Brothers become dads for first time during lockdown
FINDING out you are expecting a baby is an exciting yet daunting time for parents.
But in recent months thousands of parents across the country have been forced to deal with an added element that noone could have predicted.
Coronavirus has divided countless families in recent months.
The lockdown has meant that expectant parents haven’t been able to attend scans together, apprehensively wait on the hospital wards together and, in many cases, not even allowed them to introduce their bundle of joy to family members and friends.
Just weeks before starting her final year of university, Stacy Burgess found out that she was expecting her first child with her partner, Liam Roderick.
The 21-year-old juggled working in a shop and completing her health and social care course at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in
Carmarthen, all while preparing to become a mother.
“I was isolating for two weeks before we went into lockdown as I was about 34 weeks and they were unsure about the risks to pregnant women,” she said. “Through January and March we heard of it [coronavirus] getting worse and it was getting scary so I started to isolate myself more.
“I work in a shop so I was using hand sanitiser even in January just to be cautious.
“My partner was able to come to all of my scans because I had my last scan before the lockdown. He just couldn’t come to any more midwife appointments with me and I found it scary going in on my own.
“It was also hard with shopping because I didn’t want to go but also Liam didn’t want to go in case he got it and brought it back to me. We tried to get online shopping but it was hard to get slots because we weren’t classed as vulnerable.”
On April 22 the couple, who first met at school, welcomed Ava Rey, weighing six pounds and 15 ounces.
But since returning to their home in Narberth, Miss Burgess explained that she has been unable to share many of the experiences with her daughter that she had hoped due to the lockdown.
“Ava is my mum and dad’s first grandchild. My mum has been to the gate to see her, but she said that made it harder because she couldn’t hold her.
“Going from being in lockdown and getting up at any time to then having to try to find a way to stay up and look after a newborn has been hard.
“Ava’s just been in babygrows all the time because I’ve not been dressing her up to take her out, and I can’t really do the mum support groups that I wanted to.
“My friend’s just had a baby as well and we wanted to meet up so it’s been hard in that way. Especially when it’s your first child, you don’t expect this to happen.”
Sam Jacobs and his partner Rhian Môn have been together for the last five years.
The couple, both aged 38 and from Llandeilo, went through five rounds of IVF treatment before finding out that they were
finally expecting their little boy.
Rhian gave birth to Gruffudd Gwyn Jacobs, who weighed eight pounds, on May 25 at Glangwili Hospital but he wasn’t the only new addition to the family.
Mr Jacobs said: “We decided to tell my mother way before the lockdown and then we told my brother and his wife and she said, ‘I’m pregnant too.’
“We were about weeks along and were six weeks.
“We had Gruffudd on May 25 and then my brother and his wife had Robin four days later on May 29.
“It’s been a bit of a nightmare with the pandemic. We’ve been holding the baby up to the window to see people.
“Gruffudd and Robin have been able to see each other through windows and we’re doing a lot of speaking on the phone and WhatsApp.”
Despite the two cousins being able to meet at a distance, the brothers have still not been able to hold their nephews because of social distancing measures.
“My mother is in a customer-facing job so we have kept her away. She only lives 200 yards up the road but she can’t hold him, which has taken its toll, but it will be all the more special when we do meet.”
Sam’s brother, Matthew, also became a dad for the eight they first time just four days later after his wife Sioned gave birth to baby Robin William Jacobs.
The 35-year-old new dad said: “It’s a little bit surreal and it’s just been mental.
“Sioned’s pregnancy was really good until the last four weeks where she started to get uncomfortable, but we were lucky.”
The couple didn’t want to know the sex of their baby until he arrived at Glangwili Hospital on May 29, weighing seven pounds and eight ounces.
“I went to drop Sioned off and within 10 minutes I was asked to come back in because she was ready to go,” Mr Jacobs added.
“Since we’ve come home we’ve been stuck in the house, and nobody has held the baby. It is hard, but that’s the sacrifice you’ve got to make.
“It’s been tough not seeing family but we’ve got social media and Zoom calls which have been a positive.”
The majority of Catherine Jones’ pregnancy was as normal as it could have been before giving birth to baby Arlo just days before the country entered lockdown.
The 23-year-old and her partner Tom Ryan, aged 26, found out that they were expecting a child on the day that she finished her adult nursing course at Swansea University back in August.
Arlo Ollason Ryan weighed four pounds and 12 ounces when he arrived before the lockdown on March 21, meaning the couple have only experienced the real impact of coronavirus since returning to their home in Carmarthen.
“Just towards the end of my pregnancy it was different where Tom wasn’t allowed in with me and I was having two scans a week but apart from that it was fairly normal,” she said
“The wards at Glangwili
Hospital had been swapped around because they have to turn one of them into a ward for people with coronavirus symptoms.
“Tom was allowed into the hospital but he had to leave soon after I’d given birth.
“I had Arlo on March 21 which was a Saturday and then we were discharged on the Monday which is when the lockdown started.”
Miss Jones added: “Because there had been talk about a lockdown me and Tom were already saying ‘are we happy for anyone to visit when we come home?’ but we said it would only be immediate family.
“My family didn’t actually meet him until they brought in the five-mile rule. My parents have only seen him twice.
“My mum said that when she had me, my gran would come around and help her with cooking and cleaning so it’s things like that you would’ve taken for granted.”