NaBloPoMo #4: Fourteen weeks...if looks could kill!

I LOVE this photo! OK who am I kidding? I have just rejected 50 other photos I also love :-D
This morning, as I was lying, snuggled up and trying to have 'just 5 more minutes' after the alarm went off, I started to try and calculate what monthly intervals I would need to leave in order to get Baby Angel up to her current age by the end of the month. Unfortunately, the calculation sent me back to sleep.

Later, in the shower I got a figure of 6 month intervals although I still haven't double checked it but then I thought...oh b*gg*r it! There are certain photos I just want to look back on and certain time periods which were so amazing and gone so quickly; I will just post 'em as they take me. So this one is 14 weeks.

She spent a lot of time looking at us like this. In my 'new mother neurosis' I imagined that she had been born without a sense of humour. She wouldn't smile, she just examined us!!! With a very dubious look on her face.

"Are you sure I'm meant to be here. With you? You're positive there was no mix up in the hospital?"

On another note, she is wearing a navy blue 'all in one' (I think the in the US you call them 'onesies'??) lovingly decorated with embroidered rosebuds....by moi. I spent the last few months of my pregnancy in the bosom of my family embroidering anything that was not tied down. I even knitted her a Peter Rabbit soft toy and had the pattern for Jemima Puddleduck but never got it done. I wanted to embroider a soft, cream , woolly blanket but couldn't find one so I bought blanketing material, edged it in ribbon myself and made her a blanket!

I made and embroidered bassinet covers, bassinet frills, car cot covers, bibs, socks, hats...you name it. And after she was born, I embroidered a cushion cover for my midwife. Such a flurry of creativity has seldom been seen in these disposable times. Of course it could never last. The last project I started was in 2003 and I am still chucking a few stitches in every holidays.

Here's Peter and the home made blanket.

The Humpty Dumpty bib with rosebud socks and gloves.

The car cot cover with bassinet cover lost in the corner there, accompanied by the all in one she's wearing in the photo and matching socks. The hollyhock hat she wore home from hospital.

I'm exhausted just looking at them all!!! :-D

NaBloPoMo: #3 Three weeks old.

Here we are having a little chat.......as you do! I used to make little noises and she would respond in turn. It was quite freaky really. She stopped doing it after a while and just came out with random baby noises but for a few weeks there, when she was really little, it felt like there was a genuine conversation. She's still a good talker :-) Can't think where she gets it from!!

Boys Were Here

On Water Birth

Since a number of you have commented on the fact that we had a water birth, I thought it was worth a mention.

I had never considered it to begin with. Before I was pregnant I was sure I would be a 'give me ALL the drugs' girl but when I moved to the UK I went to Active Birth classes and that changed my life.

The most inspiring little Scotswoman called Bette Duncan talked us through the benefits of letting gravity do the work. She gave us exercises and information, support and deep relaxation and she ran an extra class for those interested in water birth. Previously I had been very cynical about such Earth Mother/Hippie type nonsense. After all, they may come out of one nice warm environment into another but at SOME point someone was going to HAVE to take them out of the water!!!

Bette's class however, explained the other benefits; the use of warm water as a muscle relaxant and for pain relief; the fact that water encouraged skin to stretch and reduced tearing; greater mobility due to buoyancy. In addition to this, in about the third week of classes, a wonderful girl came back to show us the baby she had had just that week. She told the story of her water birth and of the positive experience it had been. I wanted to have an experience like that.

Fortunately, the Midwifery Lead Care Team (who had put me onto Active Birth in the first place) were also advocates of water birth and the local hospital had a water birth pool. We planned for a water birth. The idea is that you have to be a fair way along in your dilation before you can get into the pool, mainly because they have limited resources and need to keep the pool free, so I planned some other pain relief for the interim.

I used a TENS machine which attaches to your back and stimulates various nerves in your spine to block pain receptors. Some people use them for back pain. I don't know how effective it was really but as you pressed a button to 'up' the electrical impulses during a contraction, it at least gave you something to focus on! I also used gas when I was in the pool because you could just hang over the edge and puff on it during a contraction. Don't know if that was effective either, again, it just gave me a sense of doing something and I suppose it improved my breathing which is always good for pain. It turned out that the pipe was not properly attached to the tank for a lot of the time so I don't think I was even getting the gas. Apparently I had pulled so hard on it that it had come away :-D.

The best thing for me was the ability to move around with minimal effort. I just rolled/floated over if I wanted to change position. It was also great to have the midwife pouring jugfuls of hot water over my back to help relax me and ease the pain.

