Some Pictures

The Start:
(Well, I was hardly going to post a photo of the real start):



The End:
(Or is it actually just the beginning. This photo was taken when Sam was 1 or 2 minutes old. The umbilical cord has not been cut yet.)


Proud Mummy with Baby:

"Sisterly Love":

19 Days Later...

Samantha Elizabeth Squire is 19 days old now, and at last I have simultaneously got the time and the emotional energy to write!

The short story is: Samantha is a beautiful healthy baby girl. She was born at 0416 on Thursday 15th October, weighing in at 3.51 kg. After some (normal) initial weight loss she is generally breastfeeding well and has now almost recovered her birth weight.

Here is a comparison of the vital stats on the labour and birth:


As you can see, there were lots of things that were a lot better second time around. As Midwife Victoria says, "No-one should have to have a first baby!" (Sorry to anyone who hasn't had their first baby yet.) In fact, the worst thing about the whole experience this time was having my tear stitched up afterwards. That's not to say the labour and birth didn't hurt this time! But it didn't hurt for as long, so the recovery was much easier.

Unfortunately, after a terrific birth experience, our family has had a tough first fortnight...

The first problem was that due to my fast & furious labour, I didn't get the IV antibiotics I needed to protect Sam from a Group B Strep infection during the birth. I tested GBS+ while pregnant with Cassie. This infection has no effect on adult carriers, but can cause serious problems including meningitis for babies infected during the delivery.

We monitored Sam by taking her temperature every 2 hours or so during the first day; it was a little high but not quite in the danger range. So, we were just about to head home with her 13 hours after the birth (Geoff was literally about to put her in the car seat) when we were told to stay in hospital for another 24 hours of observations. They took a blood test that night at 3am and it turns out Sam had a high white blood cell count. This was consistent with infection, so they decided to start her on 2 kinds of antibiotics. We then stayed in hospital for another 3 days for antibiotics and further observations. The good news is, no bugs grew in the blood cultures - the suspected infection was probably a false alarm. We still don't know what caused the high temp and the high white cell count.

I was very pleased to head home by Monday 19th - hospital is neither pleasant nor restful. Actually, I found the whole sense of isolation from family (especially Cassie), friends, community, weather and time to be very depressing.

Unfortunately, we still had to wait a few more days for a whole family to come together under the one roof. Cassie came down with croup on Friday 16th, with the first signs becoming evident about 1 hour after she'd given Sam a big, infectious "kissy cuddle". I'd heard of croup, probably in period dramas or novels, but didn't know much about it. It's a respiratory inflamation caused by various viruses. It can land kids in intensive care. Luckily, Cassie only needed the GP. It was still very stressful though. It's also been stressful worrying about whether she passed the illness to Sam. So far so good on that front.

Cassie spent a few days in isolation with her grandparents, and came back home to us last Saturday. She's enjoying her little sister, but has been generally a bit more naughty than usual as she adjusts to the new shape of our family. I guess this is to be expected.

Our only other stress is that Sam has occasional days where she feeds very poorly and vomits. This was really worrying, but seems to be gradually improving over time.

39.5 weeks and into uncharted territory

Warning: This entry is a bit of a whinge.

I'm now only 5 days out from the official due date of 19 October. This date is based on the ultrasound conducted at 5.5 weeks when I had bleeding issues. Apparently the earliest scan is the most likely to provide an accurate date since there is greater variation between fetuses at later scans. At the time the baby was only 2mm long from crown to rump...it's a lot bigger now!

I've now entered uncharted territory as Cassie was born 6 or 7 days early, so my first pregnancy didn't actually last this long. I was optimistic that I would go a little early this time too, but after some false-start tightenings on Saturday and again this morning that amounted to nothing, now I'm not so sure.

Actually, I'm feeling pretty crappy this week. I walked to Belconnen town centre last Friday when I was still feeling great and smugly thought to myself: "39 weeks pregnant - ha!". But since Saturday a more intense kind of back pain has kicked in and now I am having real mobility issues just getting around the house. Not to mention lifting 13 kg or so of Cassie in and out of the car seat...she can mostly do this herself but still needs a bit of help sometimes.

I'm not sure if the back pain is because of the size of the baby or because it is tending towards being posterior, which makes me want to bend forward all the time. My joints are also extremely loose and I have to be really careful with any kind of twisting motion or I feel like my hips are about to dislocate.

I also don't remember my tummy being this itchy last time! It is infuriating. A playgroup friend suggested taking a photo of my bare tummy but as it's covered in red scratch marks and horrible purple stretches it's a sight I'd rather not see (and certainly won't post on my blog). Bugger - maybe I won't be wearing my bikini this summer after all!! (Something tells me there'll be other priorities to worry about anyway...)

