So blog posts don’t get much bigger than this! Maybe that’s why its taken so long to write this one…! Well that or we’ve had our hands rather full!
On Tuesday February 15th at 16:05 our beautiful little girl, the wriggly one I’d been taking care of for the past 9 months, was born. Finally we got to see those adorable little heels we could feel poking out under my ribs, see the hiccups that had been gently rocking my stomach, and thank our lucky stars that we managed to bring her safely into the world. She is perfect in every way.
She weighed 2.91kg, or 6 lb 6 oz in the old measurements, and measured 49cm in length. Her name is Cami Louise Ireland.
Her birth was absolutely amazing. My contractions started at about 3.30am on the 15th, 6 days before my due date. I had an unsettled night’s sleep and was up and down to the bathroom a lot (even more than usual!) and some back pain and period pain type cramps had started. I waited half an hour or so before I woke Joel up as by then I had the feeling this could be it. Well…actually I wasn’t sure as Mum had told me she and Dad were at the hospital 3 times with false labour before I was born, but in any case I had a feeling it was labour, false or not!
Joel phoned the hospital to get some advice as I’d been measuring quite small for the previous couple of weeks of my pregnancy and the doctor had advised us that the baby was 29% below average size. The midwife said to hang in there at home and to come into the hospital when things started to get intense. We stayed in bed until about 5.30am but by then I needed to get up and move around to manage the pain. Joel lit the fire and some candles, put on some music, fed Cooba, and actually we just sort of looked at each other a lot saying “wow, this is it!” The contractions started very regularly right from the beginning – about 5 minutes apart and lasting about a minute. Before too long I needed Joel to help me with heat packs, massage, and a hand to hold onto during the contractions. We felt really well prepared from the birth course we attended so we knew what we needed to do and just got on with it.
By about 9.30am I felt like I needed to go to the hospital. We’d almost used up the hot water already at home in the shower, the contractions were very painful and I wanted to make sure our ‘small’ baby would be ok – I wanted to be reassured that the baby’s heartbeat was strong and she wasn’t being stressed by the contractions (I had been told my amniotic fluid which cushions the baby during the contractions was at the low end of the normal amount). We actually walked to the hospital as it’s literally down the end of our street! A small aside – it had been a really windy couple of days in Stavanger in the lead up to the 15th, there was a big exhaust tower at the hospital which had been blown by the wind and was at quite an precarious angle and at risk of collapsing taking out the ambulance station and probably the supermarket over the road, the whole street was cordoned off, there were police everywhere, we actually had to cross a police cordon to get to the door of the hospital. They tried to stop us and I think Joel really loved telling them he had a wife in labour and that they had to let us through! Which they did.
Once we got to the labour department they checked me, the baby was fine and I was 2cm dilated. It was at that point as I’m sure any mum would tell you I was of the opinion that I’d been having strong regular contractions for 5-6 hours so my response was “2cm – is that bloody all???!!!!”. We were told we could stay at the hospital or go home for a while, I decided we should stay. We were able to use the ‘fødeloft’ or birthing loft in the hospital – which is basically like a birthing centre up on the 7th floor. We settled into our room with a nice view over the hospital grounds including the leaning tower. I was very keen to use the bath as I knew the benefits of pain relief that warm water could bring from my experience over Christmas. So we ran a bath, the midwife provided some aromatherapy oil, and off we went. Joel was again doing a great job with the massage and encouragement, iced water, whatever I needed. He was there with me through each and every contraction and didn’t leave my side.
It’s hard to remember the timing of everything as it all sort of went in a blur. It didn’t seem like very long (I guess it must have been a few hours) and I was checked again and was about 6-7cm dilated. So that felt like good progress. Back in the bath for a bit longer and before long the contractions intensified. I think some time around then my waters broke but as I was in the bath it was a bit hard to tell! As things really got going I got out of the bath. The midwife said I was about 9cm and almost ready to start pushing. I think at that stage they did a bit of acupuncture just to encourage the last cm or so of dilation. The midwife also attached a fetal scalp monitor to the baby. By about 2.30pm I went through the transition stage (holy moly) and was ready to start pushing. There is a policy at Stavanger hospital that you can push for an hour. If the baby isn’t born in that timeframe, they intervene to help things along. By about 3.30pm with a lot of pushing Cami hadn’t been born.
