the epidural was administered a midwife did a check of baby and noticed that he was breeched (wrong way around – his bum was gonna come out first). This both answered and raised some questions. We now knew why he wasn’t coming out all by himself and we now wondered how on earth the obgyn missed this. At the time however all that didn’t really matter, more important things had to be done and Michelle was quickly prepared for an emergency cesarean. Within an hour she was prepped, moved to an operating theater and operated on.

Ted Benjamin Priebe greeted us with cries of joy at 1:38pm on Tuesday, August 17th.

Immediately following the birth, Ted was checked out by the paediatrician and was found to have a dislocated right hip – due to his breeched position in the uterus. A problem with a simple fix – he just has to wear a full body brace for 8 weeks and he’ll be good as new.

The next few hours, and then days are a bit of blur – but have been very exciting. I’m amazed at how well Michelle is coping with it all and chuffed that I seem to be taking it all on with ease – so far…

Thank you everyone for your warm wishes, congratulations, visits and gifts. We are very grateful and have really appreciated the support.