Well, it's been a week since the arrival of little Celia, and we're slowly coming around to feeling human again. We're all doing very well, Miss E is loving having Playmate home and out of Mom's belly and Tim and I are managing to keep the girls and each other somewhat happy on limited amounts of sleep.
I'll say that since the pretty low-key arrival of Miss Celia, we've realized how nice normal feels, and how not normal life has been for us since we arrived here, and especially since Edie arrived. Don't mistake us, we wouldn't trade Miss E or her troubles for the world, we consider them all part of the perfect package of Edie and part of what we love about her. However, straight out of the hatch, Miss E was scheduled in for a follow-up specialist appointment in 6 weeks time, a trend (her frequency of specialist appointments) which continues to this day and will continue for some time. When we were discharged from the hospital with Celia after 2 days and I asked when her follow-up appointment was scheduled, I got a strange look from the midwife who responded, "for what?" and when I said "you know, just to check up on her" she laughed at me and politely explained that that was what our GP was for. So you might say that my expectation of what newborn care entitles is slightly skewed towards lots and lots of hospital visits. We're glad not to be dealing with that again. And that being said, the question burning in all of your minds just has to be "does Celia poop?", (if it's not and you still care, check out our postings of the past 6 months and have fun learning all about Hirschprung's Disease and what it might mean to have a two year old diagnosed with the condition). We're happy to report that Celia's GI tract appears to be in great working order. I've never changed so many pooey nappies and she's only been around for 7 days- we might have dodged the bullet with Celia and genetic links to Hirschprung's, thank God.
As for having had a normal delivery, I can also say, "wow...we had it rough the first time around". Everything about this delivery was calm and pretty controlled compared to the last (again, thank God...and a timely epidural). Labour is no picnic as most women can attest, but not having eclampsia makes it a lot more bearable. Of course I was monitored like a hawk with every gadget that could fit in or on me going at once to ensure that nothing was out of whack, but aside from the normal pains of labour nothing else happened. We were in the hospital by 8:30 on Monday evening almost 2 days overdue, and oddly enough I had a hard time convincing myself that I was actually in labour even though I'd been having contractions 5 minutes apart or less for 2.5 hours. I think that our first birthing experience must have shattered my confidence in my abilty to self-diagnose what was happening, because even when it came time to push the baby out I questioned whether what I was feeling was actually my body telling me to push...the baby coming out surely cleared up that confusion. Regardless, I requested an epidural as soon as I got to the hospital as a part of making this delivery as easy as possible on us in the case that anything did go wrong. Though it wasn't actually put in place until 1am, Tim and I were able to handle the rotten stuff until then, although there was a point where I seriously thought that being unconscious (as in the first delivery) would be preferable to the pain that I was in- Tim did not agree. From about 1:15am through to about 1:45, the epidural gave some relief from the contractions and even let me rest up a bit before actual delivery. However by 1:45 the midwife and doctor on staff thought that I was getting a bit too much rest and that labour had slowed down too much, so they decided to put in yet another drip (syntocin) to bump up progress. Very shortly after that as Tim explained in our previous blog, the midwife left the room to get Tim a warm blanket and I felt a head pop out and screamed at Tim to get her back in the room. And then Celia was out within 4 minutes at 2:14am. Compared to the hour-long pushing session with Edie for which I am unable to remember anything from, this was a complete walk in the park. No, I don't ever want to do it again, but now I can understand why people do. Rather than be rushed off to ICU post-delivery, Tim and I enjoyed some juice and toast and our screaming baby Celia thrashing around in the bassinette beside us. A welcome upgrade.
So Celia is eating and sleeping and pooing like a newborn should, and Edie is quite taken with her new playmate so far and is a great help. We'll enjoy the euphoria that this beings as long as we can. We're also enjoying the massive amounts of help that we've been receiving from friends which has included a freezer full of prepared food with the promise of more to come, and lots and lots of baby supplies and offers to help with little things like cleaning and laundry...We are surrounded by some great people here in Oz.
With that being said, our door is still open to the great people we know from around the rest of the planet. You'll just have to be prepared for Team Jardine in babyland, a far cry from where we were when we left Canada, but a fun place to be in nonetheless.
Enjoy some new pictures.
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| Celia week 1 |
Laura
