The first week

William's birth was amazing and so much more than I was expecting, Michael and I were grinning from ear to ear and calling all the important people, (well Michael was calling people I was just staring at William),

when my midwife came in to check his weight and give him his shots she asked if any of the other boys had to have their blood sugar levels checked. I'd never heard of it before, apparently all babies born over 4.5kgs need to have it checked. So she put him on the scales and after she had a little chuckle she said 'hold on I'll just do it again to check that's right' we knew he was a big boy you could tell from looking at him but we weren't expecting her to say 11lbs 10ozs! 

So a little prick in his foot would tell us if his sugar levels were ok or not. Normal is over 2.6 Williams level was 1.4. Not a terrible thing but it needed to be fixed, so after he was dressed he headed off to the special care nursery with Michael while I showered. When I got there they told me he'd just been tube fed 40mls of formula. We had to wait half an hour then check his levels again. 

Still no good. Another 20mls of formula and his levels came up enough for us both to head off to my room for some much needed sleep.

Bruised face baby, that's what happens when your hand comes out with your face. 

I had to feed him on demand and come back half an hour after his next feed to have another heel prick. At midnight I headed back in with him and he was down to 1.8. 

So I sat in special care nursery and fed the boy for an hour or so, another heel prick-still no good, another dose of formula in the tube. 

William we discovered, is not to keen on hospital formula, as it was going in his belly he was puking it straight back up. By this time it was almost 3am, a call to the paediatric doctor and he was straight down to put a drip full of dextrose (sugar) in his arm. Then I was told he couldn't leave the nursery and I'd have to go in to feed him.

In special care with his drip.

Well special care nursery is not somewhere I ever expected to end up on his first night, especially not with such a big baby. I always thought of special care for tiny babies or babies with something wrong with them. I quickly found out special care nursery is actually quite fun, the mums who are in there with tiny sick babies know exactly whats going on and are doing everything they can to make their babies stay as comfortable as possible. William's neighbour was 1.1kgs she was so tiny but her mum was so upbeat she knew she was going to be there  for a while. 

The aim of the game for us was to feed him on demand (which was constantly) until my milk was in enough for his levels to come up on there own. He had to have a heel prick and check his levels every 6 hours which meant I spent 99% of my time in the nursery with him either feeding or checking his levels and settling him  afterward he'd had yet another prick in his foot.
The second night his levels were doing really well and his drip was turned down from 27mls of dextrose an hour to just 4.4mls. I was hopeful that we might be able to go home that day. At 7am when the doctors did their rounds it was time for another heel prick. Bad news. His sugar levels dropped way to much and his drip had to go way back up to 17mls an hour. I was starting to feel like we were never going to leave. 

By Friday morning I was so over the four walls of the hospital and over only seeing my big boys for a few hours a day. Thankfully the doctor I saw that morning agreed to take the drip out and keep an eye on him during the day, if his levels could stay up for the next few hours we could go home.

Sumo baby

I fed the boy like a maniac hoping to keep his levels up high enough. At 1pm his levels were 2.6 literally just high enough. He had to have one more check at 4pm if that was high enough we got to go home. I was hopeful but skeptical all at the same time. So when he wanted to sleep from 12-3 I was worried. I woke him up, stuck a boob in his mouth and hoped for the best. 4pm rolled around and we headed back to the nursery. The nurse on duty was so lovely she wrapped up his foot in a hot towel (helps bring your sugar levels up) and we crossed our fingers. When that little machine beeped I didn't want to look.

'Get out of my nursery' the nurse was grinning as she said this his level was 3.1. That means we were discharged, thank god!

Home time! 

Two weeks later his birth announcement!

The morning of his birthday all ready to go to the hospital. 

