I'm delighted to say that Jim and Alison have become parents. Matthew was born in the early hours of this morning.

All 3 are doing well.

That's great news. thanks for the update, Mark.

Hi. Mark is indeed correct. 3.650Kg. Red hair and very cute.

A smidge over 8lbs in old money.

Congratulations Jim, better get a kiddy seat for the bike now

I was going to say that from the photo I saw it looks like Matthew has been to his dad's barbers!

Congrats Mr and Mrs BJ on a superior boys name!

I'd like to officially welcome him on behalf of my people. It's always a good day when our exclusive club increases it's member count.

Congrats.

a song of celebration!

Tim Minchin

Great news

Please pass on my best wishes to them

That's excellent

Congratulations

Congratulations.

Fantastic news.

Our neighbour has two children, both of whom have red hair. The locals would start a few rumours, but for the fact that we only moved in 4 weeks ago, and therefore could not have had any input into their conception!
(I'm a ginger myself).

Congrats. Better start stockpiling the factor 50!

For all of you that don't know me or us that well, this is a very significant moment for the both of us. I'm writing this as hopefully an inspiration to those that are struggling, who can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, or who are frustrated that life doesn't deliver what the advertising leaflets offer:

I'll ignore my teenage and later years when I didn't think that I would ever find anyone to marry me (ahh!!) and mention Alison's teenage years, as she was put on the pill when she was roughly 16 in order to control serious period pain.

She also has Hypermobility Syndrome, a condition that means her collagen is defective, and suffers, amongst other issues, stretchy tendons, leading to partial dislocations, rubbing, inflammation, and therefore chronic pain. For her the problem is particularly evident in knees, ankles, and sometimes wrists, and means that walking long distances, dancing and running are all out.

Fast forward a bit to our marriage. Alison by this point was suffering with ME. Hence when we got married, we were both under no illusion that children would be an inevitable part of our future.

Fast forward to 2008, and Alison's ME is so bad that she is virtually bed bound, making the trip up the stairs only twice a day absolute maximum, and where watching TV is a tiring activity that can be done for 1 hour a day maximum. I'm reducing my hours to 4 days a week to cope.

Fast forward again to 2011. Alison is now over her ME (I'm happy to talk about this privately). She has spent a year or more building up strength again following many years of inactivity and is now capable of doing most of the things that she could before she got ill. Neither of us is getting any younger - I've just hit 40 (ouch), and Alison is 3.5 years behind me. So we talk about having children.

Cons:
The additional stress and ligament stretchiness of being pregnant could make Alison's condition so much worse she could need a wheelchair to get around. Many others with Hypermobility Syndrome are in this state, and many have got there following pregnancy.
Getting pregnant means coming off the pill, and hence the return of the pain mentioned at the top.
Being pregnant means that all of the high-strength pain killers that Alison needs to get through the problems caused by the Hypermobility Syndrome are all off limits. Paracetamol is OK, but in Alison's world, is only slightly more effective than Smarties.

Pros:
Not looking back in 5 years time and thinking "We missed our opportunity. We bottled it, and took the easy option."
Having a little bundle of joy of our own.

So we took the plunge. It has been a lot better than we feared it might be. Just to annoy Barnacle, I will mention that our faith helped us through the difficult decisions and the difficult moments, and that I believe that we have been looked after during this time.

As a footnote, we went to the Olympics this year. We were lucky in our ticket applications, and after having been at the Velodrome and watched Chris Hoy get is 6th Olympic Gold Medal, and at the Stadium to watch Mo Farah win his second gold of the games, Alison said to me on the way back "This is what other people do, and tell me about as I think about not being able to do them myself. Like going out clubbing, like the Millennium celebrations." This is how I am feeling now about becoming a Dad. Sometimes life is good.

Great news and good luck to the 3 of you