The Happy, The Sad, and The Absolutely Beautiful

In the most unbelievable week of my life... Sophia Michelle Smith has arrived!

How do I even begin to tell this story?

I guess I'll just start with the stats.

Sophie was born at 6:58 on Thursday night, July 12. She weighed 2.52 Kilos, and measures 48 cm long. (That's 5.5 pounds, 18.89 inches)

She is gorgeous! We are completely in love.

She was born at 35 weeks and 2 days gestation- that's just nearly 5 weeks too early.

A quick summary of the birth story goes something like this.

Early on Wednesday morning (July 11), I was at the hospital for a checkup with my midwife - they were keeping an eye on my blood pressure as it had suddenly started jumping quite high. But on that day, they decided I'd developed pre-eclampsia (basically just dangerously high blood pressure, with sometimes other symptoms. A pregnancy condition that can be quite dangerous to mum & baby, but they don't really know what causes it. The cure is pretty much for the baby to be born.) So they didn't let me go home that night. I was admitted to hospital with medication for my bp and conversations of whether or not to try to give the baby an extra week in utero, or just induce me then.

But they didn't actually have to make that decision, because my body decided it was time to bring Sophie into the world. At about 7:00 on Thursday morning, my waters broke, and I spontaneously went into labour. I spent the first 6 hours pacing the maternity ward (where healthy newborns cried with their recovering mothers), grumpy that I didn't get to labour at home as I'd hoped. Talking to lots of docs and nurses, terrified, waiting.

Then they got me into a birthing room at about 1pm, and everything started happening really quickly. They had me on drips and tubes and monitors coming out of everywhere, and I was stuck to the bed. So much for the active birth I had imagined! I couldn't even change position on the bed, as it stressed Sophie out too much. But my midwife Elaine was there, and she was amazing. Dan was amazing. The whole thing was a bit surreal, but I pushed a person out of me! And the whole process took about 12 hours start to finish. Didn't end up using any drugs for pain relief, although I certainly called out for them at one point. But that point passed too fast to even really consider it, and I pushed for about an hour and she was born.

And she was perfect!

But not really quite ready for the world yet.

The hard reality is that Dan and I are right now parents of a premature baby who is living in the Special Care nursery at the hospital, and will be there for awhile. I was discharged from hospital yesterday, and came home without my baby.

You're asking for how long she’ll have to stay there....of course. We're all asking that. But we don't know. Probably weeks. Most of the time they look at hoping to bring a premmie baby home by their expected due date. Maybe she’ll do really well and get to come home before that. I really hope so. But we can’t expect that, and trying to guess and predict and figure out when she gets to come home just gets me all tied up in knots. At the moment, I have to take it one day at a time.

The good news is she is quite strong and healthy for a 35-weeker. Her lungs are very well-developed, and she hasn't needed to be hooked up to any oxygen. All her other physical development looks to be really good too, and the doctors don't suspect that there will be any long-term complications. (But that's not something anyone can forsee or guarantee.) Right now she just has to mature until she can do all the things a healthy full-term newborn can do. She's getting stronger and making progress every day, and that has us really hopeful.

This photo where she was in the box...yeah, that was a really hard day for us. She was just there for phototherapy for Jaundice, and now she doesn't need that anymore :) hooray!

She also had a drip in for the first 3 days, to get her blood sugar levels up and that was removed yesterday as well. Those are the good milestones.

So now it's about 3:30 am and I should really get back to bed soon. My brain is fuzzy and I'm running out of words, but I really want to put this story somewhere, since it's hard to talk about over and over again. Danny and I are riding this emotional roller-coaster together. Some hours I'm blissfully happy and others my heart just breaks. The world has completely changed in the last 4 days. Right now my world is at the Hospital. I am going in there in about 3 hours, to be one of the many mothers of a fragile baby who's not fully well. I wish I knew how to explain to those of you lucky enough to have never experienced this what it feels like and what we need to help us get through this, but I don't know how.

The other things I want to say... THANK YOU to everyone for your support and congratulations! It is so good to know that our family and friends are celebrating with us.

We have to be really strict about visitors in the Special Care unit at the moment I'm afraid. Family only, adults only, and only after Dan & I have had a bit more time to bond with her. We also have to be scrupulously careful about germs and noise and all kinds of things like that around the fragile babies in there. We'll let you know.

