On my way in for my second day back at work today. I think being a dad’s still sinking in. I’m getting quite good night’s sleep though. Can’t complain. My wife is doing an amazing job at night, as well as throughout the day. She’s a natural mother – and I always knew she would be. Having my mother-in-law around to cook and clean’s also been an incredible help. Apparently new mum’s should eat chicken and pork only, drink lots of warm milk, no cold food and drinks, have lots of soup, only specific types of veg, lots of ginger, and not squat (although I think the squatting one’s a bit of a myth). She’s also helping with the kid. I must admit, it was quite hard getting out of bed this morning when the little girl was peacefully sleeping beside me. Oh well. It makes leaving work to go home even more of a bonus when you know your daughter’s there and she’s changing so much each day – and becoming more and more alert. Also trying to stay fit and well myself – alot more proactively than I normally would. I don’t want to bring any viruses home for mum and daughter. Lots of Vitamin C being popped. Maybe a bit less coffee, he says optimistically.

Baby watch: She did her first open-eye smile this morning, her eyelashes are getting longer and she’s staying awake much longer.

The little girl is now off the ventilator now. Slowly the tubes and wires are being removed. Now she just needs to re-adapt to her fixed heart and lungs. She’s breathing ok but jerks a bit. I think that’s normal but after the last few days, anything slightly abnormal can be a worry. They’ve taken her pink hat off now and now, with the ventilator and mouthpiece removed, you can really see her face clearly.

I’m going to make a few predictions about her now based on her first few days. I remember as a kid when grandparents and aunts would look at a baby and make predictions about their character, physical appearance, or even future job. I always wondered if they were ever accurate. Well, for our little girl I think she has a great spirit – like her mum. We think she’s going to be cheeky, or even naughty. We think she’s going to be an active, outdoors kid who’s more comfortable in trainers and jeans rolling around on grass than in pink dresses playing with dolls – or is this what I prefer? Ha … not sure! But don’t get me wrong – we still have about 3 years’ worth of pink clothing for her to get through! I also think, like her mum, she’ll be more artistic than intellectual … this may be because what I’ve seen of her character so far reminds me alot of her incredible mum.

Ah yes. I also want to note down here our thanks to both our parents for all their help at this time, cooking and cleaning while we’ve been in and out of hospital after and before the birth. Can’t imagine how I’d have coped without them. And our friends and family too, whose messages and visits have really given us alot of strength. Our little girl really is a blessing from God in so many different ways.

It’s 8.12am on Friday, 16th October. Our little girl is just 3 days old and it now looks like she may be able to come off the ventilator. Very thankful all our prayers have been answered. Thanks to all who helped, thought about us, and prayed for us. Overnight, when I left her she was still on 35% oxygen and 4.0 NO2. The target was 21% oxygen and 0 NO2. Considering she started at 100% oxygen, being in the thirties was a great relief but she seemed to be at that level for an age. Thankfully she’s been fighting overnight. She’s a real fighter. We’re so proud of her. Waking past the neonatal ward reception the other day, I heard a doctor deliver some terrible news about someone’s child. It gave me shivers imagining being on the other end of that call. But some of the babies here are tiny. It’s a real miracle some of them survive. Miracles do exist. We just need to know how to spot them. I have lots of admiration for the medical staff at Kings, especially at the neonatal ward. Having watched them, incessantly, at close quarters over the last few days you can see not only how good they are but how lovingly they care for babies and mothers (and fathers) during what can be quite traumatic times. I can’t speak highly enough of them. If it is possible to recommend a hospital, I highly recommend this one! Right. Two hours until I can go back in to see our little girl. Incidentally, I’m writing this post on my mobile in the Costa Coffee – in the hospital lobby. Nice coffee. A real tonic for me. Best thing about this coffee shop is the girl behind the counter. She’s a really perfect example of good customer service. Not only does she recognise me in the short time I’ve been here (I thought Chinese people all looked alike to non-Chinese people!), she remembers my order and then gave me a loyalty card and retrospectively stamped all the coffees I had in the previous days. Plus she’s always cheery – even this early! I’m going to attempt to send feedback into Costa to compliment her specifically.

