It's official!

This morning, the birth of Elizabeth Rowan McLaughlin was registered at Martha Street Registrars' office. So now it's official - she's stuck with the name.

Later, we went to visit Ruth and Jerry, Emily and Daisy. Both babies slept throughout the visit. Emily still doesn't seem to have quite adjusted to her new baby sister.

I've sort of lost track of time over the past week. On the one hand, Elizabeth's birth seems like yesterday; on the other, we've settled in to a routine (of sorts) that seems to have gone on for ever. I'm not sure how I'll cope with going back to work.

Since this blog is new, I'll recap on some of the past week's events. Ruth's baby had been due on the 18th. The hospital had decided that, if nature hadn't taken its course, she would be induced on Thursday the 30th. We would look after two-year-old Emily while this was going on.

But on the morning of the 29th, Ruth, Jerry and Emily turned up on our doorstep, Ruth obviously in some distress - the baby was on its way. We looked after Emily all day, with no trouble at all, until bed-time! Emily was not keen on sleeping in our "big girl's bed". Instead, she wanted to go home. Eventually, we put her in a travel cot, dimmed the lights and we both lay down in the same room. She still wasn't happy, but eventually settled down. She woke up a couple of times, the last one shortly after midnight, but it looked as if we were to get through the night without any great trouble.

Until 2:20, that is. Helen went into labour, six days early. We waited unti 4ish before calling Allison, the midwife. She came over, satisfied herself that things had a few hours to run, and went home to have a couple more hours sleep.

About 5:30, Emily woke up. About 6, I phoned my Mum. She promised to come over to help out right away. Some time later, there was a surreal situation where Helen was upstairs, groaning away at frequent (like 4-minute) intervals, I was in the kitchen with Emily in a high-chair ("More Coco Pops, please") and my Mum was on the phone - she and Dad were lost. A tense minute later (Emily has a habit of standing up in high-chairs), I had found a street-map, and was navigating them to our house. As soon as they arrived, I dressed Emily and returned to Helen.

We called Allison back around 9, and settled in for the long haul. Later in the day, we were joined by her colleague Nessa.