David and Katherine Goodwin

After getting off to a bit of a shaky start with the whole breastfeeding lark - which everyone at the hospital was wonderful with - Rowan and I have been released!

Its wonderful to be at home although David and I are having to work things out as we go along now. He's just off taking Rowan for his first Walkies, which is a bit scary for me as its the first time I will have been without Rowan for longer than it takes to have a bath, and the first time he's really been outside.

Today Kat entered labour, and after a little bit of faffing (car headlights decided to pack in; cue frantic call to Jenny etc) we arrived at Redditch's hospital at just after midnight (sunday morning).

Fast forward nearly twelve hours, and out popped Rowan at 11:44am. On the way, we had two (or three?) failed attempts at giving Kat an epidural, and her being put on a drip to fix some dehydration. In the end, anyway, after much effort he entered the world, to become one of 6 billion (or so) individuals.

Today I'm 39 weeks pregnant, and for some reason I really thought that little herbert will have made an appearance by now. As everyone who has been around me knows, I'm really really fed up of being pregnant.

We're both convinced he's coming out at any moment, so today I've made sure I've done some important things like submitting the tax returns, and David decided to clean out some of the cupboards and the fridge (thankyou David!).

The time has come! $Herbert - now being called "the baby" as there is no way I am calling the poor child herbert when he (or possibly she) comes out - is officially full term (they're ready to be born any time from the end of the 37th week, which was sunday) and I'm waiting impatiently for the contractions to start (and as I write this I get what I think is a large braxton hicks).

Only 5 weeks to go. 40 days as I write this, and its getting really real now. Apart from feeling like I'm walking round with a bowling ball strapped to my front, and the normal sleep/indigestion/water retention stuff, I'm actually pretty perky.

Kat had another scan today; so here are the customary pictures

The midwife indicated she thought she could again see a scrotum, although she wasn't going to stake her life/career etc on it. So it looks like "Herbert" will end up being a "Rowan James", but it could still turn out to be a "Eleanor Rose".

12:48 < Jetlag> How is he coping with everything [pregnancy, wife etc]?
12:48 < ChairmanMiaow> in typical david fashion, he's being better than
brilliant

I'm pretty sure that little $Herbert had hiccups while I was in bed last night. I felt lots of small, rhythmic jolts for ages (in fact I probably fell asleep before I noticed it stopping!).

It was exceedingly cute!

A couple of notable things regarding $herbert - cheerful this time.

First of all, today David finally took photos of the scan pictures, which can be found here

Secondly, we've definitely decided on names for $Herbert when he/she emerges. A girl will be Eleanor Rose Goodwin, and a boy is going to be Rowan James Goodwin. I think David gave in on Rowan because he can't think of anything better. I like them both a lot :-)

This week we headed into the third trimester. That's right folks, 3 months to go. I'm now officially quite scared!

My second trimester energy has not magically disappeared as we passed the magic date, but I am feeling it start to ebb away. I can't remember the last time I didn't feel tired, or slept properly, but I guess I'm getting used to it slowly. Other annoying things are:

• Indigestion / heartburn - Now appears to be pretty much permanent