I'm back (with a little helper)!! - Plans for going forward and a roundup of where we're at (baby and the site)

Also a HUGE thank you to Luke, Score, Jai, Danny, and Seun this week!

Moments like this - there is nothing like it.

I’m back folks. It’s been a complete whirlwind six days since the birth of our son, Solomon William Phillips last Friday. He was born at 10.22am weighing 6 11'.

Proper contractions began on Thursday evening and by 4am Friday we were in the community Hospital in our town and it was happening! They have an incredible birthing centre there with great pools and setups. We were determined to have our baby there rather than in a big City Hospital.

The labour was super tough in the end even though it went so smoothly until the last two hours, it ended up becoming very problematic. I wont go into details but we were SO close to having to be red lighted to the main Hospital, they had an Ambulance called and everything. It was very traumatising for all of us but in the end the Midwife’s were incredible and they saved lives that morning. We are just so super relieved that he is here safe and sound, and that my Wife Ally, is safe and sound even if still in a bit of shock as well as being sleep deprived.

But Solly is incredible, and we are loving having him in the world with us now added to our family. Our cat George isn’t over the moon, but even he doesn’t hate him!!

When people tell you that the first week in particular after having a baby is tough, then just know that they truly mean this and however hard you expect it to be and how prepared you think you might be, you aren’t, and it’s MUCH harder than they told you and you expected!

We think he has my eyes, and my Wife’s nose and ears so far! Also her olive skin, which is great! This is my Mum with Solly :)

There’s been a lot of happiness and love in the house since Friday but also, a serious lack of sleep!

But anyway, Mother and baby are doing amazing and I have even more love and admiration (if that was even possible) for my Wife after doing what she has done since Friday and what she continues to do to keep our boy happy and living!

Thanks

I’d like to take this opportunity to truly thank Luke Rushbrook for running and organising things on the site this week and ensuring that the content was still being pumped out. He’s been amazing and Luke is also super humble - he told me to stop thanking him!! But without him, I’d have just been incredibly worried that I wasn’t getting content out for paying subscribers, so he has been an absolute godsend and Luke, when you read this, I WILL keep thanking you! ;)

And also a massive thank you to The Score who has been working hard all week as well to do extra articles for us to bulk the content up. He’s been amazing and I am sure you will all agree, his content is also superb.

Both of the above two will be on the Podcast later today! And that brings me onto my next thank you, our main man and lead Podcast host, Jai Mcintosh. He basically told me not to even think about coming on the Pod for a couple of weeks and he has it covered. And he’s done just that, having Dan McCarthy on last week, and today he will be joined by Luke and The Score!

Also a big thanks to Seun and Danny Windsor, who also put content out for us this week to help bulk things out. Danny and Luke have also been amazing for advice having very recently gone through the same situation as me!

These guys are an epitome of this community here and what we have built together, and why I am so SO proud of it.

Website plans

Going forward I am obviously back on today with a couple of articles for tomorrow’s newsletter, but as mentioned, I wont be on the Pod. I’ll be back on that next week.

After today, it’ll be my usual back on for Sunday to write Monday’s newsletter. So I’ve timed it so I can ease back in today, then take Friday and Saturday for more recovery and settling of the baby, and then back to normal from Sunday.

I say normal, but it is going to be impossible for me to run a live blog for the next week or two (I’ll play it by ear). I have had an offer from another community member on here to run the live blog for us each day, and I am probably going to take him up on that and reach back out today to organise that starting next week. I’ll be back running the live blogs again as soon as Solly’s feeding routine has calmed a bit and he is sleeping a bit more. It’s all a learning curve for us right now and we are trying to get into some sort of routine that we can manage alongside me working. It’s all day by day at the moment.

But I’ll be back with the regular articles on the site from Sunday as I say, and I will do my best to respond to any questions on the articles that you might send. I’ll also be on and off the Substack App as normal and for games with the live discussion thread.

And finally, a massive thank you to everyone on here for your patience and understanding during this time and of course, all the amazing well wishes you have sent to me, my Wife Ally, and our little dude Solly. I really appreciate all of them and I read them all out to Ally, she loved it.

I haven’t had an alcoholic drink for 5 weeks due to all that has been going on, but on Saturday night I will be raising a glass to Solly’s safe arrival and everyone involved in getting him here, to Luke and the team, to my Wife, and to each and every one of you!

Now Chelsea need to sort out getting Solly’s first win as a Blue!!!

Thanks everyone, lotta love!

Simon Phillips