Birth story- part 2

So we headed off to hospital, and typically got every single red light on the way. I had two enormously painful contractions on the way there and it was so uncomfortable to deal with the pain in the car- the best I could do was to push my body upwards whilst pushing down on the seat.

We parked right out the front of the hospital. It was about 5:45am. DH mentioned that he'd better remember to go back down and put money in the meter just before 9:00. funny how we both thought we had hours ahead of us...


We walked up the driveway and I had another huge contraction. A guy standing around having a ciggie shouted over if we wanted a wheelchair and we said no thanks. We got in the lift and I realised I'd done the same thing I did when having Jimmy- forgot to find out what floor the delivery suite was on! I said I thought it was the 4th floor, so we went there. Nope, no delivery suite. Hmmm, maybe the 5th floor? Nope. Try the 6th floor. Wrong! Then I had a sudden brainwave and remebered it was on the 3rd floor. We were all cracking up- it was hilarious and so typical of me.

Got to the delivery suite and buzzed the buzzer. It took about 5 minutes for a midwife to come out, during which time I had another very intense contraction. The midwife took us into our room and I had a seat but felt very restless. Then the lady who was to be our midwife came in and introduced herself. Her name was Rosemary and she was about my mum's age and had the loveliest persona. She was bubbly, enthusiastic, supportive and caring. She was great with Tiffany and kept cracking jokes. I knew that I would have no problem with her following my birth plan, which included the following stipulations underlined in capital letters, just so there would be no mistaking my wishes:

NO FOETAL HEART MONITORING
NO INTERNAL EXAMINATIONS
NATURAL DELIVERY OF THE PLACENTA

She'd had a look at my file, and noted that Jimmy's birth was quite fast. She asked me what kind of pain relief I'd used last time and I said the shower was all I used, so she suggested I go jump in the shower, which I did. I stayed in for about 20-30 minutes, gradually making the water hotter and hotter until it was almost boiling. It felt sooooooooo gooooooooood. With each contraction, I leaned over on the big ball. By the end of my shower I was feeling hot and weak- I think I'd had the water a little too hot. So I got out and laid on the bed completely starkers and tried to sleep. I noticed that my contractions had become a bit further apart and was starting to get worried...what if I still had hours to go? I wasn't sure if I could stick to my guns and not have any pain relief if that was going to be the case. The pain was really intense and I remember thinking, "WHY am I doing this again???" The midwife measured the baby's heartrate with a Doppler and announced that she thought I was having a girl.

The back of the bed was up and I was lying on my left side, trying to cool down and rest. When I had a contraction, I turned around to face the back of the bed and moaned and groaned. I think I had about one or two more contractions facing the back of the bed, then I laid on my right side, feeling exhausted.

My contractions were still quite far apart. With the next one, I suddenly felt the urge to push, which shocked me. I thought I must have been imagining it, but the midwife said, "We're having a baby!" and ran outside to get another midwife. I pushed with all my might (still lying on my side) and my daughter's tiny head came out. I literally could not believe it. I was so excited! There was a huge break before the next contraction- it felt like we waited forever. It finally came and I gave what felt like the tiniest push and she came out. I was so excited that I had my baby, and so amazed at how tiny she was, that I forgot to ask what the sex was. The midwife said, "What have you got? It's a girl!"

...to be continued again!

Our sweetheart is here!

It's funny to read my last post, which was written only hours before I felt those first twinges that told me our baby was on her way! I had a funny feeling all week but pushed it to the back of my mind. Just goes to show that your gut feeling is usually right.

On Friday night, as I'd written in my previous post, I wasn't feeling particularly great. Our nextdoor neighbours were having a loud 18th birthday party, and I felt tired but somehow ill at ease. I put it down to the diarrhea and general ugh-ness I'd been feeling all week. I fell asleep at 9:30 and was woken at 10 by T and DH when they came through from the games room talking really loudly. I was not impressed. It took me ages to get back to sleep.

I woke around 1-1:30am and had a really wierd, tight feeling in my abdomen. I really felt like I needed to pee, so I got up and peed. When I went back to bed, my bladder still felt full so I went again then went back to sleep.

I can vaguely remember being woken two or three times by strange sensations in my abdomen. After a while, I thought that I needed to do a poo because I was feeling a bit crampy, and tried to sleep through it to no avail. I probably went and peed about 7 times between 1:30 and 3am.

Somewhere in all of this, I started thinking, "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if I was in labour?" However, as the minutes ticked by, it was not seeming such a silly conclusion for me to jump to. The funny feeling became lower back pain. At about 4am I felt that I needed to poo so I went out into the main bathroom (so as not to wake DH) and experienced what I can only describe as my body 'purging' itself. I didn't feel the relief that I thought it would bring and went back again 10 minutes later. This time, there was a definite sign that I was indeed in labour, or at least pre-labour- my mucous plug. I remember just looking at it and feeling very excited.

I went back into the bedroom and DH stirred as I opened the door. He sleepily said, "Are you okay, baby?" I said, "I don't want to scare you, but we're having a baby". He said, "Really? Are you sure?" and I said yes. Then I snuggled down into his arms and he said, "Can't you wait two weeks?" Honestly!!! We tried to go back to sleep but I was too excited, so I decided to get up and start my day. I logged on to Facebook and wrote on my status: "Noelle thinks today is a good day to have a baby". Haha! Then DH came out and said he couldn't go back to sleep, and that we should probably call his parents so they could come over and watch the kids while we went to the hospital. I told him to chill out; we had heaps of time. I started making sure I had everything packed in my bags, while my contractions were becoming more frequent.