Overall I was in labour (induced..so pretty vigorous throughout) for about 8 and a half hours, four of which I spent in the pool. I can't imagine doing it any other way. I had wonderful midwives and I felt informed and in control for most of the time. Of course very little in this life goes completely smoothly and so I did have a rather extended second stage due to the fact that the Baby Angel was leading with her chin and got herself jammed at one point. I was trying to avoid interventions such as episiotomy and ventouse/forceps so I kept going for sometime (probably longer than was wise given the long term damage to my pelvic floor) and eventually one of the midwives rummaged around and flexed the BA's head so that she tucked it in and made her appearance on the next push.

So that was waterbirth. Its not for everybody but I thoroughly recommend it. I look back with pride on my achievement and what I was able to cope with. I think nowadays we get so much made 'easy' for us that we quail in the face of trial and throw up our hands at the least frustration. I wonder if depression was as prevalent in past times as it is today? There is something rewarding and fulfilling about surviving struggle and proving to yourself that you can do it. It reinforces your sense of 'self'. Who has time to be depressed when facing a challenge to survive?

And on that note I shall go and put my feet up on my gorgeous squashy couch, put on the kettle and sip instant coffee, maybe defrost a chicken in the microwave for dinner and think of skype-ing my Mum in England when the digital clock tells me the time difference is right.
:-D

NaBloPoMo: #2 Day One

One day old. One glove off and one glove on. So tiny. All I could do was look at her.

NaBloPoMo

For all those not 'in the know', NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month in which we are encouraged to post every day. There is a website and various activities for those who wish to sign up but I don't need any more encouragement to blog, in fact I blog too much, so I have simply set myself a challenge.

For NaBloPoMo, I will try to post a picture of the Baby Angel everyday, starting with early ones and working up. I get to see so many pix of lovely kids that it makes me nostalgic for the days of my baby, toddler, little person. To satisfy this craving for my kid...I will indulge myself with some dipping into the past. Many of the early pix were analog of course so hopefully they will scan in ok.

For those with close connections, I hope you enjoy the walk down memory lane. For others, well, you know what will be here so if you don't do nostalgia photos I will also continue to post on items of Flaming Sword interest, family news and hot topics.

So I give you....November day 1....(only its day 2 here)......NaBloPoMo

Birth




These are pretty graphic, hope that's ok! Actually there are some even more graphic ones taken by the midwife against my wishes :-) She claimed that I could always throw them out but if she didn't take them, the moment would have been gone. I hide them in my album behind these more tasteful (relatively) shots.

Theme Thursday: Madonna (Mama)

I love this photo so much. Of course its scanned in from the analog so its noisy and imperfect but I just love what it captured. Himself says I should send it to him and he'll fix it for me...but I know he's got better things to do so....

A friend took it in Brittany in France. At sunset. By the beach. The light is incredible and I'm not sure we realised it at the time. The Baby Angel was asking me something or telling me something........I'm not sure which but I sure didn't know my photo was being taken.

It was a fantastic holiday that year. The BA (aged 3) and I drove from Cherbourg down to the Dordogne to meet my sister and brother-in-law and some friends. We stayed in a gite which is an old farmhouse...in this case I think an old barn, converted for the tourist trade but still rustic and full of charm. And bugs.

The trip from Cherbourg was stinking hot in my non air-conditioned car (cars in the UK do not place as much stock in cooling as we do in Australia and the States!) and the two of us had a fine old time listening to kids tapes as we motored along the autoroutes and back roads. I realised that I was not going to make it all the way in one day with a tired 3 year old so we stopped in Poitiers to camp. I put up the tent while the Baby Angel cavorted and helped. I can tell you, she was a damn fine travelling companion. We cooked on a little 2 burner gas stove and got on our way again the next day, bright and early.

We spent a fantastic 5 days in the Dordogne and then took off again, just the two of us, for Brest in Brittany. On the way we stopped at Carnac where we again found a campsite in a happening French seaside resort. What a wild party atmosphere that was!! We went to the campsite karaoke that night and the Baby Angel had a swim in the pool and a play on the playground. It was magic. Just the two of us. I look back now and remember with a lump in my chest how incredibly bittersweet it was. Here we were, with so much love between us, having a great time in the most amazing of romantic holiday places but with no-one else to share it with.

Nevertheless, we travelled the remaining miles to Brest, then on to Perros Guirec where this photo was taken and then the 5 hour drive back up the coast to catch the ferry back to the UK.
A total journey of over 800miles. Just us two.

These are the things I treasure and keep in my heart.
And now put on my blog. :-D

For more Beautiful Mamas check out Theme Thursday at Picture This.