Home Sweet Home {Birth}

 It’s a lovely Thursday and your brother is with Nanny again (thanks so much Mum – you’re the best). I am sitting here gazing at you. You are exactly two months old today and growing more beautiful everyday.

Now seems like a good time to remember and record that amazing day.

*Warning: longish post (you’re probably gonna need a cuppa).

For this reason I have decided to split it into two parts, no one has time to read for hours (and believe me, when it comes to birth, I can talk for hours).

This photo was taken at 10pm the night before you arrived.
I remember asking J to take it 'just in case' tonights the night.

Part 1:

Miss R, my gorgeous, longed for, little girl; this is the story of your ‘birthday’.

I had felt sure that you were on your way everyday for at least two weeks before you decided to arrive. Everyday, usually at around 4pm the contractions would start. Sometimes regular, sometimes painful, always exciting. Some afternoons I would take a shower in the hope that things might either settle down or ramp up a notch. Most days this would be all it took for the crampy sensation to disappear, other days the contractions continued into the night. I would toss and turn as much as a heavily pregnant woman with a crook hip could do, surrounded by an embarrassing amount of pillows and heat packs!

For some reason, deep down, I knew each time wasn’t the real deal. I knew however that all this stopping and starting was not in vain…my body was simply getting ready, preparing for the actual event.

Wednesday 3^rd October

I won’t lie Miss R, we were so keen to meet you but I guess I was also holding back a little. My midwife, the lovely Christina had been overseas for the last 6 weeks and was due to arrive home on Friday.  She felt like part of our family. I wanted her to be a part of your birth. Anyway, I had held on this far; what were a few more days. We had a midwife appointment on Wednesday. Ceri offered to do an internal so we could see if all the pre-labour had resulted in any dilation. I declined, knowing that internals can sometimes trigger labour and besides, I was pretty sure the pre-labour was working. She also gave me the bad news that Christina had been very sick on her holiday and she was not sure whether she would be ok to come straight back to work.  We made an appointment for Sunday for an internal if things hadn’t progressed by then.

Thursday 4^th & Friday 5^th October went much the same as previous days. I am so extremely thankful for the timing of this little one. J was on school holidays and was extremely helpful, taking over most of the care of H-bomb (when he wasn't attending to my needs!). 
On Thursday, J needed to go into work and get some things prepared for his up coming paternity leave. In a moment of irrational 'I don't want to be by myself today' meltdown, H-bomb and I decided to go down too. We set ourselves up in a classroom with a heap of craft supplies and got busy making stuff. That was before he got all cuddly and wanted to snuggle up with me. Wasn't long before he fell asleep, all cosy with the bump. He must have known that things were about to change! (and was possibly a little sick, but cuddles are cuddles - I'll take them any way they come!)

Contractions continued.  We had my bestie prepped and ready to be our wingman and take the H-bomb if the timing worked out. 
This was our correspondence Friday night…

She was definitely on the money!
Part 2 coming soon...