Welcome to the World Seren Angela Joyce Critchley!

Well, that was it! 

You were born at 8pm on Thursday 30th August 2012 at the American Hospital in Dubai. I was in labour with you for 22 hours in total, and it was completely worth it! 

You are just absolutely beautiful. You were born with a head of dark hair and almost jet black eyes. Your eyes are now navy blue, but we won't know for a while what colour they will end up being.

It was a long wait to meet you, but as labours go, I don't think we could have asked for anything better. Most of the labour was straightforward as I had an epidural (actually I had to have it removed and replaced, so technically ended up with two!) and so I was only in pain for one hour (when the epidural stopped working on my left hand side). That one hour was absolutely excruciating though, as I was being given medication to strengthen my contractions, and that made the pain so much worse. 

Your dad was amazing through the labour, and especially when I was in pain. He ran round looking after me and spent hours watching the monitor of your heart rate, checking you were ok. 

I had to have my blood pressure taken every five minutes, so had a cuff strapped to my arm, which was actually really painful! Everytime they took my blood pressure the cuff almost cut off my circulation. We were a bit worried as my hand kept turning bright red and blotchy, but it didn't affect you at all! 

Your dad held you as soon as you were born, and you were so slippery that it took a few minutes for us to realise you were a girl, as we were both too busy worrying that you would slip through his fingers. I was completely surprised, I really had thought you were going to be a boy! 

I'm so so glad that you war a girl though. I had secretly wanted a little girl first, but there are so many boys in both our families that I didn't think I would ever get a girl, never mind be lucky enough to get one first. 

You weighed 7 pounds and 1 ounce, or 3.2KG. So you are a couple of ounces heavier than me and your dad were. I was 6 pounds 10 ounces. Apparently babies are getting progressively bigger, because we brought newborn clothes for you, and you looked like you were wearing my clothes rather than baby clothes! They completely drowned you. 

Your dad had to head out to the shops to buy you a complete new wardrobe! Turns out that you are classed as a "small baby" as you are only 7 pounds 1 ounce. Newborn clothes are supposed to cover babies who are born weighing up to 10 pounds! 

Even some of the small baby clothes are a little big for you at the moment, but you'll definitely grow into them soon! You have lost 10% of your birth weight, which is apparently normal while you try to learn how to eat and grow. 

You are eating like a pro though, no problems in getting you to eat, and you are currently eating every 2.5-3 hours, which is what is recommended. 

Your dad and I cannot believe that you are here with us, and that we get to keep you. You have been the most incredible thing to come into our lives, and we are so so unbelievably blessed. We love you so much already, from long before you were born. You have us both completely wrapped around your little fingers.

You are currently napping, which is a relief, because when we brought you home yesterday, you decided you were not going to sleep and screamed the house down for an hour, just after midnight. I had to barricade myself in your nursery (which is the furthest away from our neighbours at either end) as I have no idea how much they can hear. 

We think you were a bit over awed by all the changes, it must be so strange to come from darkness to all the lights in the hospital and then to come home with us to another completely new situation. We wish we could see the world through your eyes, watching you see the world for the first time is amazing. 

Thankfully you seem to have adapted to the changes this morning, and after fighting to get you to sleep for 30 minutes this morning, you have been asleep for an hour now and no signs that you are waking up anytime soon! 

Hopefully I will be able to get a bath and a couple of hours sleep today. I've pretty much been awake with you since yesterday morning, apart from an hour that I managed to get while your dad took your night feed. 

I managed to get you into bed last night, but not to sleep. You lay in your pram (which is being used as a bassinet, as you are too small to fit into the great huge cot we have for you) and gurgled and sighed and huffed for about two hours until your dad got up with you. Clearly not happy to be expected to sleep! 

Here are some pictures from your first few days:

Your very first close up! I think you are about 10 minutes old here. You are already so aware, staring round at everything.

Daddy making sure you are fed. You were starving when you arrived! Gobbling down the formula as soon as it was given to you. You did not need to read the instruction manual!

Your first nap. The sleep suit you are wearing here is ginormous, but thankfully you can't tell from the photos!

You in your small baby sleep suit. You have gone from having lots of neutral coloured clothes (as we didn't know if you were a boy or girl) to a complete pink explosion. Thankfully it suits you!

You in your car seat as we were leaving the hospital. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to accept that you are going to be a Manchester United fan, the colour red suits you too much! 

xxxxxx