We spoke about Clara's arrival and she told me the most wonderful detail. When Clara's head was out and a few moments passed before the body followed, she opened her eyes, then her mouth, and loked around whilst waiting to be born. I wish I had been able to see that!
Friday, 9 September 2016
One final detail...
Stef the midwife came today to see Clara and to discharge us from the hospital's care. It was lovely to see her! (Well, technically it was yesterday on my birthday. It's 2am now and Clara is having a night snack).
Tuesday, 6 September 2016
Onward into the future
This child is ridiculously easy to manage. She breastfeeds like she was born with the skill. Not sleeping = eating. Not eating = sleeping. That's it. And she will happily let Dwayne settle her without fuss. In fact, she rather likes pappa cuddling her to sleep.
Today we had our last midwife visit with weighing, and Clara has only lost 230g and passed with flying colours. We also went to Ettalong for brunch and Clara slept in the pram through the whole event, with a quick feed by the water at the end.
This all makes me feel like an expert mum that can do nothing wrong. Now, onward into the future with Clara in the family!
Today we had our last midwife visit with weighing, and Clara has only lost 230g and passed with flying colours. We also went to Ettalong for brunch and Clara slept in the pram through the whole event, with a quick feed by the water at the end.
This all makes me feel like an expert mum that can do nothing wrong. Now, onward into the future with Clara in the family!
Monday, 5 September 2016
Sisters
Daisy is very excited to have a new little sister. "Is that my baby?" she keeps asking, stroking her hair ever so gently, requesting to hold her and fetching her toys. She wants to help with nappies and she worries every time Clara makes a bit of noise. Sister love!
The Story part 2, "Drama!"
At 4.17 when contractions started I timed them to around 5 minutes apart, around a minute long, and quite regular. They weren't terribly painful, and I didn't wake Dwayne or call the midwife quite yet. Dwayne woke up and asked how I was, and I told him I was timing contractions, real ones, but that there was no hurry. He went back to sleep (!!).
I got up and made breakfast, the rest of the house still sleeping. (Even Daisy, it was a miracle). I chatted to my sisters and let them know what was happening, then called Stef the midwife around 5.30am. She said to come in for my check-up at 8am as planned, unless things escalated. She suggested to come in earlier if contractions were coming down to 2-3 minutes apart.
So I got the rest of the family up, pottered around the house through contractions, showered and got ready, and at 7.30am Dwayne and I got in the car to drive to the hospital, fully expecting to be coming back home later to labour some more before show time.
When we got there we took the stairs up to the maternity ward, I was still able to happily do that. As we waited for Stef in the waiting area of the birth suite, contractions were still regular and coming a bit closer. I was starting to want to hang onto Dwayne with my arms around his neck to work through each contraction, the same way I did with Daisy. Stef observed a few of these contractions and said she didn't think we'd be going home again until baby was born...
But things were still feeling pretty much under control, we were shown the room we were to stay in with all it's birthing balls and floor mattresses and other birthing paraphernalia. Contractions came and went, I hung onto Dwayne during them and chatted with Stef between them. When it was established that we weren't going home at all, I said it was a shame we left the bags in the car. Dwayne suggested he go get them quickly whilst there was still time, and I agreed I could still manage the contractions on my own so he should go right away. Stef was quite happy with that too.
Dwayne went to the car park, Stef did some paperwork over in the corner whilst keeping an eye on me, and I stood by the bed still fully clothed, leaning on it to take each contraction. I felt a couple of contractions with a bit of pressure, but not a lot and not enough that I mentioned it to Stef. I recognised the feeling and knew they would feel like that for a good while before proper pushing contractions took over. A few minutes had passed when everything suddenly kicked off!
All of the sudden the rest of the waters splashed out, Hollywood style this time, drenching me to my feet. At the same moment, I literally felt the baby fall down into my pelvis and my body start to push the baby out instantly. And I mean INSTANTLY. Stef heard my noises change and asked urgently if I was feeling pressure. I would have laughed if I had been capable. Pressure? There's a frickin' head!!