At that point things really changed. It went from being Joel, the midwife and I to all of a sudden I was put onto a bed and wheeled down to the 1st floor. I went into a room with about 8 people in it – doctor, trainee doctor, midwives, nurses. Two nurses were inserting an IV, another doing a catheter (ouch), the doctor prepared the ventouse vacuum device. There was an awful lot of swearing, sweating and plenty of general yelling during the delivery, and that was just from Joel! Eventually, finally, excruciatingly she was born. She was put straight onto my chest, I asked if it was a boy or a girl, someone told us it was a girl. Joel was crying, Cami was crying as they rubbed her down but she was a little distressed after the tough delivery so her breathing and cries were a not as strong as they like to see. So she was whisked off to the doctor for a bit of help breathing. She was in great shape, and her condition improved really quickly.
They wheeled her in her warm humidicrib into my room within about 15 minutes so I could see her but then she had to go to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for check ups and monitoring. Frustratingly I had to remain lying in bed until my bleeding stopped. This took about 3-4 hours so Joel was ferrying back and forth between Cami in the NICU and me. The labour was so tough, but geez being apart from my baby for the first few hours of her life was the worst. It felt surreal “did that really just happen?”. My wonderful husband though managed to convince a nurse in the NICU to hand over her other patients to someone else and bring Cami down to see me. It was a few hours after her delivery but this was the first time I got to have a cuddle and we had a try at breast feeding. That was special. Finally my beautiful, perfect little girl was in my arms. Joel got my vote for ‘husband of the year’ for making that happen. Again, like at Christmas, I think his experience in navigating the hospital system came in very handy – he was able to be proactive and push for the hospital staff to meet our needs.
By about 8pm Cami was back at NICU and my bleeding had finally stopped and I could have something to eat and a shower. Joel and I at that point headed across to the ‘birth hotel’ – a hotel within the hospital for parents with newborns. We were able to go and see Cami whenever we wanted but they recommended we come in every 3 hours starting at midnight to feed Cami. We then had the exciting task of phoning our family back in Melbourne. By then it was about 9.30 or 10pm so we were able to share the excitement with our family first thing on their Wednesday morning. Everyone was so thrilled and excited, it was wonderful but of course bittersweet as they are so far away and it would be a little while before they would be able to meet her.
Joel and I both went over to the NICU for the midnight visit and feed. I changed Cami’s nappy for the first time. We had a bit more success this time with feeding (the first time we only got her ‘latched on’ for a few minutes.
I went over for the 3am feed but Joel slept through. He was exhausted and I guess didn’t have the hormonal ‘high’ to keep him going through the night! But he joined us at 6am, when we were told she would be checked out by the paediatrician in the morning and hopefully could be ‘discharged’ to our care around noon.
So at noon the following day she was checked out by the paediatrician and given the all clear. She needed to have some follow up blood tests as there was a mild elevation in her CRP (infection) levels in her blood, but nothing to worry about and they were trending downwards. She was doing really well and we were so thrilled that finally we could take over her care. We spent 3 nights in the hospital (at the birth hotel) and the midwives were fantastic, available all day and night and they gave us loads of help and advice on everything from bathing to breastfeeding and much more. We came home on Friday ready for the weekend, we walked home with Cami in her pram. It had snowed so everything was white and it was a beautiful day, lots of blue sky and sunshine.
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Well that took me a while to write over a few snatched minutes at the laptop. Now Cami is just over 6 weeks old. She is growing heaps (4.24kg and 54cm at her 6 week check up) and already growing out of some of her newborn clothes! We have had some tough days and nights with her that’s for sure, but it feels like when we hit the 6 week mark things have taken a bit of a turn for the better. We’re finding her to be more settled with her feeding, digestion and sleep and overall just a more contented baby. We hope this new phase lasts as she continues to grow.
Other changes we’re seeing are that she’s now much more alert, making eye contact, and the big milestone – she’s started to smile! It’s wonderful to know that she is feeling happy! She is thoroughly gorgeous (of course!), we think she has Joel’s eyes, my nose and the rest remains to be seen!
We’ve had a lovely visit from Joel’s dad John who came to stay with us for 5 days in late March, and his mum Bernadette will arrive in a week to stay for a fortnight. My parents will be coming after that during May, followed by Joel’s sister Emma, and then probably Sally will head over mid-summer. It will be a busy time with lots of visitors but we’re very excited to introduce Cami to many of her family members.
Also we had a very exciting event in my family with Brett’s marriage to Sam on the 20th March. It was a beautiful wedding which we would have dearly loved to have attended in person. Unfortunately Cami’s passport wasn’t ready in time. Luckily though I was able to see and hear all the highlights ‘live’ on Skype! Technology really came through for us thanks to Jeff and Denise Mills who arranged this using their wireless internet and laptop.
I will try to update the blog more frequently, but for now we’re off to start a busy day. Cami is asleep and mothers of newborns certainly know how those precious minutes are to get some things done before she awakes and needs my full attention.
Cami