Day 2 of our little baby’s life has been trying. In the early hours of the morning, she went blue and the midwives took her straight up to the neonatal unit. She started off on an incubator but quickly switched to a ventilator. Seeing your baby breathing via a tube and with wires, cables and tubes on all parts of her body is really gut-wrenching.

Although the doctors and medical team are giving her great treatment, it is quite worrying when they say they’re not sure what’s wrong. I’ve never been a numbers person but I’ve never paid as much attention to numbers as I have done today, to the numbers of my girl’s monitor. Oxidation rate, heart rate, breaths per minute, blood pressure. I’ve learnt so much about oxygen, our anatomy, and how our bodies work but this isn’t how I would’ve liked to have learnt it.

The next 12 hours will be crucial. Her body’s really got to fight off this infection they think she has and really start running on its own. I pray it does, and I have faith our prayers will be answered. Doctors say she’s a real fighter, and now is the time to start fighting.

Out popped our little girl yesterday morning, just before 8am – after about 8 hours of labour. It’s been an incredible 24 hours. I should be sleeping now before heading back to the hospital early tomorrow morning but I’m compelled to note this down before it gets lost in a haze of ‘life’.

My wife’s water broke just past midnight on Tuesday morning. Very good timing considering that day was the beginning of her 37th week – seen by many as the beginning of full-term. This was an important milestone for us, and we just about passed it. Another reason it was good timing was we’d only finished buying all the baby stuff the week before and had only just put the crim and pram together. We’d only finished packing our hospital bag about 3 hours before her waters broke! And finally, my mother-in-law only just stepped off the plane from Hong Kong about half a day earlier. Timing, I guess, couldn’t have been much better.

So just after midnight, we sped down to Kings College Hospital (really glad I wasn’t at work when this happened as I still hadn’t worked out which taxi firms carried pregnant women). We were only barely in labour but as the water had broke, they needed us in labour sharpish. We were given about 4 hours to see how far we could get naturally. When the 4 hours were up, contractions were induced. Cue lots of pain on my wife’s behalf. For someone who just had a slipped disc (very painful) about a year ago, the agony she went through during labour and while contractions were getting stronger … well … it seemed to be another league. She was amazing. I would have passed out during one of the midwife’s internal examinations. Although we’d decided to not get an epidural beforehand, the pain levels meant we had to consider it. We decided to go for it and just as the epidural dude pushed his equipment in, the midwife told us we were almost there and that we should go without.

All the rest was an incredible process from when the baby’s head first appears, all the way through to the baby being pulled out and placed on mum’s tummy. So glad I didn’t pass out. So glad I didn’t make ridiculous breathing noises and get slapped round the head by my wife. I think the biggest contribution I made was to give my wife my right hand to grip as tightly as she could. That’s the least I could do.

Part-way through it did get a little concerning when my wife was in an incredible amount of pain but the midwives seemed more interested in personal conversations. But you realise that’s how they work. I’m guessing they just let nature run its course and only do as much as they need, without overly-stressing the labouring mother. I can’t fault the midwives as Kings College Hospital. They’re all very skilled and lovely people. They even let my wife rest for 6 hours in her labour room before moving us to a post-natal ward, and those 6 hours were greatly appreciated by us all.

If that was an energy-sapping first half of the day, the second half – a crash course in parenting – was a fitting end to the day. My first nappy change resulted in a FAIL. Everything went fine until I dropped my girl’s foot into her poo.

They say there’s no pain like childbirth. They’re right. And it’s weird in that it’s a type of pain half the world’s population will never, ever experience. I now understand why mothers compare all pains they experience to childbirth, in the way all acts on X Factor are compared to Leona Lewis. Nevertheless, my admiration for mothers reached a whole new level today. As to did my admiration of midwives, the medical profession and nature as a whole.