Stef got busy very quickly helping me down on my knees, me still holding onto the bed, she then did her best to get my trousers off whilst trying to get some towels and blankets underneath me, which was a challenge because I was pushing a baby out and was entirely incapacitated and could barely lift a knee. She kept saying "Wait, Dwayne is not here! Hold it!". Again, would have laughed if I could.
A mere few pushes later, the head came out. My body stopped for a short while, then pushed the little body out with Stef lowering the baby down on the towels beneath me. I was still leaning with my head on the bed, and it took a good couple of moments for me to catch on and realise the baby was out. "Pick the baby up! Go on!" I heard Stef say. So I sat back kneeling on the floor and picked my little pink baby up. She wasn't screaming, she just whimpered a little as I cuddled her up against my belly. And I didn't know she was a she until Stef reminded me to check. It was 8.45am and Clara Rose Cassidy had arrived!
Unfortunately, Dwayne hadn't...
I will never forget the sound of stunned silence when he picked up his mobile and I said" You missed it all, you have another daughter!" Then all he said was "JESUS!!"
Moments later he came in through the door, just in time to cut the cord.
It turns out he had stopped by the cafe in the main lobby to get a sandwich, thinking just like Stef and I that we had a couple of hours to go. He had left his sandwich there to run upstairs when I called. We keep wondering if he would have made it had he not stopped for food, but chances are he still wouldn't with the speed that little Clara decided to enter the world.
Clara turned out to be a clever little one, latching on to feed as if she'd never done anything else. This meant I didn't feel like I needed to stay in hospital at all, so by 3pm we packed up and went home so that Clara could meet her very excited big sister.
With Clara moments old, we're still sitting on the floor processing what just happened.
I got up and made breakfast, the rest of the house still sleeping. (Even Daisy, it was a miracle). I chatted to my sisters and let them know what was happening, then called Stef the midwife around 5.30am. She said to come in for my check-up at 8am as planned, unless things escalated. She suggested to come in earlier if contractions were coming down to 2-3 minutes apart.
So I got the rest of the family up, pottered around the house through contractions, showered and got ready, and at 7.30am Dwayne and I got in the car to drive to the hospital, fully expecting to be coming back home later to labour some more before show time.
When we got there we took the stairs up to the maternity ward, I was still able to happily do that. As we waited for Stef in the waiting area of the birth suite, contractions were still regular and coming a bit closer. I was starting to want to hang onto Dwayne with my arms around his neck to work through each contraction, the same way I did with Daisy. Stef observed a few of these contractions and said she didn't think we'd be going home again until baby was born...
But things were still feeling pretty much under control, we were shown the room we were to stay in with all it's birthing balls and floor mattresses and other birthing paraphernalia. Contractions came and went, I hung onto Dwayne during them and chatted with Stef between them. When it was established that we weren't going home at all, I said it was a shame we left the bags in the car. Dwayne suggested he go get them quickly whilst there was still time, and I agreed I could still manage the contractions on my own so he should go right away. Stef was quite happy with that too.
Dwayne went to the car park, Stef did some paperwork over in the corner whilst keeping an eye on me, and I stood by the bed still fully clothed, leaning on it to take each contraction. I felt a couple of contractions with a bit of pressure, but not a lot and not enough that I mentioned it to Stef. I recognised the feeling and knew they would feel like that for a good while before proper pushing contractions took over. A few minutes had passed when everything suddenly kicked off!
All of the sudden the rest of the waters splashed out, Hollywood style this time, drenching me to my feet. At the same moment, I literally felt the baby fall down into my pelvis and my body start to push the baby out instantly. And I mean INSTANTLY. Stef heard my noises change and asked urgently if I was feeling pressure. I would have laughed if I had been capable. Pressure? There's a frickin' head!!
Stef got busy very quickly helping me down on my knees, me still holding onto the bed, she then did her best to get my trousers off whilst trying to get some towels and blankets underneath me, which was a challenge because I was pushing a baby out and was entirely incapacitated and could barely lift a knee. She kept saying "Wait, Dwayne is not here! Hold it!". Again, would have laughed if I could.
