It has been nearly 2 weeks and yet it already feels like a lifetime since the 3 of us all met each other and started getting used to living together as one big (happy) family! It really has been overwhelming and there is so much to do in looking after a baby that you don't really get a chance to look after yourself (which is also as important I've found out!) I suppose that's why we have husbands, friends and family to help you do that part......which always comes second to the newest arrival in the family. We have received such fantastic support from so many people who have been so generous in terms of gifts, cooking meals, shopping, giving much needed advice, lending us baby equipment and spending time with our little Milea. We are just so blessed - thank you everyone!
So I'd better start at the beginning then.......(and for those who weren't able to follow on Twitter)
The LabourIt was Tuesday 24 May and I'd started off on a good foot - going to the gym as pregnant as can be and sweating it out on the treadmill for 40 minutes. Ok, I was hardly sweating as I could barely manage a brisk walk, but nevertheless, I felt I did a good workout and hoped that all my walking had jiggled her down a bit further so that labour would happen in the near future. Jaco also made a booking at a new Indian restaurant in town to feed me more curry. Well, little did I know that it would happen sooner than I thought - that evening in fact! I was rather enjoying a late afternoon nap when suddenly I felt a warm gush between my legs! I jumped out of bed thinking I'd wet my bed or something, only to find that my waters had broke. I didn't actually know if it was that, but after it happening several more times and having to confine myself to sitting on the toilet for long periods, I thought this is it! I frantically BBM'ed Jaco who told me to wait for a bit cos he was busy and couldn't call me. I told him 'THIS CANNOT WAIT - YOUR DAUGHTER IS COMING NOW!' which seemed to catch his attention but he thought I was joking with him. We called the gynae and the hospital to let them know that we were coming in and then proceeded to chill for about 2 hours to let the traffic from town into the Southern Suburbs die down. In this time, we had dinner together, packed the last bits and pieces for the hospital, had a few gulps of OBs (Jaco) and even managed to have a nice relaxing chat with our neighbours. No rush at all.....
Upon getting to the hospital, my pants were now thoroughly wet from more waters breaking - which I would have to get used to as this continued all night long. Where did all the liquid come from?? They hooked me up to the CTG machine to monitor mine and the baby's heartrate. All good and no contractions yet. They decided to admit me into the ante-natal ward and sent Jaco home for the evening. So was that it???? I thought labour was hectic, screaming, pain, frenzied.....this all seemed pretty civilised! From about midnight onwards, the contractions started - bad period pain-like feeling which lasted only for about 15 seconds - nothing major. I tried to get some sleep in between these contractions, which were about 10 minutes apart. They were short power naps where I'd even end up dreaming!! I walked through to the nurses station at about 3am as I was hungry and wanted to order room service. I told her about the contractions and she decided it was time to go into the labour ward just in case. Yah - a big room all to myself with my own bath tub, and toilet. I tried to sleep until 6am when I knew Jaco would be returning to the hospital.
The contractions carried on all morning, still 10 minutes apart, yet increasing with severity and pain. Jaco was a superstar and ran around to please my every frantic gesture to massage my back, hold my hand, or provide a body part to squeeze when the contractions hit. Otherwise, he quietly kept feeding me, watering me and working on his laptop in the meantime. I even got fed some Speculoos (Belgian speciality)! The gynae visited every 4 hours only to give us disappointing news each time. First time she said I was only 1 cm dilated, then by 10am I was only 2 cms and by lunch time I was only 4cms. Things were progressing far too slowly for her and I was almost crying I was in so much pain each time a contraction hit me. She advised me to have an epidural if I was already suffering so much at this point and also suggested that I get hooked up onto a drip containing a labour inducing hormone. I gladly accepted both at this point.
Shortly thereafter, the anaethetist rushed into the room, all stressed out cos he heard I needed an epidural urgently - it wasn't that bad but I welcomed him with open arms none the less. No pain at all while the needle went into my spine and when they hooked me up onto the drip. I didn't even feel the catheter being inserted. Just all of a sudden, my legs became a sack of heavy potatoes and I couldn't even wiggle my toes! It was wonderful watching the machine showing that I had a contraction but not being able to feel a thing!! And what a wonder are catheters??!! No need to get up and go to the loo - its all done for you! Think we should adopt this into everyday life.....
However, by 6pm that evening (24 hours after my waters breaking) the gynae was getting really concerned that this labour wasn't progressing and that I was still only 4cms dilated. She told me that a Caesarian Section was going to have to take place as there was obviously something wrong. I had about 10 minutes to process this information and prepare myself for this operation which I never thought I'd have to go through. Amongst tears and discussing with Jaco, we agreed to go ahead. Out little girl would be arriving soon!
The Caesarian Jaco was all dolled up in his scrubs and looked quite sexy, I must admit. I wasn't sure why I was crying and so emotional but Jaco did his best to calm me down and get me to relax. By this time, I was shaking all over - a consequence of the drugs in my body. All the surgeons were very chilled, making jokes, taking photo's of us and chatting about arb stuff. Seemed like they did this every day and it wasn't such a biggie. I was wheeled into the operating room which had huge lights above my body and then shoved from one bed onto the operating table. They put up the screen so that I couldn't see what was happening down there and did the 'cold' test on me-spraying some freezing cold stuff onto my skin, asking if I could feel it. I only had sensation from chest upwards which was good and this meant they could start the procedure.
