sep, 29th - the birth of Clémence Ever....

day 959 / 58: 

Claya is two months old today and before i blink and she's suddenly two, talking up a storm and telling me that next time she'd prefer that i left the carrots as carrots rather than turned them into soup (Limi's statement to me over dinner today)...i wanted to write about the day that she was born.

i was convinced that she would also be late like her sister (who had to be encouraged with some acupuncture at forty-two weeks....see day 0)....i was so convinced, that i had bought olympic games tickets to watch the football on what turned out to be her birth day.....so convinced, that when my friends organised my baby-shower for three days before due date {see day 903 / 2} it didn't even cross my mind that i may be cutting it a bit fine........

so after a fantastic day in the park, with my girlfriends at my shower, we walked into the Shoebox and i was really looking forward to a relaxing night in (a nine month bump was taking its toll by now). as i sat down, i felt a sharp and painful pop.....an actual pop. i wandered over to A. in the kitchen and mentioned it....only for the pop to be followed by my waters breaking impressively all over the floor.....which caught us both by surprise (although we covered it well in front of Limi).

there were no contractions, so i was still convinced that i could have my night in and wake up in the morning without any new baby in sight

and then they started........

and i started cleaning........

and then i decided to do a whole online grocery shop (which has to be the equivalent of stocking the freezer with homemade dinners these days)

and they kept getting stronger.....and i was still in denial but i downloaded the iPhone labour app and started tracking them anyway.....

we bathed Limi and put her to bed.......

and then tried to find the pump to blow up the swiss ball, i completely repacked my hospital bag, had a shower and eventually at about midnight, there was no denying that i was in labour (the contractions were only five minutes apart and lasting about a minute).......

so after chatting to the midwives, Kelly was summoned from her warm bed and we headed off to the hospital.

even though i ended up having an emergency c-section with Limi, i was keen to give natural another try this time around with my biggest concerns being a similarly long and drawn out labour that never progresses (and having to have an epidural which i hated) or going down the natural route and ending up having an assisted delivery (forceps, vacuum etc.).....

we arrived at the hospital and were directed to the pre-active-labour ward (not sure what it's real name is but that's what its purpose was).....there were three of us in there with a curtain dividing us from each other's body-splitting contractions and one midwife to monitorwhether we were ready to be moved into a birthing suite.....

by three am, i had a clear idea of what the girl next to me was going through.....she had a fairly large entourage and fairly graphic language to explain exactly what she was feeling 

by four am, i was still not showing any progression despite the agonising and regular contractions and the midwives were insisting that i lie on the bed so that the baby i could be monitored. there was just no way that i could lie on my back given that the only way i was making it through the contractions was to hunch over the bed/ ball/ A. and breathe....

the contractions were also being chased by a severe burning along my cut which was giving them some concern.

they starting talking about epidurals.

after a night of no sleep, chronic pain and no real progression, the suggestion of an epidural and having to lie on my back, with the potential for another long and drawn out labour with plenty of intervention, was pretty much my breaking point...

i starting talking about c-sections.

by five am they had agreed that a c-section would be the safest option. so having experience in this, A. carted our music into the theatre and at six am with a drop of the curtain, our baby girl was born

Clémence Ever

born on 29th July 2012

3.4 kgs

52 cms long

and of course......she had all three of us at hello :-)

and on day 904 / 3 we got to take our thunderhooves home.

p.s. i ended up in the same ward and the cubicle opposite to the one that i was in with Limi.....love those window cubicles

aug, 1st - mini hooves....

day 904 / 3:

it's been a week of getting to know our 'mini hooves'......she's been a real honey so far and already a vital part of our household.

thank you for all the congrats messages. we are so over the moon.

hmmm....so a name for our thunderhooves......we're still trying to agree on one in our house. it took us six days to name Limi, so we have until Sunday....

as for Limi at the same age.....these two look uncannily the same {see day 14}

p.s. love the violin-playing-pose in the last two.

jul, 29th - it's a girl....

day 901 / 0:

i was meant to post about the beautiful babyshower that my girlfriends threw for me over the weekend but instead an hour after i got home on Saturday, i went into labour.....very good timing 'thunderhooves'......

we had a baby girl early on Sunday morning.....we are still to name her but i'll share some pics this week....

she is the sweetest thing and Limi is just beside herself with excitement....we all are.

sep, 1st - brand new nephew....

day 201:

introducing my gorgeous, brand new nephew, Calvin, who was born today....

he has a fantastically, mischievous namesake...

feb, 6th - just relax...are you kidding me!

day 0:

So skipping ahead...past some looooong early morning hours.....where A. managed to cat-nap on a mattress (that was more like a piece of cardboard) on the floor next to me....and the baby managed to swing around so that it was lying posterior (back to my back)....by 4am , I was mentioning that I would prefer a puppy and no longer wanted a baby......My reaction to the drip had them flummoxed and things were not progressing. By 11am, they said we should give it another 2 hours. By 1pm, the situation had become a bit more serious so they decided that the best option was an emergency caesar. The good news was that it was the same female OB from the previous day who would perform the operation (she had funky glasses which is important in ones doctor). So we moved me, moved our music, A. popped on his scrubs and 30 minutes later, the bump emerged to sounds of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.

As she emerged, they dropped the curtain and presented us with an impressively grumpy looking baby. She spent the first 20 minutes in the theatre wailing LOUDLY. with quite a few comments by the team of 'feisty one', 'good set of lungs', 'not ready to come out'. (All that wailing was pretty apt as she shares a birthday with Bob Marley...) But it took almost as long to find out that the boy, that we had convinced ourselves we were having, was in fact a girl. And I only found out after A. went and cut the cord and came back and whispered in my ear: 'we'll have to review those boy's name'. So much for everyone's predictions...

Wow, our own baby girl!


d

Birthday - 6th Feb 2010

Birth Time: 13:52 GMT
Weight at Birth - 3.3kgs
Length - 52cms