So Here We Are..

I will have a son tomorrow.

Yep, its all happening. I am booked in at 1030am, for my caesar, at 34weeks. Since my waters broke last weekend I have baffled the OB as to why I am still not in labour. *shrug*. I guess Jordan runs on his own timetable, as does his father ;-) However, while his father is perpetually LATE, his boy may be on MY clock ;-)

Have had a strange day today. The blood pressure has been down, and I have been dizzy and short of breath and nauseous.. but otherwise ok. I am still leaking, and the leg cramps have started up again.

Had a meeting today with the Anaesthesiologist which Becca took me and Josie to. He asked me a bunch of questions, went through the procedure for tomorrow and then I met with the midwife to go over more questions and more forms and then I had some blood taken.

So tomorrow morning, after spending 15 mins trying to get Tony out of bed, we will proceed to the hospital to have our baby boy ;-) He will probably be in the NICU for at least a couple of weeks, but we will manage.

Josie is sleeping at Becca's tonight, and she is beside herself with excitement for tomorrow, and meeting her baby brother.

So till tomorrow.. when we become a two child, 4 member family!

Mari

Karaoke and Flooding

Remember this line from the last post...?

"...and on my side I just need to get my hospital bag ready. But that's still a ways off.."

Keep that in mind as you read..

Last Friday night I went out with some work friends for a last Hurrah at Karaoke. It was an awesome night, filled with singing, rapping (well not me obviously), eating, drinking (again not me) and general rowdiness. Huge amounts of fun were had.. And after 4 hours of this we weren't ready to bail yet so we went out to a bar on George St called 3 Wise Monkeys (??) where we danced and chatted drunkenly (I chatted soberly). As one of my drunken colleagues told me three times at that bar, I was sober, 8.5 months pregnant (probably the only 8.5 month pregnant woman in the city) and I got hit on (yes, you heard right, I got hit on!), so I was doin' alright that night. I did take it easy, I danced, but not outrageously, just on the spot. And I went home before midnight, so it was pretty sedate.

Tony and Josie were at Mat and Wendy's for dinner and they were staying there the night cause it got pretty late, so when I got home I was on my own. I caught up on email and Facebook and hit the sack around 1am feeling very stiff and tired.

At 2am, I felt a bit of a leak. And sorry folks but this is gonna get a bit graphic cause I need this down for posterity.

I threw myself out of bed (well I kinda dragged myself) and in the three steps from my bed to the toilet, I was gushing. Luckily I was able to make it to the toilet for most of it, but let's just say I had no time to pull off undies or anything like that. So I sat, and gushed. And gushed. And gushed. Man there was a huge amount of gushing going on. So once the gushing abated some, I noticed water on the floor in front of the toilet so I mopped that up with some toilet paper which I chucked in the loo (effectively blocking the toilet when I flushed, and then tried to push it through with the toilet brush, which my wonderful husband fixed the next day). At that point I was still leaking, and not wanting to continue leaking everywhere but knowing I had to get to my phone which was in the bedroom, I kinda waddled quickly, got the phone and then went and stood in the shower.

First I txt'd Tony to see if he was awake. That was kinda silly cause I wasn't gonna stand there waiting for a response now was I? It was about 215am by now so I just called him. He was still awake, and when I told him that my waters had broken (which I had to repeat three times for it to sink in!) he said "Have you called the ambulance?", and when I said "No, I called you", I could FEEL his eyes rolling at me from across the bridge! So I hung up with him, (he left Josie with Mat and sped off home at that point) and rang 000.

So the lady on the phone asked me a bunch of questions:

Lady: Where are you now?
Me: uhm in the shower.
Lady: is the water on?
Me: no..
Lady (laughing): why are you in the shower??
Me: cause I am still leaking and I don't want to have to clean the floor...
Lady (still laughing): ok then..

So after a few more questions she tells me the ambulance would be there soon and to go sit and rest somewhere. Yeh right. I'm still leaking lady, as if I'm gonna go sit somewhere.. So practicality winning over, I wrapped myself in a towel, went and put on a decent top (I was about to go out in public after all!) stuck my phone in my bra (as you do) and went downstairs to get comfortable. The only thing I could realistically sit on without making a mess was a little round plastic stool so I got that, put it in front of the front door and sat to wait for the ambulance.

