Expecting the Sixth

We are pleased to announce the expected arrival in mid-July of our sixth child. We are all quite excited, the children especially. Bryna, in particular, is thrilled to become a 'big sister' Gaynor traditionally has relatively easy pregnancies and this one is about as well as could be expected for the sixth.

It has been an introduction faster than we would have liked to the US medical system. Gaynor spent some time researching the procedures and attitudes of local hospitals and, unfortunately, found them not in-line with her own. Mostly, they take an 'I am in charge and you are merely the patient' approach, including insisting on monitors, drips and bed confinement. In addition, the two local hospitals only have a limited number of beds where they allow 'rooming in', where the baby stays with the mother. Hospitals further afield are more, in our view at least, enlightened but given the unpredictability of arrival time we'd rather not be attempting to get to one an hour away (and longer if the traffic is heavy). She's therefore engaged a local mid-wife, a profession seemingly not as widespread here in the US as in Australia or Europe. She'll be doing most of Gaynor's antenatal care as well as being there for the actual delivery, which we plan to be a home birth.

Given the results of a recent ultrasound examination, we have a much greater suspicion of the gender of this one than with any of the others -- the first definitive sign being at their birth. It's always been a deliberate choice on our part -- what can I say? We like to have some surprises in our life -- but this time Gaynor peeked and he wasn't being, shall we say, discreet.