None of my boys have ever wanted to come early, or on time. 
They have all been late bloomers and have needed some help getting their little bums moving. I really wanted to experience a natural labour no oxytocin drip, no being strapped to the bed, but I wasn't holding out much hope it would happen. So having my induction date set was a little disappointing but not a huge shock. 
The day came, we got ready, kissed the boys, I had a little cry I knew that would be the last time I'd see them before I bombarded them with yet another brother, then we headed off to the hospital at 7am with a maccas iced coffee, we were ready for action. 
After a quick listen to his heart beat and a check over I got a dose of  prostaglandin gel, we were told to walk the corridors to get things moving and come back at 2pm to see how things were going. Well that's not what I was expecting to hear. I felt like it was a huge waste of time. At 2pm I was getting pretty painful contractions but they weren't regular and my midwife told me all they were going to do was give me another shot of gel and check me out again at 9pm, and probably leave me over night and break my waters the next day. I was not a happy camper at this point. If you've never had gel on your cervix it feels like awful period pain. Not a fun way to spend an entire day. 
Michael and I headed back to my room to wait it out, we decided Michael may as well go home and bath the kids and help mum with dinner and come back afterwards.
I was getting lots of really painful contractions that were lasting for around 10 seconds but they were really irregular so I just waited it out. at 5pm my dinner turned up (gotta love hospitals!) I tried to sit up and eat but I was in way to much pain. I headed back to the labour ward to see what could be done, we decided a hot bath would be a good, and it really was. Around this time the midwives changed shifts and my new midwife came in to check on me, after we'd had a chat and she watched me have a few contractions she asked if I'd like the gas, oh hell yes! 
A few contractions later she suggested we call Michael and get him back to the hospital, we do live a good half an hours drive away so I said sure thing. Then time seemed to stand still. 
I got sick of the hot water and the hard bath so we moved to the bed, my contractions were getting pretty full on and I was glad to have the gas to keep my mind on something else.
A quick internal between contractions and I was 7cms, so much for come back at 9pm! 
I had my eyes squeezed shut and my toes curled over when Michael turned up and held my hand, It felt like hours since we'd called him when in actual fact it had only been 40 minutes.


It was 6.55pm when Michael got there and the next half an hour was pretty hectic. A few more contractions and I knew what was coming, I told my midwife the next contraction I was going to push. She was all alone with a student doctor, this is when they started running around making sure they had everything ready to go. Next contraction Williams head was out along with his arm, two more pushes and the rest of him was out and he was on my chest. I had never been so relieved in my whole life. I remember thinking that is the last time I will ever experience childbirth and thank goodness! 

William Robert was born born at 7.21pm, 55.5cms long, weighing a whopping 11lbs 10ozs. 

William and I a few minutes old.

I'm still here!!

Helllloooo!!!!!

So life has been a little busier than I was expecting with a hungry newborn and three other kids to look after. So unfortunatly my blog was completly ignored for the whole month of January basically. It was a very busy month so I won't try to chuck it all into one blog post, but it started off with the birth of our beautiful little William, my birthday, and then my two big boys going off to school. That's a lot in one month!

So here are a few pictures for now, I will be back tomorrow (hopefully!) with William's birth story. 

William Robert 2 days old. 11lbs 10ozs. I think half his weight was in those cheeks. 

Charlie pretty happy with his new brother. 

My beautiful James. He demands cuddles with William several times a day.

For a kid who didn't want to have another brother he is pretty impressed with William. 

I know he will hate me for posting this on the internet when he's older, but how freaking funny is that face! 

Sleeping like a baby. Literally. 

The Waiting Game

This is where we went yesterday.

 A 1.5km round trip to a beautiful (very cold) waterfall. 

We thought maybe that would scare this baby out of me. A big walk and being an hour or so from the hospital that's when it would happen if I was in a bad midday movie. No such luck in the real world, but we did have a really nice time, today my swollen feet are testimony to that. 

I thought my feet were going to snap off after I put them in the water, Michael took the boys in, they didn't last very long. I could hear Charlie from up here telling Daddy 'COLD!' 

After we got them dressed we head off to another pretty spot to show Nanny. Mister Cute sitting still for one second, while we got lunch ready.

Nanny, she's nothing if not sun smart. 

If you think after a huge walk and lunch you could lay on the grass peacefully you were dreaming Dad. If your on the ground your fair game. 

I'd love to have their energy. 

I love this picture of Nanny and Jack, he is Nanny's boy. through and through. 

Tomorrow were off to show Nan the hospital for my last appointment with my midwife. I'm getting bored of the waiting game! 

It's a new day and I'm feeling...good

2011 what a year you were. I can quite happily say you are gone. Although there were a lot of ups there were some crazy downs like how 2010 ended and how we spent New Years Day. 

Then there was how we spent Easter Sunday, and the life changing news we found out a few days later. 

Then we spent a few weeks in limbo until we found out what was going on.

I could keep going, no wonder I'm so grey this year, far out what a year! 

So this year I am looking forward to a boring quiet event-less kind of year. 

So my list for this year is much different to last years. 12 months can sure change a person. 

1. Get through every day with four kids without ripping all my hair out and/or killing someone.

2. Find time in the week for me. 

3. Go to the beauticians/hairdressers more regularly.

4. Take the boys to their first football game. 

5. Go for walks with my two smallest people.

6. Visit some family off both sides.

7.  Spend Christmas with those that we love, somewhere pretty.

8. Laugh more.

9. Stop and take time to play silly buggers with my boys

10. Go on dates with my hubby.

11. Say yes to things without worrying or stressing.

12. Stop second guessing myself, and just do it.

13. Go away for a kick ass family holiday.

Ok so I didn't make it to 20 but you know what I don't really care, 2012 is going to be a good year and I'm not stressed.

Whats on your list? 

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