It was an amusing sight I must say.

Luckily I didn't have to wait long, and I don't know how many speed limits Tony broke, driving from the north, but he arrived at the same time as the ambulance.

So they put me on the stretcher outside, and then stood over me discussing whether to take me straight to maternity or to emergency, while I lay, freezing without a blanket, and with it just starting to rain. Finally I cleared my throat and mentioned I was a little cold and they jumped into action and got me covered and into the ambulance and off to maternity we went.

I started getting contractions in the ambulance. About 2 min apart. Which was not good. It was a short ride and then we were at the hospital and they took me up to the delivery suites. There I was given a shot of steroid and a couple of pills to stop the contractions.

I am only 33 weeks so while not dire, it's still a bit early to deliver. The steroid they gave me was to faster develop Jordan's lungs cause at this stage they are not fully developed and it takes 24-48 hours to do it's job, so I had a few rounds of the pills to stop the contractions to give the steroid time to work. Contractions slowed right down almost straight away and by the middle of Saturday I was having maybe one or two contractions an hour with several hours in between. Not especially strong and very irregular. They also put me on antibiotics for the increased risk of infection after the waters have broken.

So now it's Monday, I have been moved to the maternity ward cause nothing was happening, and am waiting for the OB to come tell me whether I can go home or not. I am crossing my fingers for shore leave. I want to go home. I want to finalize some things at work (via VPN of course). I had two weeks left to get my shit done!! If I do go home, I am on full bed rest until I go into labour again, which means I am pretty much on maternity leave now.

And that's the story so far. The hope is that I don't go into labour and that Jordan has a few more weeks to cook but if I deliver now, the OB is confident that all will be fine. Feeding will be an issue, and he will have to stay in the NICU for a few weeks, but it won't be anything dire.

I'll update again when I know something more :-)

Mari

Perception vs Reality

This morning the Lee/Hill household was involved in a situation that I thought beautifully illustrated the concept that what we call reality is merely an illusion projected onto our brains as experience passes through the prism of our perceptions just as light passing through raindrops creates the illusion of the rainbow.

Josie's Morning
Josie is woken up by Kaylee excited to see Josie sleeping in her room.
Josie, being such a good babysitter, takes her cousin downstairs to get some breakfast.
Opening the fridge Kaylee points and squeals "Yoghurt! I want yoghurt!".
"Okay Kaylee" replies the very professional babysitter, "we'll get you yoghurt for breakfast."
Taking the large yoghurt container over to the bench Josie tips the yoghurt into a bowl and, along with a spoon, places it on the dinning table in front of Kaylee's highchair where Kaylee waits in wild anticipation.
Kaylee gleefully begins to tuck into her breakfast and Josie smiles beatifically and nods to herself in the satisfaction of a job well done.

Wendy's Morning
Having woken to the blissful sounds of silence (ie no screaming children) Wendy wanders downstairs to find her eldest child gleefully tucking into a block of butter that Wendy had stored in the empty yoghurt container the previous day.

It's all in the way you perceive the world around you people.
Enjoy your day and watch out for the butter.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Back on the Blogger Horse

Has it really been FOUR months since the last post?! Good lord. I need to get started again, for my children's sake :-)

Where to start?

So I am very pregnant. 31 weeks now. Sometimes uncomfortably so.. Lets get my whining out of the way...

I feel like a whale. It always really annoyed me when women said that. Normal sized women that is.. I always thought 'Quit your complaining woman. You are pregnant. That's such a blessing!'. I never felt 'like a whale' when I was pregnant with Josie. Maybe because the size difference between between the two states of being was not massively different.. My body didn't really feel the difference all that much? Now however.. 54kg down.. Bloody hell. When I walk, I really waddle now.. And slowly. I can't hurry anywhere. Next week we are having a fire drill at work. I have refused to go down 8 floors of stairs. Forget that. They would have to carry me.. I feel like every time I stand up, my uterus falls down between my knees. Pleasant. Not.