Ok, that's all I've got for now. More to come on other fuzzy nights when I'm awake and pumping :)

Lots of Love,

The Smiths

Trimester 3

We've officially made it to 31 weeks today. Baby Smith is just 6 to 10 weeks away. Her parents have been busy shopping and improving the nursery - we've now got a cot, a pram, and a nappy bag. It occured to me the other day that I'm going to raise an Australian baby. How weird is that?! She'll wear nappies and maybe want a dummy (a pacifier), but hopefully not too often. and she won't eat lollies till she's much older, cause if she has a sweet tooth like her mummy, she won't stop once she gets started.

Starting to get more and more uncomfy... starting to feel a bit more like a breathless sloth carrying around a watermelon. but then people say really interesting and helpful things like "you're so neat and tidy," "you're all baby," "you're (# of weeks) already?! You're too small for that!" Trust me people, this baby is not tiny. She's a good chunky size and plenty heavy! the last ultrasound I had at 28 weeks, the technician reckons this is going to be more than an 8-pounder at term. Well, we shall see. It's certainly not the biggest baby ever, but big enough for me to have every right to complain about backache...sore feet...swollen fingers and toes...heartburn.... sorry, I digress!

When she really gets moving, she shakes my whole belly around. Danny & I love to play "guess that body part." Fun times :)

I've been drinking milk like it was going out of fashion. at least a gallon a week, just for me. yum!

Oh, the photos were taken on Sunday, at this big park in the city with cool old buildings around. Apparently it's the hot hangout spot for photographers. If you want to see more photos, I put a bunch in my photobucket. Here's the website
http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u94/liciasings/June%202007/

This is such a random post. It was a really fun & relaxing long-weekend (long live the queen!) and had a busy day at work today. So not so many words leftover as sometimes. Soon, I'll be done with work! I won't be teaching. I can barely fathom it. But I can't wait.

Oh, Dan likes this photo best



Ok, better go make dinner.
Love & good stuff :)

26 weeks

It feels like such a landmark to me... to make it this far and have things going so smoothly. I'm filled with thankfulness. I'm inflated with a big belly!
The above photo was taken about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago, but I just think it's so artsy and cool!

This is the most recent shot.

I've been feeling really well. I have all kinds of normal aches and pains, but still sleeping well for the most part, and quite happy. We're in the midst of creating a nursery to keep the baby in. More nesting this weekend - yeay!

that's about it for the moment....my brain is wandering away and I can't quite keep up. Yep, the oatmeal-for-brains symptoms have hit me hard. This week when the scizzors went missing, Dan found them in the freezer. I still have no idea how they got there! But the fridge has become our first port of call now, whenever we can't find something. I told you about the time I left the phone in the fridge next to the cheese, right? :)

hmm... I'll write more when I can think of something to say...

Take care and enjoy your Spring or Auttumn!

Halfway...and a bit

Last week we reached the halfway mark. I'm now nearly 21 weeks along. Unbelievable!

Recently had my big ultrasound and booking-in appointment at the hospy. And the verdict is in... we are having a baby girl :) So far she is healthy and big, and has all the right bits in all the right places. And she's very bouncy! Dan's been able to feel her tumbling about pretty regularly now. Last night we even saw the first belly-quakes from the surface - :O Hilarious! it's pretty funny seeing your tummy bubble and bounce on it's own!

And everything is just so cute lately! Danny & I were in a new camping store this weekend, replacing one of our dying campchairs. Next to the regular-sized campchairs, wouldn't you know it - itty bitty sized child-sized ones. So much cuteness! I was positively giggly!

I've been having the weirdest dreams. Most of them include my family in Minnesota - usually all of them. Last week my clearest and craziest dream featured Dan and I living with all of my Thurber family in a great big house somewhere. Mom & I were both pregnant at the same time. We were walking around huge and due on the same day! Of course, my mom's baby popped out easily, at home, 3 weeks early. She had a 1 hour labour and no pain and I was so jealous. She was holding my blonde baby brother and saying to me "Oh, ya know, it hurt with you, but now this is my 7th one, and it's just easy now. Doesn't hurt anymore." I woke up very confused...and then just started laughing!

Things are going pretty well. For those of you who knew before that I always weighed about 100 pounds, you'll be pleased and maybe surprised as I've been, to know that I've put on 20 pounds already. I guess baby needs it... but I reckon I look a bit shorter! oh well, it's all good :)

I start a new job contract today - a long-term sub position. So I'm back to working 5 days a week now for the next few months. I'll be team-teaching a cluster class - an intensive 1 day class for new arrivals and beginning level students in grades 6 & 7. It's the class I went on excursion with at the end of last year, and I know some of this year's kids already from working with them in various schools. There are about 15 kids from a handful of schools around the area. The teacher I'll be working with is great. I'm really looking forward to it, should be a lot of fun!
Guess I better go get ready to do that...

Hope you're all well and happy :)