Just before 5am, I had 3 contractions within the space of 10 minutes, and I told DH to call his parents. He told them not to be in too much of a hurry, as I thought we still had a couple more hours at home. He asked me if I wanted to wake T up and take her with us. We'd never discussed having her at the birth, although I'd thought about it, and I thought it was a great idea. So I went and sat on her bed, and as she woke up, I had an intense contraction that had me bending over the bed. She was looking at me like I was a complete loony. When it was over, I said, "Do you want to come to the hospital?" Half asleep, she said, "What? Why?" "Because the baby is coming today," I said. She was a bit confused and it took her about 10 seconds to wake up enough to realise I wasn't joking. "Yeah!" she said. so I told her to chuck on some clothes.

Within the space of about 10 minutes, my contractions went from being mild enough for me to remain standing through them, to reducing me to my hands and knees on the floor. I heard Jimmy waking up around 5:15 so I bounded in to his room and gave him heaps of cuddles and kisses and told him excitedly that the baby was coming. He was really excited by the atmosphere surrounding him, tearing around the house on his trike like a madman. By the time the inlaws arrived around 5:20, my contractions were hard, fast and with little respite in between. I had to find time between them to write down the names and phone numbers of all my students who were going to turn up for a lesson that morning so that MIL could call them and tell them not to come, as well as making sure I had everything I needed in my bags.

We hurried out the door around 5:30. The inlaws and Jimmy waved us off from the driveway. I gave Jimmy the biggest cuddle I could manage and teared up as I realised he would never be my only child again. I told him I loved him and the next time I saw him, he'd be a big brother. He waved as we pulled away, saying "See ya later!".

...to be continued.

Feeling crappy (pun intended)

Blergh.

That's how I'd describe how I feel this week.

On Sunday I had the runs all day...5 times in fact. For no apparent reason. So I scared DH by telling him that it can be a sign of imminent labour. He was freaking out and saying, "No! You can't have the baby yet- it's too busy at work!" His work has seriously been crazy this week, and typically, he has had a bad case of pharyngitis this week which has made it the week from hell.

I started feeling pharyngitis-y on Wednesday. It hasn't progressed from my throat but I have been feeling so very weak, tired and nauseas (sp). Today I had to get MIL to come watch Jimmy while I slept...at 9am. How sad is that? I just feel like I've been hit by a bus. Plus today I had the trots again...twice. *Sigh*

I realised today that my due date is only 3 weeks away. My original due date was the 22nd of Feb, and I still believe that McBean will arrive closer to that date. I really am getting close now!

Here are some pictures to prove it.

The rain, it poureth down...

It rained A LOT on the weekend. So much so that boats were swept under bridges on the Coomera River and got stuck there!

This is the view I woke up to on Sunday morning. That's a park behind our house, and there is a footpath leading to the little bridge. The footpath has never been covered with rain in the 4 years we've lived here, and we have had some heavy rain in that time!



There were 2 black swans swimming on the 'lake' in the afternoon! Hilarious.

Jimmy and I had a great rainy walk late in the morning. We found some awesome puddles for him to splash in. In fact, when we got home, his gumboots were full of water.

Some creations

Okay, so I've finished my change mat and filled the nappy bag with all of McBean's stuff ready for hospital! Here are the pics as promised.

The change mat and bag. I never, ever want to sew with bias tape again...unless someone gives me some tips on making it look not-retarded!



I think the change mat is a little on the short and skinny side. The one that I made for my friend's baby shower last week I made wider and it turned out a better size.



I think the two fabrics are so gorgeous!


I modified the bag quite a bit. The front pocket was just supposed to be open, and I added a zip. I still suck at zips but I'm getting there!

All of the pockets were suppoesed to be single layer, but I lined them for durability. I also used a snap instead of velcro on the tab, and put some snaps on the big inside pocket.

The bag is enormous, which is just what I wanted. My current nappy bag is always bulging with crap (maybe I have too much crap?). I would like it to be a bit sturdier. I used quite a heavy interfacing on the front, back and side panels but I think it needs something with a bit more substance.

Another project I've been working on- a handmade nappy/clothing swap on Bubhub forum. My recipient has a baby girl and a boy Jimmy's age. I decided to make a pair of long pants for the boy and a nappy for the girl. I really love the Honeyboy! nappy pattern, and wanted to try a small side-snapping one. I did a test run first and this was the result. It will be McBean's.

I love love LOVE dot minky! I got some cool green snaps last week and they look groovy.


I love this frog microchamois fabric- it's too cute! I really need to learn how to overlock properly, though, because as you can see, I'm not great at it.



This is the swap nappy. I decided to be tricky and use 2 fabrics for the outer. It was actually quite easy! I love the look of the lilac snaps on the white dot minky.

Boooorrrrrrringgggggg....

Not much happening here. I have itchy fingers so thought I might blog, even though I have nothing remotely interesting to say.

What have we been up to?

On Saturday the kids and I went to a friend's baby shower. It was the fanciest, nicest one I've ever been to (not that I've been to that many!). Her mum did a great job organising beautiful little bite-sizes morsels of food, and there were fun games. The only downer was that I sat on the floor the whole time...I can't believe that in a room FULL of women (30-40 I guess) not one of them offered me a seat! The mum-to-be loved the change mat I made for her bub.DH and T went to the football that night so I did some sewing.

I can't remember what we did on Sunday, so it must have been boring...oh yeah, T's eldest brother came over to test drive my little white car, and is buying it. Woohoo for that! I'm so glad. It means I'm one step closer to getting my roof restoration!

I've been doing a fair bit of sewing. Today Jimmy slept for THREE AND A HALF HOURS!!!! and I finished my nappy bag. the last part was an absolute bitch so I made up my own
(read: dodgy) method of finishing it, but it still looks fantastic. I will post pics once I've done the matching change mat.

I'm still pregnant, and still have ages to go. Ho-hum.