Which leads me to my next gripe. Low blood pressure. I have never ever had any issues with my BP. Not low, not high. And I guess I should be grateful that it is low and not high, but wow it's unpleasant. If I stand for more than 5 mins or so, I start getting head spins, shakes, ears ringing and short of breath. Grocery shopping is now out of the question. I can manage to do fruit/veg and deli, and that's it. Hello Coles Online. And Tony has had to fill and empty the dishwasher for me.. Hehehe.. I don't think he has touched a sink full of dishes for years :-)

Moving on. Leg cramps. At night. Excruciating. I have tried the pillow between the legs but it only helps briefly. And because I can't sleep on my front or back anymore, and I AM a whale, turning over requires careful planning and precision. I have to hold onto the bed head to pull myself across. I really need to start enlisting Tony to give me a push :-)

And we're done! I don't think I have anything else to complain about :-)

I am getting very excited about meeting the boy! Oh yes, have I mentioned it's a boy? With a penis?? What the hell am I gonna do with a penis?? Apparently they pee EVERYWHERE! Geez...

Yep that's it there. The dreaded penis.. Might leave it to his father.

And here is the boy himself.. Mr Jordan Emrys Hill.

So the story behind the names.. Jordan was picked out in the 90's. Tony and I were married in everything but name from the get go. We started talking baby names back at uni. Anyone who knows Tony will know that Jordan came from his beloved Michael Jordan, basketballer. Tony has waited a long time to be able to use that name for a boy :-)

And Emrys. I needed a name starting with E for my paternal grandmother, Eva. E is a very difficult letter for a boy. Girls we had a few, but not boys. And Emrys was surprisingly obvious for us. This was my idea and my choice, and Tony, while a bit embarrassed at the geeky origin, loves it too.

So Emrys is Old Welsh for Ambrose and it means 'immortal'. And the geeky part of it? Well Tony and I are big fans of the old Arthurian Legends. King Arthur's advisor and friend was Merlin the Magician. Merlin's Old Welsh name was Myrddin Emrys. Some of you may recognize Myrddin as the online name that Tony has used for a long time.

We are geeks. But you knew that :-)

So, moving on again.. The nursery is almost done, the furniture just needs moving around, and that is happening over the next few weekends. I have washed and put away all the clothes that people have very kindly donated and on my side I just need to get my hospital bag ready. But that's still a ways off..

I finish up at work in 4 weeks. I am SO ready for this. By this time with Josie I was already not working, having been retrenched 3 months before my maternity leave was to kick in.. There are massive things happening at work right now, and while it's all very exciting, I really am ready to go.

Aside from all the baby news, all else is good.

Josie is growing up too quickly. A couple of months ago she started asking about periods!! She's not quite 9years old! I went through a long talk with her about what happens.. I told her that every month a girl's body releases an egg.. And her eyes went wide and she went white and I quickly assured her it wasn't like a chicken's egg.. It was much much smaller. LOL.

She just came back from her very first school camp. 2 nights, 3 days, in cabins. She loved it. They did all sorts of things like canoeing (she threw up once and fell in once), cycling, climbing and various other sporting adventures. She managed to come home with everything (although I believe there is a towel in lost property) and she got some valuable experience being away from home.

I am really excited to see how she will be with Jordan. She is so so good with her younger cousins, Kaylee and Zoe, that I have very optimistic hopes for when Jordan comes. Josie is very attentive with her cousins, takes care of them, plays with them, feeds them. She is also very keen on helping with Jordan. Can't wait.

And then there is our latest newest addition to the family - Charley.

Charley is a 2011 Series II Holden Cruze. And she is so pretty :-) She has leather seats that warm up, iPod connectivity and a sunroof. And she is red. Red Hot in fact. Every time I see her I get a buzz.

So I think that's about it.. You have now been caught up in the life of the Hills.

Fingers crossed I do better from now on! It's just so hard with Facebook. Everything that happens, happens in a Facebook status update and I just never get around to updating the blog. But I have to. I will be good.

I hope..