Anyway, I guess I'd better sit tight and be patient. I hope the baby swings around into a better position before the labour starts for real. I got Geoff to read up on accupressure points to ease posterior labour pain just in case it doesn't move:

http://acupuncture.rhizome.net.nz/Acupressure/problems.aspx.

There are some videos linked to this website that are also really helpful. Apparently some of these points are also good for inducing labour if you are overdue. Obviously, I feel a little cautious about random advice picked up over the internet this way, so I hope I am coherent enough to ask the midwife about this next time I see her (particularly if I go into labour before the next appointment on Monday!).

Any Day Now ??

In a rare flurry of organization, I packed my Birth Bag this weekend. I'm not sure whether this was inspired by our attendance at the Birth Refresher course on Thursday, the rapidly looming due date, or the predictions of nearly every random stranger I meet that the baby will come early. I'm pretty sure these predictions are based on my rapidly looming belly!!

Anyway, packing the bag was a pretty straightforward exercise, except for the selection of musical accompaniment. Last time I didn't bother with music. This time, I'm thinking it can't hurt and might even help. Of course, if I was truly organised, I wouldn't need to bother selecting music in advance. I'd just pack my fully loaded and operational MP3 player and so have access to our full music collection. No such luck though - I actually need to choose some CDs. Anyway, Victoria (the midwife) has advised us that she is "sick to death of Enya". That's fine. There is no way in the world I would be giving birth to Enya. My current selection includes Sacred Spirit [a kind of combination of American Indian music, electronca, classical], Faure's requium, some Hildegard von Bingen, Oceania [polynesian], some Moby and Loreena McKennit. I suppose there is fair chance that I will never want to hear any of these items again afterwards...

Geoff's suggestion of the Ride of the Valkeries has been rejected out out hand, although maybe I should just take it along just so that I can make him listen to it out for 13 hours or something.

I was feeling a bit strange about taking a Requiem to a birth, but I feel reassured by the liner notes, which say "'It is as gentle as I am myself' wrote Faure,...Not for him classical models from Mozart to Cherubinin, nor anything histrionic as in Verdi...'My Requium expreses not so much the fear of death as the peacefulness of eternal rest'...". I guess if the music is not reassuring then I can always get Geoff to read our the liner notes over and over!

The "Non Pharmacological Pain Relief" handout supplied by the Birth Centre also suggests getting the support person (i.e. Geoff) to repeat simple words and phrases such as "Open, release, you're doing well, we're getting there". Sounds good. The suggestion to "Visualise your vagina opening like a flower" is less helpful. I'm sorry, but pushing a person out of my body just doesn't bring floral images to mind. Or it certainly didn't last time. Sorry if I just grossed you out.

Fully Qualified Big Sister

Cassie graduated today from the Big Sister Course at the Birth Centre! Her first step in formal education is complete, with a certificate to prove it! So, Cassie will be ready...it's a shame about the rest of us.

Highlights of the course included:

• Drawing a picture of "Mummy with the baby in the tummy". Cassie has produced a lovely piece of abstract artwork which I can't share due to us not having a scanner. She is starting to get the hang of sharing textas and other toys with other kids too, which is nice!
• Close up look at a real placenta, from a baby born at 9am today. Cassie's reaction was "Mmm...eat" [loudly]. This was a bit worrying. I guess it looks like liver but we don't eat a lot of that in our household. By the way, I didn't eat Cassie's placenta and I'm not planning to eat the placenta from this baby either. Still, it would be more nourishing than the 10 pieces of toast I ate last time seeing as I was 10 minutes too slow giving birth to get the proper breakfast. (How slack of me). This time, I am taking a container of my Mum's delicious spaghetti bolognaise. Complete with wheat and tomatoes (sorry Geoff). Mmm, a lot more apertising than placenta.
• Seeing a 4 day old baby being bathed. For Cassie, this was the best bit. Unfortunately, it was all happening at a very ergonomic height for the adults, which meant that I had to lift Cassie up for 15 minutes so she could watch. Very exhausting. This baby was tiny but he weighed 5.2 kg when born. I really really hope ours isn't that big!!
• Seeing a birthing video. As soon as she could see the baby's head coming out Cassie said "Needs bath". I tried to convice her that they could probably wait until the baby was fully born before they worried about that. Anyway, Cassie didn't seem at all distressed (or amazed) by the graphic video, but 2-year-olds can take a lot in their stride. Still, I'm not planning to have her at our birth. I found the video a bit hard to watch as it's so intense. And I will be experiencing something like that in about 3 weeks.
  

On the downside, I drove around TCH for 20 minutes without actually finding a park so we were quite late to the course. Cassie and I ended up running across Garran oval together. Probably this was very valuable experience...if I need to travel to the birth centre in labour during the daytime I think we will take a taxi. Although Canberra Cabs is pretty bad too...

