Friday, December 31, 2004
I was due to be born on Christmas Day and with each day I am overdue, Mum and Dad are thinking that I would end up being induced around January 4th when I would have been 10 days overdue. New Years Eve started to get interesting for my Mum and Dad when my Mum's waters broke about 8am. She rang the midwives at the hospital to let them know and told them that she was already booked in to have my heart rate monitored at 1pm. They suggested she come in to the hospital and have it done straight away. Firstly, Mum rang to cancel her pedicure appointment which was booked for this morning (of course she hasn't been able to reach her toes for some time!) Mum and Dad drove to the hospital about 8.30am, a midwife put a big band around Mum's tummy and they listened to my heartbeat for almost an hour. Although they had to get Mummy to drink some lemonade and pushed and poked at her tummy to make me more active, the midwife and the obstetrician, Dr Thompson said that everything was OK with me. They then said it was time to give my Mum a special drug which would start contractions and get labour happening. They gave Mum an epidural first and then a drip containing the Oxytocin.
The contractions started almost immediately, but with each one I began to feel the squeeze and my heart rate dipped after each contraction. Dr Thompson advised against letting this go on for another 6-8 hours as he couldn't be sure if I would get even more distressed. Once it was agreed that Mum would have a caesarean section, it all happened very quickly. A spinal block was added to Mum's epidural, this meant that her body was numbed from the top of her tummy right down to her toes. She was wheeled into the operating theatre and a large green drape was put up so that Mum and Dad couldn't see the gory details of how they go me out of Mum's tummy. Dad was dressed in blue overalls, white welly boots and a hair net - nice look Dad!
By this stage, the spinal block drugs were making my Mum shake alot, she was very worried that Dr Thompson wouldn't be able to cut a neat opening to get me out, but he said not to worry and that he would get in synch with her shakes! Mum was crying a bit because she was nervous and scared about the whole experience but I knew she would be OK once she saw me. One of the midwives thought that Mum was crying because she was going to have a caesarean instead of a natural birth and said to Mum "Don't worry dear, its just that the baby is coming out through the skylight instead of through the front door!"
Once Dr Thompson had made the incision, it was probably less than 5 minutes until I was dragged out into the world. At 1:19pm on 31 December 2004, they lowered the green drape so that Mum and Dad could see me enter the world. They told Mum and Dad that I was a boy just before I cried, so they looked very relieved when they heard me make a noise. Soon after that, Dr Thompson cut my umbilical cord, my lifeline to my Mum. They then held me right in front of Mum so that she could get a good look at me before they put me down on a trolley near her and cleaned me up. They then took a photo of my Dad ceremonially cutting my umbilical cord before they weighed and measured me. I weighed 3.905kg (8lb 10oz) and was 52 cm in length with a head circumference of 36cm and blue eyes and light brown hair.
They then sewed up my Mum's tummy while my Dad came with me to the recovery room to watch over me as Dr Kumar, the paediatrician and the team finished off checking over me. Once Mum was wheeled into the recovery room too, I was put onto her chest and she cuddled me for the first time and then I started to breast feed for the first time. What a wonderful experience that is, talk about "like a duck to water!" By about 5pm, we all then went to our room (room 29 in Ward 54) on the maternity floor. Mum and I were wheeled in the bed and Dad brought the bags and cameras, this room was to be our home for the next week.
That evening Mum and Dad discussed names for me, desperately trying to avoid names for which I would ridicule them for choosing. Mum ate clear soup followed by jelly and icecream for dinner while Dad had a spicy lamb meal. Nanna and Poppa visited in the evening. Since I am blue eyed and have light brown hair, I look more like Mum than Dad and Nanna kept saying that I look like John Perry, Gillian's Dad. Nanna wanted to know what my name would be, Mum and Dad said they wouldn't continue discussing names for me until they left! By about 10pm, they had decided that I would be called Max Darcy McDonald and sent a text message to friends' mobile phones to let me know that I had arrived.
Dad left the hospital about 11pm once the nursery had opened for the evening and he had wheeled me there in my little perspex crib. Mum wasn't able to get out of bed until lunchtime the next day, so they kept me in the nursery and took me to her for breastfeeding when I was hungry during the night.
After leaving me in the nursery, Dad went home and called my Granny and Grandad in New Zealand to let them know I had arrived. He also sent text messages to friends in various places around the world and later complained that he got text messages back causing his phone to beep throughout the night! Dad also went briefly to Hilary's New Years Eve party, where Mum and Dad had both been planning to go, before my entrance to the world changed their plans! After all, tonight is the 9th anniversary of my Mum and Dad getting together at a New Years Eve party!
Saturday, December 25, 2004
I've heard alot of talk that I am due today. I’m not sure what that means, but I do know that Mum had a large hot turkey ham and turkey dinner at Nanna’s house and things are tighter then ever in here! This morning at Auntie Kate and Uncle Alan’s house, there was a pile of little packets wrapped in bright paper under a fake tree. Mum and Dad reluctantly opened a few with ‘Bump’ and ‘Baby’ written on the tags. I heard them say that they felt bad that the baby hadn’t arrived yet to open its own presents, but they seemed to get over that pretty quickly and started ripping into the presents. They soon had a nice little pile of toys and clothes which look about my size!
