Month: August 2011

Many thanks for the good wishes and messages in response to the last posting.  All is ticking along well here and as if the job didn’t make time fly by quickly enough already, parenthood has raised the rate a little higher and Medina is one month old already as of yesterday.  Here are some photographs from the day to celebrate:

After a killer madman in Oslo and riots in London it is pleasing to have some lighter news to share.

On Thursday 28th July at 12:01, Medina Elizabeth Robson joined our family.  Weighing in at 2.7kg (6lb in old money) she took eleven days of extra persuasion to depart the comfort of the womb but on arriving here has immediately taken to life with vigour and animation.  Both she and Leyla are doing very well.

The birth and the first four nights afterwards were all at Oslo’s Ullevål Hospital and its associated “Hotell” and a quick pause must be made to say thank you to the staff there.  Every person we met was friendly, professional and supportive to us and made our stay as pleasant as they could.

Having heard from numerous friends and colleagues how parenthood will “change your life forever,” I spent plenty of time attempting to gird my loins for the big day.  It is of course impossible to do so.

The birthing process was lengthy and in places mildly harrowing.  The moment that the newborn child was placed in my arms was an indescribable combination of wonder and euphoria.  The first week of the three of us living together was a sleep deprivation exercise that the SAS would be proud of.  There were times when the continuity of the human race seemed a miracle.

A week further down the line we have all caught up some of the lost sleep and the family is taking shape.  I am grateful to find that Medina appears to be a calm and happy baby who will eat anything and can sleep through a hurricane.  Leyla and I are starting to find our feet as parents (we think) and we are being aided and abetted by Leyla’s mother who has come to help us keep the house in order for a few weeks.

Fatherhood is proving to be a very engaging experience.  Either it will make me write a great deal more than I have done recently (and if so I will try not to become too much of a bore) or it will consume me to the point of blogging near-silence.  Let us see.  In the meantime here are a few photographs of the girl in question:

Medina at two hours old…

…at two days old…

…and at two weeks old.