In other news, I have yet another cold (I've had several mild colds in the last couple of months). Everytime I get a sore throat I am completely paranoid about swine flu, but it's definitely just a cold this time...Hopefully it will be mild again so that I'll be completely recovered before going into labour.

Great books for a big-sister-in-training

I know it is a bit strange to post two blogs in one day, but I have to pay a quick homage to two library books which must be returned tomorrow. Cassie has requested both of these books almost daily since we've borrowed them (acutally, sometimes, about 3 or 4 times in per day). And I'm still not sick of them!:

• "Hi new baby", by Robie Harris, illustrated by Michael Emberley. This one is about the first few days an ambivalent big sister (pre-school age) spends with her little baby brother. It's told from her father's perspective. The illustrations are particularly beautiful, with lots of emotional, realistic close ups of the girl and her family. The language is a bit American ("Mommy", "diapers" etc), but that's a pretty minor gripe. (It also features a slightly unrealistic episode in which Grandpa changes the new baby's nappy. Ha ha!! As if that would ever happen. In 2 years neither of Cassie's grandfathers has ever been anywhere near a nappy that needed changing!!)
  

• "There's a house inside my Mummy" by Giles Andreae, illustrated by Vanessa Cabban. This one is my favourite. It explains pregnancy from the perspective of a two year old big-brother-to-be, and begins with "There's a house inside my Mummy, Where my little brother grows, Or maybe it's my little sister, No-one really knows". The funniest page has got to be: "I just can't wait to meet him, I hope that he's alright, My Daddy says be patient, As his door is rather tight."!!! Seems funny now, I'm not sure if I will think like that when I'm in labour. Anyway, I like this book so much I think I'll buy a copy. I just hope it doesn't encourage the little brother/sister in our family to demand another baby.
  

Cassie will also be doing the "Big Sister Course" at the Birth Centre in a few weeks. I'm not quite sure what the curriculum is, but I've got to say some of the kid's drawings of "Mummy having a baby" that were posted on the wall at the Birth Centre featured Mummies with disturbingly realistic facial expressions!

Father's Day 2009

Today is Father's Day and I'm feeling guilty about making Geoff work so hard. We gave him a picture Cassie made at playgroup with her painted footprints and a slogan saying "Put your feet up Dad". We didn't actually mean it though!

He's out in the rumpus room right now painting the final coat on Cassie's new wardrobe. He's also been busy this afternoon helping me with my chook house, although I've actually been doing most of it myself. Here is the plan. Even though the total extent of my construction experience is a "C-" in Year 7 woodwork and metal work, it's really not that hard. And if things don't quite line up then I just repeat this reassuring mantra: "It's not precision joinery. It's only a chook house.". So far I've only done the top and bottom of the frame, but that's a start and I feel really encouraged. Actually, I feel proud every time I look at it! Builders must have great job satisfaction.

We are planning to get 3 isa-brown chooks. This should produce about 14 eggs per week which is great as Cassie absolutely loves eggs. I really hope the new baby likes them too (after 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding, of course). This is all inspired by my friend Lena who has 3 chooks, which are a great source of interest to her 2-year-old son. Cassie loves them too. When we visit, she stands near the chook house saying "Hello cooks [sic]", feeding them grass, and trying to pat them. So far she hasn't been nipped...but I'm sure that's only a matter over time.

Anyway, hopefully it will be finished by the time the baby comes. It's due in 6 weeks, although Cassie came a week early so I'm working on the assumption that could happen again. Thank goodness it's only 6 weeks to go, as I already weigh more than I did when Cassie was born, and I don't think my stomach can stretch too much further. I keep on bumping into people and things when I forget that I can't go through narrow spaces anymore.

Otherwise, I'm feeling ok though. Thankfully, the indigestion doesn't seem to be nearly as bad as it was with Cassie - I haven't even emptied my first packet of Rennies yet. Not working full time is a big help too: I think that sitting down at a desk is just about the most uncomfortable position you can be in during the last trimester of pregnancy. Feet in the ribs in particular is something that I always notice when I'm sitting typing.

My next midwife appointment is tomorrow, but at the last one four weeks ago I found out the baby was in the head down position. Very reassuring. I don't think it's rotated but I guess I'll find out for sure tomorrow. Certainly the regime of 4-weekly midwife appointments is a bit different than the fortnightly (or maybe it was weekly by this stage) obstetrician visits last time.

Anyway, Happy Father's Day to Geoff and all other Dads. I'm lucky that Cassie and her "bro/sis" have such a great Dad! I'm sure that I don't express my appreciation enough (probably like many busy Mums!). But everytime I feel so happy everytime I hear Cassie squealing with joy when she's playing a silly game with Daddy, or when she's getting a nice "kissy-cuddle" with him, or when he goes to lift her out of the cot when she wakes up at 5am (happy that Daddy's fetching her, not happy about the time, that is!), or when I see them reading or drawing or playing at the park together.