A mere few pushes later, the head came out. My body stopped for a short while, then pushed the little body out with Stef lowering the baby down on the towels beneath me. I was still leaning with my head on the bed, and it took a good couple of moments for me to catch on and realise the baby was out. "Pick the baby up! Go on!" I heard Stef say. So I sat back kneeling on the floor and picked my little pink baby up. She wasn't screaming, she just whimpered a little as I cuddled her up against my belly. And I didn't know she was a she until Stef reminded me to check. It was 8.45am and Clara Rose Cassidy had arrived!
Unfortunately, Dwayne hadn't...
I will never forget the sound of stunned silence when he picked up his mobile and I said" You missed it all, you have another daughter!" Then all he said was "JESUS!!"
Moments later he came in through the door, just in time to cut the cord.
It turns out he had stopped by the cafe in the main lobby to get a sandwich, thinking just like Stef and I that we had a couple of hours to go. He had left his sandwich there to run upstairs when I called. We keep wondering if he would have made it had he not stopped for food, but chances are he still wouldn't with the speed that little Clara decided to enter the world.
Clara turned out to be a clever little one, latching on to feed as if she'd never done anything else. This meant I didn't feel like I needed to stay in hospital at all, so by 3pm we packed up and went home so that Clara could meet her very excited big sister.
The Story part 1, "Hoping for no induction"
On Thursday the 1st September, the first day of spring, my waters broke. And of course not in the Hollywood way, but in a sneaky leaky way that had me guessing all day until I called the midwife around 4pm to let her know. Rosie, my midwife, was not on duty so I got her lovely partner Stef instead. Stef suggested I come in straight away to be checked and confirm that it was indeed amniotic fluid happening.
I arranged baby sitting for Daisy, called Dwayne at work and asked him to meet me at Gosford Hospital, and drove myself there.
As suspected the waters had broken and we were there for observation for a couple of hours, checking that the baby was happy and nothing alarming happening. According to the CTG machine I was having mild contractions every 10 minutes, but most of them I didn't notice at all and Stef described them more as "tightenings" than real contractions.
Around 7.30pm we picked up Daisy and went home and called Dwayne's mum to come over, as we knew things would start happening soon one way or another. We went to bed and waited and hoped that real contractions would set in. I had been given a day and a half before they wanted to induce me. Normally they would give you 24 hours for the infection risk, but for some reason they didn't want to start an induction off on a Friday afternoon, so I was scheduled for Saturday. But first I was given an appointment at 8am on Friday morning to go back to hosiptal for another check-up on the baby.
I was quite happy to be given some extra time, since being induced is one of the things I would very much like to avoid. I slept quite well, got up at around 1am to see to Daisy, spent an hour or so having catastrophe thoughts about induction, and went back to solid sleep again.
At 4.17am I woke up from experiencing a real contraction! Joy of joy, there would be no induction needed!
I arranged baby sitting for Daisy, called Dwayne at work and asked him to meet me at Gosford Hospital, and drove myself there.
As suspected the waters had broken and we were there for observation for a couple of hours, checking that the baby was happy and nothing alarming happening. According to the CTG machine I was having mild contractions every 10 minutes, but most of them I didn't notice at all and Stef described them more as "tightenings" than real contractions.
Around 7.30pm we picked up Daisy and went home and called Dwayne's mum to come over, as we knew things would start happening soon one way or another. We went to bed and waited and hoped that real contractions would set in. I had been given a day and a half before they wanted to induce me. Normally they would give you 24 hours for the infection risk, but for some reason they didn't want to start an induction off on a Friday afternoon, so I was scheduled for Saturday. But first I was given an appointment at 8am on Friday morning to go back to hosiptal for another check-up on the baby.
I was quite happy to be given some extra time, since being induced is one of the things I would very much like to avoid. I slept quite well, got up at around 1am to see to Daisy, spent an hour or so having catastrophe thoughts about induction, and went back to solid sleep again.
At 4.17am I woke up from experiencing a real contraction! Joy of joy, there would be no induction needed!
Sunday, 4 September 2016
Friday, 2 September 2016
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