I thought Jaco would be very grossed out from watching the operation take place, but he got involved and managed to snap lots of pics of them cutting me open and pulling her out. He was quite amazed at the precision with which they worked and how clean and tidy their work was. Within 10 minutes I heard her miaow-like cry and Jaco went to the weighing table to console her and hold her tiny little hand. By the time they put her naked warm body on my chest, I was actually so out of it from the drugs, that I didn't really know what was going on and don't think I fully appreciated that special first bonding moment.
After that I drifted in and out of consciousness and Jaco took the baby from me so that I could fall into a deep slumber. Milea Dara Cronje was born at 18:45pm on 25th May - her exact due date! Spectacular timing!
The Recovery
The next 24 hours were a blur for me. I was able to manage the pain myself by pumping morphine into my body whenever I needed to (there was a 7 minute delay so no overdosing unfortunately...) Initially I was scared to overdo it but in the end I was happily pumping every second I could. I woke up with night sweats and wasn't able to hold a full conversation as I'd fall asleep mid sentence. I also felt a bit nauseous and had a few gagging sessions but luckily my tummy was empty so there were no mishaps. I was so happy to have Jaco looking after me and to be able to hold my baby girl. It was awesome to see her sucking on my breast, all content and happy. I was very against Caesars initially but have decided they are not that bad and the pain is totally manageable (a Voltaren suppository in the morning and Myprodals every 6 hours). It was quite tricky trying to sit up to eat or breastfeed as I suddenly had no stomach muscles - I had to rely on the nurses or Jaco to lift my bed up. Jaco was such a star the day after the Caesar and he never left my side. He did everything for me from feeding me, to making sure I was comfortable, and looking after Milea. He is such a proud dad and just loves her so much. He got stuck in with changing nappies and burping from the word go - even before I could face up to these tasks. I was stuck in bed for 24 hours and then made to get up and walk around on Thursday evening. The catheter, drip and morphine were taken out of my body and the nurses forced me out of bed. I felt like a little old lady shuffling slowly along the floor as I was quite stiff. Even coughing or blowing my nose was impossible as I discovered you need stomach muscles for these simple bodily functions which one takes for granted.
My Precious Baby
I am in love! She is just so cute and cuddly! And I love her cry - sounds just like a high pitched kitty kat miaow. In the hospital I could distinguish her cry from all the other babies' cries. Iwas a bit overwhelmed at the thought that we were totally responsible for her life now and that she was totally dependent on us for everything. Unfortunately, due to the prolonged labour, she had some kind of blood infection which meant she needed very painful antibiotic injections in both her legs for the 3 days that she was in hospital. And boy did she SCREAM when they did this! She also had lots of brown freckle-type marks on her face and chest from the infection and red mosquito-like dots on her body due to hormonal levels. So she didn't look the prettiest from the beginning. Thankfully the infection has cleared up now and only left her with some thrush on her bum which we are treating. I would often sit in my bed just staring at my little girl while she quietly slept in the crib next to my bed. She mastered the breastfeeding latch almost immediately and drank like a demon. She didn't like to feed for very long on each breast but by the time she had left the hospital, she had already picked up 45grams.
We were discharged from hospital on Saturday, 3 days after she was born, with a boot full of flowers, vases, luggage and of course our precious cargo. Jaco had to drive very slowly as I could feel every little bump in the road! Upon arriving home, I was so surprised to find my best friend, Angie and her 11month old boy, Tao, here visiting for the weekend from Jo'burg. I suddenly became so emotional and burst into tears! Everyone was talking about the fact that I would become very emotional after having a baby, but I didn't really know what they meant! I mean, what was there to be emotional about !!?? But for the next 2 days, I cried several times about silly little things and knew exactly what they meant ;-). It was great having Angie there to help me, give advice, manage my engorged breasts and do all the girlie things that husbands don't really want to get involved in. She made our coming home just so much easier.
Some photo's of my baby:
I just love bathtime with my daddy!
My baby is growing up so fast! Her achievements in the last month probably equal to more than that which any adult would accomplish in one year! Firstly, she has learnt to sit on her own with the occasional toppling over – although I believe some adults still have the same problem! She has also started eating solids and so we have the joy of watching her play with food in her mouth while not knowing what to do with it. We’ve started off with runny baby porridge and it’s the funniest sight to see her pushing it out of her mouth and then Jaco scoops it back in and then she pushes it out again. She hasn’t quite worked out the swallowing part. Needless to say, even though she’s on solids, she is not sleeping through the night and is still waking up once a night. We also tried butternut tonight for the first time and I think she thought it was porridge cos she pushed her mouth excitedly towards the spoon to get it into her mouth, only to find out after the 3rd spoonful that it wasn't quite the porridge she was used to. I promptly had to give up feeding her after she refused anymore.
My nanny, Constance, has also been the best find ever. She is so gentle with Milea and I love listening to the long conversations they have with each other all day. She really treats Milli like a little person and it seems they enjoy each other's company alot. I love coming home to find Milea give me the biggest smile ever when I walk in the door. Its great that Constance has 3 kids of her own ranging from 18years to 1 and a half years old so she's been through it all and normally gives me advice on what to do. So I'm really confident and happy to leave Milli with her as she knows more than me!
Her newest party trick is to bring her foot up to her mouth, while she's lying on her back and suck her big tow! I cannot believe how supple she is! Probably turn into a gymnast or something. I'm not sure her toe tastes like her thumb but she seems to like it. It cracks me up every time! She now weighs 7 kilograms and mom feels every bit of it while lugging her car seat to and from the car every day. So I'm getting a nice arm workout at the same time.
