Happy 3rd Birthday, JAKE!

Today's a beautiful day in Cape Town and we're celebrating Jake's 3rd Birthday. I can't believe how much time has passed since the day he was born. And I always find that I can't help myself remembering and re-living every second of the day he arrived. I guess it's hard not to reflect on all that's happened since his arrival into this world.

I was due on 9 May, so he was a full week late. I'd had the easiest and least complicated pregnancy ever and I'd enjoyed every moment of it. Jacques and I went out for pizzas the night before Jake was born and I had a glass of wine with my meal - actually, I got shouted at by another customer for being an irresponsible parent... Anyway, we came home and snuggled into bed and I'd just managed to get comfortable and fall asleep, when my waters broke. We rushed off to hospital (00:30) and I was told that my labour hadn't even started yet. By 08:00, when my doctor came in to see me, I was only 1cm dialated. I realised at that point that not taking advantage of medical technology was going to be silly, so I told her then that I'd like an epidural. Not realising then that, because it was a Sunday, it would take the anesthetist until 11:00 to get there. By that stage, I was 4cm dialated. The anesthetic worked for a little while and I managed to snooze for a bit. Jacques ran home and had a shower and bought the newspaper. Before he'd managed to get back to the hospital, the anesthetic had worn off and the anesthetist had to come back to top me up. The second round of drugs also only worked for a short time and by about 17:00, I could feel EVERYTHING. The midwife had a quick check and called my doctor immediately. Jake was born 40 minutes later, at 17:40. We were thrilled to finally have our little boy in in our ams and I was just too chuffed that I'd actually managed to get him into this world, virtually on my own! Jacques was fantastic and the doctor said she'd never seen a dad push as hard as he did - he really did help a lot and he was completely overwhelmed by the whole experience, as I'm sure most men are. I think it must be quite hectic to watch someone you love go through such an ordeal and literally have to stand next to them, without being able to do anything to help. At one point, when I was well into pushing, Jacques burst into tears and I had to take a breather to try consol him and to let him know that I really was OK...

And here we are today. In some ways I can't imagine life without Jake, he's just such a special little boy. In other ways though, our time as a family was so short, that my time without Jake was really my time with Jacques. I don't think that Jake will ever realise exactly how much he's given me in 3 short years.

Having a child in the house (a very active one at that), life is never boring. He's always up to some kind of mischief, but he's such a sweetie, life would be so dull if he wasn't around. This morning he was up at 6:30 and we climbed into bed with my mom for a few minutes, before getting up to start preparing food for tonight. He's a real help in the kitchen and loves baking. I can't wait to get home from work to be able to give him his presents. Fingers crossed that I do manage to pull it off and go home at lunch time. I don't think he quite understands the difference between a birthday and a party yet - he keeps asking me where all his Spider-man stuff his is. When I told him that he had his party on Saturday, he said "I have poo-bear party today"?

Lastly, on the birthday front, thanks to everyone for all their gifts and messages. I'm sure Jake will have a very special day today!