A Wonderful Event - Livia, our new Granddaughter is born!

Livia's first car journey

There's been a lot happening in the past fortnight and I am only now catching up on sharing the good news. Before I start to sound like a tent revivalist preaching to the converted - this isn't a polemic or a sermon! On March 26th our beautiful second granddaughter, Livia Lena Martina, was born to Jany and Shayne in Cork University Maternity Hospital, where Sofia, her big sister, was born over a year ago. I had planned a week's leave from work to be on hand to babysit Sofia, so the timing was perfect as Jany went into labour on first day of my holidays - broken waters, and off to the hospital in the middle of the night. I headed of to Cork where Jany was already admitted to CUMH.

The first photo of Livia in CUMH

The next day was the waiting game, as Jany started regular contractions that evening and little Livia was born at 11:19p.m., weighing in at 8lbs 10ozs. or for the metric among you 3.9kg. I was delighted and relived when the call from Shayne came through and I spent half the night on the phone with the family, and went to see Jany the next afternoon. Unfortunately Livia had some fluid on her lungs and rapid breathing at delivery so she went to the Neonatal Unit for observation, and was given antibiotics. She was kept there for longer than expected at first, as she had a raised blood test that could have indicated infection, even though she was fine in every way. The end result was none of the family except Shayne and Jany saw her until she was six days old, as only parents were allowed into the neonatal unit. It was really weird watching the popular TV series From Here to Maternity which looks at birth stories from CUMH, from the human interest perspective, when your own grandchild is in there.

Livia home at last

She is a real beauty with a head of hair exceeding Sofia's and she is settling into life in Cork with her big sister and her doting parents! I came home after 5 days in Cork once Jany got home on Wednesday, and then I went back to bring her home on Friday.

On Saturday her granddad Jan and me went to Tralee for the funeral of a cousin, Tom, who lived to the ripe old age of 97, and on the way home we called to see the family in Cork.

Sunday was Shayne's birthday so we spent the afternoon and evening in Cork celebrating, and I baked a nice fruity cake. Graphic Design son Martin designed the birth cards which are like a film flyer - I love it! What do you think? It's a very Dutch institution, personalised birth announcement cards, and it is catching on here more and more.

Livia in Neonatal Unit CUMH

Coffee on the terrace in CUMH - waiting day!

Meeting Granddad/Opa

Proud Granny with Livia

Proud dad feeding Livia!

The other big event is that Shayne got a new job, and will start on Monday, in a customer services centre in Cork, and our youngest son William also starts there next week. It is great that they have jobs after intermittent work, and Shayne's been doing a back-to-education course for the past six months. It's very timely now as he finishes the course just as he starts the new job

Jany with her little beauty!

With middle son Martin in Dublin working in the Westbury Hotel for the past month or so, they are all gainfully employed, albeit not in their field. They're pretty well over-qualified for the work they're doing now but in this recession it's great to have a job, and selfishly I am glad they'll be in the country and not have to emigrate just yet. As you need savings to go to Australia or Canada or N. Zealand, this will be a stepping stone to that end if they so decide. When I was their ages I had been and gone and come back from Bangladesh, so I can't really come over all Irish Mammy on them and guilt-trip them into staying here just to keep me happy!

Sofia the Jaffa Cake Kid!

Sofia playing Incy Wincy Spider!

Birth Announcement Card!

I am back at work this week, and enjoying the lovely spring weather - tomorrow the forecast is for 21C - high summer temps - so if this is global warming it's hard to complain! I love that we had a BBQ this evening and could sit out till nearly 9p.m. with the stretch in the evenings since the clocks went forward last Saturday week - just after Livia's birth. There was a great piece in the Irish Times  recently which I'll link - Ireland in 100 Euphemisms - and certainly you could add "There's a great stretch in the evenings" to that list if it's not in there already!

Fruity Birthday Cake

I'll post a few photos of Livia and Sofia - and random stuff - and more posts will keep you updated on Livia's progress through the first year, as with Sofia. We are so happy that she is well and healthy and good luck to them all in their new journey!

A momentous event - the arrival of Sofia, our first grandchild!

I promised you all I would let you all know when our beautiful grandchild arrived, and post some photos as well. Well, the arrival of Sofia Hannah May Caitlin was heralded last Thursday with great fanfare and joy in our family. Jany and Shayne are over the moon as proud parents and hubby Jan and me are the most delighted grandparents - totally besotted is the only way to describe it and it marks the start of a lovely new phase in our lives.

She was born in Cork's lovely new University Maternity Hospital (CUMH)which was opened about three years ago following the amalgamation of the three maternity hospitals in Cork into one centre. The Bons Secours, the Erinville and St. Finbarr's Maternity Hospitals all closed and were reconvened under one roof in the grounds of the Cork University Hospital. Everything went well for Jany who had gone about five days over her due date and had spontaneous broken waters, which meant she would have to deliver within a time limit to prevent infection. She had to be induced and Sofia was born about ten hours after this commenced.

It was a long vigil and all the more frustrating as there were extremely strict visiting regulations where only the partner was allowed free access at all times. Only one other visitor was allowed for an hour each evening, which meant that Sofia was 22 hours old before we met! As soon as we heard the labour was imminent, I took time off work and as arranged went to Cork to offer whatever support I could, which consisted mainly of drinking coffee in the cafeteria downstairs with them until Jany's induction, and waiting in the lobby knitting and reading to while away the hours once it started.

The day she was born I was visiting a friend when Shayne rang to say Jany was making good progress, a few hours before the birth, so I was at the hospital when she was born. I saw photos within minutes when Shayne came to the lobby with the camera, and revealed the name. We knew the gender from way back, but the name was a closely guarded secret - so much so that I wasn't able to access their computer to go online when Shayne was in the hospital as the password was the baby's name and I didn't want to know in advance! After Shayne's announcement I busied myself with texting and phoning family and friends from the lobby while waiting for him, and it was nearly midnight before we got back home.

