Introducing Benjamin James

31 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Born 21st January 2017, 8 pounds 5 ounces!

A couple with their arms around each other watching over a newborn baby.

Apologies for the lack of new recipes around here lately, but I do have a pretty good excuse.

 

Benjamin James was born just a little early on the 21st January at 6.59am, weighing in at a pretty chunky 8 pounds and 5 ounces – for those of you who like these sorts of details!

We’re absolutely thrilled with our cute new addition, and very happy to be finally home from the hospital and settling into some kind of routine.

A newborn baby asleep in a bassinet.
Catching some of his first zzzzzzs

Before the birth, several friends and acquaintances hinted that things never quite go the way you’d imagined, and this couldn’t have been more true for us!

I was admitted to the hospital with suspected early membrane rupture on the Friday lunchtime. I was all prepared to be induced, but after my waters were properly broken, I went into labour by myself and our son was born the following morning.

It’s at this point that things got just a little crazy. We were all ready to go home the following day when the hospital informed us that I’d been accidentally overdosed on paracetamol (!!!) so would have to stay another night while some tests were run. I’d been given 1 or 2 more tablets than I should have within 24 hours, which was unlikely to cause any damage, but was technically an overdose. Whaaaat?

A person holding up a young baby.
Enjoying some Daddy time while doing an old man impression

We had the tests done, which did actually show something a little skewy with my liver function. Whether that was a direct result of the paracetamol or not we don’t know.

We then began to notice that Benjamin was turning yellow. He had a spot of jaundice of course, but to everyone’s horror a routine blood test then showed he had off-the-chart bilirubin levels and he was rushed down to the neonatal baby unit.

The short version of the rest of the story is that this turned out to be a false alarm, but Benjamin still needed treating for the jaundice. So under the UV light he went for 24 hours – very stressful when you’re trying to establish feeding!

In the meantime, another blood test showed that Benjamin did in fact have some sort of infection, although he seemed well – just very sleepy from the jaundice. He was given a lumbar puncture to test for meningitis, samples were sent away to try to identify the infection, and he was started on a 5-day course of antibiotics.

A baby lying in a bassinet.

We never found out what the infection was (did he catch it because of the early membrane rupture?), but suddenly we were very grateful for the paracetamol ‘overdose’ that kept us in the hospital and led to all those other things being discovered!

Benjamin is now feeding well and keeping us awake all night like newborns do. The consensus is that he looks like Mum, but he has Dad’s cute dimples and side parting! He likes looking around at the lights and having a cuddle on Mum’s chest, but he doesn’t think much of bath time!

A sleepy newborn baby being held up by mum.
This life thing is hard work. Is it bedtime yet?

Apologies to those of you who couldn’t care two hoots about newborn baby news! I have several new recipes ready and waiting in the wings and will be publishing a new post very soon.

Believe me, after a week of hospital food, I’m ready to get back into the swing of things as soon as I can!

So stand by if you’re looking for an easy, delicious and impressive Valentine’s Day dessert.

In the meantime, let’s celebrate the birth of Benjamin James with two of my favourite cakes:

Peanut butter, banana and chocolate chip cake

A big slice of peanut butter, banana and chocolate chip cake on a blue plate with a fork with the whole cake in the background.

Chocolate orange cake

A whole chocolate orange cake on a wooden board with a decorative cake slice.

 

Mmmmm!

About Helen Schofield

Don't expect to find anything fussy or complicated here. Just QUICK, EASY & (mostly!) HEALTHY recipes from the Mediterranean and beyond. ENJOY!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

31 Comments

  1. Congratulations, Helen!!! What a cutie!! I cracked up at the photo of his “old man expression” haha! SO glad to hear despite some complications (ugh must have been so scary) that all is well. <3

    1. Hi Alyssa – thank you so much for your congrats! Benjamin actually has several different old man impressions… hahaha! 🙂

  2. Dear Helen…..A big congratulations to you and your husband! Benjamin James is absolutely off-the-charts beautiful!!! Have fun with that little guy!
    And thank you for all the wonderful recipes that you post! I love them!

    1. Hello Carmen. Thank you soooo much for taking the time to pass by and leave your congrats. And for your lovely compliment on Benjamin – we think he’s beautiful too (of course!) and we especially love all his ‘old man’ expressions!
      I’m so happy you’re enjoying the recipes, too – thank you so much for letting me know. It means more than you can imagine! 🙂

  3. Look at this beautiful family! Congratulations Helen! He is adorable! Glad everything turned out to be ok at the end and you are home and safe! Enjoy every single moment! Babies grow fast! Thanks for sharing your story!

  4. He is adorable! Our son had a bit of jaundice so he looked suntanned straight away, no worries, he’s very healthy now! I have been a fan of your site and probably never left you a comment, lets change that now – I love your recipes and wanted to congratulate you on your newborn. 🙂

    1. Hello Tina! Thank you so much for coming out of the woodwork and leaving a message! I so appreciate it – sometimes it feels as if no one is reading, so it’s wonderful when I hear that they are! Thank you so much for the congrats too – it’s a massive life change that I’m sure we’ll be getting used to for quite some time, but a wonderful one too. Thanks again for your support! 🙂

  5. Oh my goodness Helen congratulations on baby Benjamin James (great name!!). And I’m glad to hear that it was not something worse than jaundice which I think lots of babies have. Thank you for sharing the photos and story with us! 😀

    1. Thank you so much, Lorraine! We are so happy to be finally safe and sound back from the hospital. 🙂