Dear Baby - Month #6

Dear Baby,

Happy half a year birthday! After today, you'll be closer to 1 than to 0 - yahoo!

We had our first Christmas as a family, and you got spooooooooooooilt. I just rearranged your room to move your change table back in there, and it is crammed full of stuff. The wardrobe is exploding with toys and clothes, all the space is filling up, and you've not even been alive for a year!

Your hip seems to be getting a bit better - just before Christmas we had a checkup and I'm hoping that your xray in February will be the last we have of all this. We were also allowed to give you a bath on Christmas Eve, and another one last week - then the physio told us we can bath you once a week now. How exciting! I've already ducked out to get you some swimming nappies and I'm hoping that we can use one of your 'baths' to go to the pool at my parents house. We'll have to go when it's not the middle of the day, so I hope we have some warm days left in Summer.

The biggest milestone this month was the arrival of your first two teeth - One month of drool, one night of hourly wake up, two sharp little nuggets! I don't know how much work they're actually doing, but I gave you some cheese this morning and you left two little drag marks in it. They come through a little more each day, and so far I've escaped your wrath (you love to chew fingers and I'm one of the few people who won't let you do it!), but there's going to need to be a big talk if you start using them on me - especially when your top ones come through (they're meant to be next). Until then, just keep minding your manners and I'll keep doing my best to give you the best start.

Now, because I write a lot about you here each day, there's not really much to ever put in to monthly updates. So why not share the story of the day you born? Tl;dr = baby was born, not much hassle.

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Six months ago, I woke up just after 7am feeling a little, erm,  damp. Quite often I'd wake up really sweaty at like 530 in the morning, but this was a little more than that. I'd read a few suggestions on the forums about how to tell the difference between waters breaking and not, and this was waters. I walked out of the ensuite and flicked on the light above the wardrobe, which caused the husband to sit up and glare at me - it was a Thursday and he had work, and you know he is not a morning person. "It's baby day...." I told him. "It's baby day!!!!" was his reply.

We called the hospital at about 7.30 and they told me to relax and have some breakfast, then come in sometime that morning. I tried to have some cereal, but I was too nervous, and the continual breaking waters made it a less than pleasant experience.

I think I was having contractions from when I first woke up, but they were nothing major. I didn't know what Braxton Hicks contractions felt like, but I had been able to notice how much of the time the muscles in my stomach would harden up - making my whole stomach like a big round rock. It wasn't until we were in the car on the way to the hospital that I decided to time them, and they went for about 45 secs at about 3 mins apart. We got in to the hospital around 9am (and after calling my health insurance to pay the $500 excess) they put a  monitor on my stomach to check the contractions. The machine measured the strength of the contractions, starting at about 20 and then going up from there - the contractions were going up to between 70 - 100, but it was a student midwife who never got consistent results every time she put the monitors on me. They got us to go for a walk around the hospital for 15 minutes or so, and whenever a contraction came on I had to slow  down - it wasn't like a lot of pain, but it was more like the muscles were busy so I just needed to slow. We went back in and they put the monitor on again, and the contractions were lasting about 90 seconds. It was at this stage that I knew the student midwife was a little worrying - she checked my stomach and indicated that she though you were not engaged and headup, but you were head down and fully engaged (as you had been for weeks).

You had your back to my back, so for each contraction I would feel my belly tense up and then just get a pain across my back. I was remembering some of the things we were taught in our prenatal class and trying to rest with my belly downwards, to get your back away form my back, so I was kneeling on a footstool with my head on the bed. After I while I wanted to move, but then of course I had to go have a shower. This was a bit of a blessing as having the hot water on my back was lovely - for about fifteen minutes until it stopped helping the contractions. We were still waiting for the nurses to bring a heatpack, so we buzzed them again and they took us back to the delivery suite.

Some time in there we also had a visit from the nutritionist. I'd marked on my admission that I was I was vegan, so she wanted to talk to me about what this meant, while I was having contractions. I think I spent most of the converstaion saying 'whatever, whatever' and making crazy eyes at Daniel - it just seemed a little crazy that I'd be trying to relax while all my muscles were going crazy and she wanted to discuss sandwiches and beans.

When we were back in the delivery suite, the nurses hooked me up to the monitors, told me I was having some 'good ones' and that I was doing well.  The doctor came in and said he wanted to see how I was going and that I should just relax, and things got more than a bit uncomfortable - I found out after you were born that he had actually spun you around so that your back wasn't back down anymore! It was 2pm at this stage, and he told me that I was 2cm dilated, and that I would have you in my arms by midnight. To be honest, I was less than impressed, as I realised I still had 8cm to go (and then some!).

For most of the time, I had my eyes closed. We listened to some music on the the iPod - I had made a playlist of songs that I would play to you when you were still in my belly. I don't remember much of it, but I do remember noticing that a lot of the songs had the word 'baby' in it, and I hadn't realised that until then. I also spent a lot of the time holding on to a damp facewasher - it was nice just to have something to hold on to, especially as I felt like my head was boiling and my legs were freezing (when my legs were out of the blanket I would start shivering). I was also holding a bucket - I felt really glad that I was only sick once as I hate vomiting - this is something that I haven't seemed to pass on to you.

Things started to ramp up more at about 4pm when the nurses changed over - at that stage I was at 6cm and 'doing well'. I asked again about pain relief (two hours earlier I had asked and the student midwife said I could do gas, but the 'real'  midwife said it was too early so they would get me that heat pack. The heat pack never arrived!!!). The nurses asked what I wanted to do for pain relief and I said I would have whatever I could! They suggested pethadine and I totally agreed, so they gave me the needle in my right arm.

Basically, pethadine made me really dizzy, so I kept my eyes closed as much as I could. Although, I decided that I needed to go to the bathroom, and I do remember making the decision that I wouldn't bother trying to walk - I had the husband and the midwife pretty much carry me to the bathroom as I declared over and over "I've never been this dizzy!!".

We were pretty much left to our own devices for the next hour, but at about 5pm I could feel the contractions change, like I could feel my insides pushing down (I think I progressed to this point quite quickly as they don't normally give pethidine if they think a baby will arrive in the next few hours). I opened my eyes, told the husband that the baby was coming now and he ran out to get the midwife. There was a bit of rushing around as they were trying to get the doctor in - he was getting ready for a c-section and the nurse couldn't get a hold of him (this was the 'acting' obstetrician as the one I had seen for all of my pregnancy was on holiday!) - in the end the nurse ran out to physically get the doctor, leaving the husband with me as I was trying to push you out! He said that was the most stressful moment of his life, fearing that he might have to deliver you himself.

I was pushing for half an hour, when all of a sudden they told me to stop. Your cord was around your neck. This was the most painful part of the whole process - to have been working so hard for a while then having to stop right at the cucial moment! They cut the cord off your neck and then you were there. They put you on my chest after a quick wipe down (and APGAR score of 9) and all of a sudden I was a mother. 5:32pm on the 7th of July, everything changed.

I remember saying to the husband "this is so surreal.... we have a baby!... we made a cute one!". I remember looking at you and thinking that you were just the most adorable thing I had seen. Now, I can look back at pictures and see how vernixy and slimy and a little bit point you were, and see how much cuter you have become, but that's the way it all works!

We were very lucky in that labour only 'really' lasted 3.5 hours - heaven help us getting to the hospital in time if/when we're able to give you a baby brother or sister. A few days later the husband told me that he had a feeling that you were going to arrive on the day you did - he almost said something before we went to sleep, but decided to hold his tongue. It might be the best indication we have next time!

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Happy half-birthday, baby girl!