I stayed that night in Cork with Shayne, as it would have been awful to leave him in an empty house with all the euphoria and no-one to share it with. That's something most fathers can relate to and hubby said it was the most isolated feeling to be alone after the birth of our boys (especially in Africa) where all the fuss was made of mother and baby. So we enjoyed a celebratory drink (wine and beer for me and Shayne respectively!) on arriving home, while Facebook was being updated with photos and news, all eliciting huge responses which helped to connect everyone across the miles, given that they both have spent their lives together in Spain and Jany has all her family and friends in Holland to keep updated. As the proud granny I had plenty of photos to post after I saw Sofia and I will share them here now, and hope you enjoy seeing them. There are many more on Facebook for those of you who know me there - and for the rest - why not join me on that journey too!

Other family members met her yesterday when she and Jany arrived home, and she met her granddad, her Aunty Maeve and Uncle Martin - who designed her wonderfully quirky and unique birth announcement card. Her other uncle, William, had to go back to college in Limerick and will see her next weekend. It was wonderful to see how she melted everyone to putty, and this is only the beginning! I still don't feel it strange to be a granny and am enjoying it thoroughly, and hope that I can be of help to Jany in the next few days as I am staying in Cork to help get the breastfeeding established. Tomorrow the Public Health Nurse will come to do the heel prick test and the primary visit; it will be strange to be a visitor and have to back off when a colleague comes in the role that I usually occupy!

No doubt there will be frequent follow-up posts with ongoing status updates of Sofia's progress and I run the risk of becoming a total granny bore but right now I make no apology for celebrating such a momentous family event. A first grandchild only happens once in a lifetime and I hope it marks the start of a wonderful relationship with these grandparents for many many years to come! (The photos show before-and-after shots of the proud parents, and Sofia meeting the family in her first two days - and a nice shot of CUMH in winter sunshine)

November Rain - Floods in Cork and Lismore

This week has seen the worst flooding in years and possibly living memory in some parts of Ireland. I took some photos of the local flooding in Lismore and the overflowing River Blackwater. You can even see some daring Kayakers paddling about on the flooded Inches on the river floodplain.

There is more bad weather forecast for the weekend and storms later today and tomorrow. Whether this is down to climate change or not is moot, I don't think November Rain was a misnomer whether it's the song or the normal weather in Northern European countries. I always associate November with rain and wind and storms, as I do January. So we shouldn't get carried away by climate change alone, though I am sure that the increased flooding is due to man-made factors totally removed from environmental causes. Towns in Ireland like Clonmel have seen terrible flooding in recent years and it is solely attributable to building on floodplains leaving nowhere for the run-off that would normally result from the River Suir overflowing or bursting its banks - when there are houses and concrete all over what should be a floodplain that's the result.

I was in Cork on the day the flooding began - two days ago. Jany had her first booking ante-natal visit at the wonderful new Cork University Maternity Hospital and we drove up in filthy weather through lashing rain and gale-force winds. Walking from the car park to the hospital after dropping the parents-in-waiting off at the main door was a major challenge and one cheap tattered umbrella later I joined them soaked to the skin with drenched jeans and leaky shoes.

After three hours reading a book in the waiting area as the hospital banned partners due to swine flu fears we went across the road to Wilton Shopping Centre for lunch and hit Penneys, where I got fluffy socks and fake Uggs (Fuggs?) for a fiver and felt like a teenager but they were deliciously furry and warm and I am now sharing ownership with my 13 year old daughter who has already borrowed them! We then went to visit a friend in a suburb near the River Lee and found a number of access roads closed off due to flooding. We finally parked the car and splashed the last 200 metres to her house, and left within a half-hour as her daughter rang to say she was leaving the city centre as the Iniscarra Dam was being opened -controversially - to relieve the flooding upstream on the River Lee and Cork would be inundated when the tide peaked in about two hours. We were glad to get home safely as the M8 to Fermoy had awful cross-winds and surface water, and Fermoy is one of the worst towns in the country for flooding. The road from Fermoy was OK but the River Bride at Tallow had burst its banks and the floodplain was like a lake.


Lismore Canal after the deluge

Yesterday Lismore was cut off to the east - the N72 to Cappoquin was closed and I had to drive up the Vee Road towards the mountains to get to work - a major detour that doubled my 14 mile journey. I had the same detour home last night even though there was no rain yesterday, but the river rose all day as the tides came back and there were more roads flooded. Tallow, 5 miles west of Lismore, was closed off and kids couldn't get to school.

Today the weather was dry and tonight has already had a flash hailstorm which flooded our patio. The rest of the country is in bad shape with Cork's water supply cut off to 18,000 households due to possible contamination. The city has practically shut down - no tap water means the army have been drafted in to supply tankers of water for household needs and bottled water for drinking and cooking.


The River Blackwater in flood today

I went down to the river (unintended homage to Bruce there!) today with Jany to take some photos of the floods around Lismore and you can see some of the results here and a few video clips. The rest of the country is in much worse shape - Ballinasloe in Co. Galway has been hammered with the overflowing of the River Suck, and many other towns have been affected adversely.

So I guess we are just lucky here that we escaped the worst of the floods and the ensuing havoc - being delayed and diverted en route to work is a small price to pay compared to what many others are enduring and the misery they will have up to and beyond Christmas. We are very lucky - we have our family all safe and well and we will all be together for Christmas again this year, with the joyful prospect of out first grandchild in February - a real cause for celebration!