Saturday 9th June 2007

Hi there. My name is Harriet Rebecca Howell and today is my birthday. It shouldn't really have been my birthday, as I was brought into this world much earlier than anticipated! My 'due date' was August 20th, and I would have been a leo. but instead I was born today, and so am a gemini, just like my mummy!

Poor mummy had a nasty thing called Pre-eclampsia which made her blood pressure go really high and her platelets go really low! This meant that I stopped growing, and so the doctors told mummy and daddy that it would be better for me to come out and be looked after on the outside. Mummy was very upset and kept telling the doctors that I wasn't ready to come out, but I think it was better to be out - it means that I get to meet mummy and daddy more than 2 months earlier than I thought I would! The doctors did a caesarean Section on mummy to get me out, and daddy sat with her and held her hand whilst it was happening. They saw me come out and I wailed and screamed, just to let them know that I was ok! They put me on a ventilator for 7 hours after I was born to help me breathe, but the steroids that the doctors had given to mummy a week previously meant that my lungs were stronger, and so I could come off the ventilator quickly.

I weighed 2lb 5oz and I was born at 6.34pm. I met daddy today, but won't meet mummy until tomorrow, as she is resting after her operation.