Introducing Maia Chloe Jasmine

Maia Chloe Jasmine was born at 2:33am on Sunday 17th May. I was having contractions all day but nothing too serious. Between about 7 and 8pm they started to get more intense, about 10pm my friend Charlie came over and I began to need hip pressure during contractions. At midnight I called the midwives, and we began to get the pool up. When the midwives got here contractions were about 3 minutes apart, 45 seconds long. They pretty much stayed that way throughout from this point, just got more intense.

I got in the pool at some point, really not sure when but I’d guess about 1:30am. Shortly after getting in the pool my waters broke, which they hadn’t done with my first 2 until 10cm practically. I eventually felt the urge to push but it was different to the last 2 times, because it came on very gradually over several contractions. I felt her start to crown and put my hand down and it felt very squishy and bumpy. I then said “Is she breech?!” and felt like everyone ignored me! :) There was an air of disbelief. I then felt her legs be born and felt her body to be sure, and yes she was indeed frank breech. One arm was born and Tracy (MW) pulled the other arm free. We waited a few minutes for the next contraction and her head was born. She had the cord wrapped tightly twice around her neck and was slow to breathe so the midwives clamped the cord and gave her some oxygen. I knew she was fine so wasn’t worried about anything.

It was an amazing experience, and I have to say I am SO glad I declined the internal exam I was offered when the midwives arrived! If they’d discovered she was breech they would have wanted me to transfer to hospital. God was really watching out for us, several midwives had felt my belly in the previous weeks and all of them thought she was head down. If they’d realised, I would have had to fight to even be supported for a vaginal delivery let alone a home water birth!

So she was my surprise breech home waterbirth. She’s 5lbs 6oz and 21″ long!

A few minutes old
A few mins old

3 kids!
3 kids

A few hours later

Proud big brother

Proud big sister

Sweet baby Maia
Sweet baby Maia

Birthdays Past

My baby girl turned 5 yesterday. I wanted to share some pics of her through the years. I’ll try to get yesterday’s pics up later.

Newborn:

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A few months:

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1 year old!

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15 months:

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2 years!

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3 years:

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4 years:

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Midwife appointment today

It wasn’t my normal midwife, because she got held up with something. The other one was quite “wham bam thank you ma’am” but I had both kids so it was nice to get out of there quickly. :)

My blood pressure was OK (although still high for me but they’re not worried), Maia’s heart beat was fine, and she said she’s in a good position. I can tell she’s head down but she regularly changes direction. She likes to lay with her back along the front right hand side, but I tend to sleep more on that side so I think that’s why. I need to pump up my birthing ball so I can start using it.

I go back in 2 weeks (they only see you every 2 weeks here until due date then it’s weekly). I will be 37+3 then and they will go on call for my home birth at 38 weeks, wowowow! I can’t believe in a few weeks I’ll be due.

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Belly

Taken today, at 33 weeks 2 days. If Maia is born at 40+5 like Cora and Calvin, she’ll be here in 7 weeks 3 days! My friend is throwing me a baby shower on Saturday. I can’t wait! They may be cheesy but I love baby showers.

33w

33w

Calvin puts me through my paces

Me and my bright ideas. I thought “I know, I’ve got a weekly bus ticket anyway, why not get the bus to the really nice park at the Lido”. So we did. The kids were so excited.

5 minutes after getting there Calvin decides to go on the huge slide and asks me to catch him, so I say OK. He’s scared of this slide so it’s brilliant that he’s willing to go on it. Only problem is, I couldn’t see him when he actually climbed into the slide, so I couldn’t warn him that going down backwards on his knees wasn’t a good idea! As he got to the bottom I put out my hand to stop him and his head slammed into the slide, chin first. Ugh, it was my ‘fault’ but if I hadn’t stopped him he would have smacked even harder on the end of the slide as he fell off, he was going pretty fast.

Cue him screaming way more than his normal hurt scream, blood starting to come out the sides of his mouth. I carried him to the nearby cafe/centre and cleaned him up a bit, then asked them to ring me a taxi to take him to A&E (ER). At this point I realised I was short money – not planning on needing one… so it was “Sorry we can’t help you at all”. So I walked out, Cora is in floods of tears that we’re not going back to the park, Calvin still screaming. I started crying too, I knew I needed to get him to A&E to get checked out but he wouldn’t walk, and my SPD is bad today anyway, so I was carrying him and walking – it was agony and I knew I couldn’t walk to A&E from there!

So I rung a few people who live in Peterhead, no-one answered, so I called the Fishermen’s Mission where Aaron volunteers. The woman who answered the phone knew my voice and when she found out what was going on she told me to stay put and she’d get her husband over to take us there.

After we got there Calvin fell asleep on my shoulder, then after about half an hour we got seen, he’s OK thankfully but has managed to split his lip internally at the bottom where the lip actually starts (coming away from the jaw). If it was slightly bigger they would have sutured it but the GP said it would be really traumatic and he thinks it’ll heal by itself. He was really drowsy and of course very upset. His teeth are OK though thankfully!

So when we got to leave to come home I had to carry him again and underestimated how hard it would be, I carried him from the hospital down a side street to a bus stop back into town, then from the bus station to my house. Cora carried my stick for me. Everyone was staring because Calvin was half asleep on my shoulder with blood running out of his mouth, my coat had blood all over it, Cora was carrying a walking stick… what a sight! My SPD is now worse than it’s ever been and I was in tears again by the time I got home, but from pain this time! It took me about 10 minutes to walk from the bus station to my house which is literally down the road.

I’m still shaking. I knew he was OK but it was the stress of figuring out how I’d get there and dealing with the SPD as well I think.

Whinge over!

Spot the difference

Cora is such a character. Her personality is really blossoming. I got some pictures off the camera tonight and had to laugh, I took some belly pics on the timer yesterday and she had sneaked in behind me on the last ones! I had no clue she was there. Here’s the first and last pics, spot the difference. ;)

31w

31w

And for good measure, here’s our new Mei Tai carrier, modelled by Aaron and Cora! Of course Maia is the one who’ll be in it – much to Cora’s dismay she won’t get carried about everywhere by Daddy.

Mei Tai

Did you know I’m not American?

The other morning I tripped over a toy upstairs. Cora was up there too and I asked her who left it there. She said “It’s a good thing you weren’t doing press ups, or the toy would have gone into your belly and hurt Maia”. I was slightly bemused that she even knew what press ups were, and she started actually trying to do them at this point.

I said “How do you know what press ups are?”
C: “Because of Barbie”
Me: “Barbie? Which Barbie movie is that?”
C: “You know, King of the Hill, Barbie!”
Me: “Oh! You mean Bobby! Ok.”
C: “No, Barbie”
Me: “Ohhh you’re trying to say it the American way like Daddy does, it’s more like “Bahbee”, no r sound though darling.”

At this point she kind of rolls her eyes at me, and walks away. She sighs, looks back, and says “You just don’t understand me because you’re not American like the rest of us”.

:D

(She may be American but “Mommy” is the only American word she uses!)

My new toy

Dell Mini 9 with skin

I’m selling my laptop and getting a Dell Mini 9 instead. I’m very excited, I’ve never had a new computer that was just mine before! I’ll just use Aaron’s laptop for any bigger stuff but this will be my main machine. Most of what I do is word processing and browsing/webmail so I’m sure it will be more than sufficient.


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