Joseph's birth story.

Today Joseph is a week old and I thought it was about time to share his birth story.

All day Saturday, I was contracting. They were mild contractions but regular so I started thinking this is the start and that something would happen Saturday night or Sunday morning.

I took it pretty easy most of the day and we went to Saturday night mass just in case we couldn't make it Sunday.

Saturday night, I found it hard to get into a real deep sleep and still had contractions for most of the night. Just after 6.30 I woke up and had a stronger contraction and felt something a bit different. I thought what was that and got up out of bed. My waters then broke. I told Steve to get up and that we would need to go to the hospital.

We got to the hospital and they monitored me for a while. I was still contracting but the contractions were not strong still but I thought with broken waters it wouldn't be long and I would start getting them.

Lunch time came and went. Still the contractions were mild. I was thinking, what the heck is going on since usually once my waters are broken labour gets going. Steve went home for a while to see what the children were up too and came back at 2.00.

We spent most of the day just waiting around for labour to start. Just after 3.30 my ob decided it was time to start some syntocin and see if that would get labour going. We then headed from the ward over to labour ward. The ob examines me and tells me that my waters in front are still intacked. I thought she meant that they hadn't broken but what had happened was they had broken behind Joseph. That was why I wasn't going into labour. The ob broke the waters in front and they started the syntocin drip slowly.

By 6pm I was in labour. The contractions were stronger than they had been most of the day but still manageable. I didn't feel as if I needed any pain relief yet.

At 7.30 the midwife examined me and I was at 9cm. Pain was pretty strong now but it was too late for any pain relief except the gas so that was what I had. I thought that because I was about 9cm that the labour would be over pretty soon anyway.

At this point, contractions dropped back a bit so the syntocin had to be increased. I don't really remember when but soon after this, they discovered that my cervix was caught on Joseph's head and that was why I wasn't moving from 9cm.

After a couple of hours at 9cm, I decided it was time to try and get into a new position. I moved around onto my knees and then soon after this got a strong urge to push. I started pushing and pretty quickly Joseph was born. I wished I had changed positions earlier.

He was born at 9.35 pm. His weight was 3620 (8 pound exactly) and his length was 50 cm (19 inches).

All our other children have had pretty small head circumferences (between 28 and 32 cm). Joseph's was 35. When the midwife said, 35cm I was pretty glad I had been on my knees and had the gravity helping me deliver.

From my competition, both Jean and Kym guessed the right date for Joseph's birth. 4 people were pretty close to the weight too guessing 3685 (8 lb 2 oz). Therese, Kym, Yofed and Mary.

Congratulations especially to Kym for guessing the right date and being so close for weight.

Just a quick hi and

Thank you to all the people that have sent us messages and good wishes on the birth of Joseph.

It has been a long week but I am now starting to feel almost back to normal again. I have to keep reminding myself that I am 5 years older than I was when I delivered Christopher and recovery is going to take longer because of this.

Hopefully this weekend I will get back to reading blogs and leaving comments. I had over 600 new items in my reader yesterday and over 100 today so I had to mark all as read.

The messages that have been left have given me a huge boost. I am so thankful for all of you and the joy you share with us on Joseph's birth. I have some photos on my camera that haven't been uploaded yet. Once they are uploaded I will put them all up.

Guess what we had for tea?

Scalini's Eggplant Parmigania.

I saw my obstetrician today. Baby is still only 2/5th engaged. I think it will be a while before I go into labour. I am keeping busy though. Hopefully over the weekend I will have our little boy in my arms.

Only three days till baby due.

Here I am with just three days to go.

Yesterday, Brigette made me some labour cookies.


I can really taste the ginger. Brigette said that she used the extra hot cayenne pepper but I can't really taste that like I can the ginger. Since eating them, I have had contractions but nothing that is strong enough to call labour just yet.

Last week I got a package in the mail from Tracy. Lots of really nice home sewn clothes for our boy.



Thanks so much Tracy. I cannot wait to put some of these things on our boy. I am sure he will look gorgeous in them.

15 days to go: Trying to keep busy.

In the count down to my due date, we have 15 days to go today. I really hope he doesn't go over or if he does, it isn't too long.

Yesterday after Mass, Steve drove us over to Whyalla for some shopping. My favourite shop in Whyalla is Spotlight. Toyworld is attached to Spotlight in Whyalla so the children love coming there with me too lol.

Tom had some birthday money to spend and Brigette had some Christmas money so they both went straight into Toyworld as soon as we got there.

The girls, Tom and Christopher all choose some fabric for some different things and I got some for myself and the baby too. My plan for the next few days is to sit at the sewing machine and get the children doing all the housework. I will say to them, you want some new clothes, you need to do xyz.

Temps are going to be in the high 30's/low 40's for the rest of the week so sitting under the airconditioner sewing sounds like the best way to spend it.

36 Weeks.

Looking at the photo, I cannot believe how low baby is.

Feeling much much better.

Today I finally feel better. No nausea, no fever and no chills. I am still very tired but think that is more from 7 months of pregnancy rather than having a bug.

Amelia's foot is healing well and her face is no longer swollen.

It is now 9 days till Christmas and the only plans I am making is to have a rest every afternoon. That is the advantage of being in end pregnancy through the summer holidays.

Thanks so much for all the prayers.

27 weeks: Counting down begins.

It is 13 weeks exactly till our baby is due today. Since I have gone over with most of my babies, I am half expecting to go over but deep in my heart, I really hope I don't.

I really cannot believe how quickly this pregnancy has gone. The first two trimesters have just flown for me. It seems like just a couple of weeks ago that I was showing Steve the positive pregnancy test in our room and we were talking about when to tell the children. The children found out pretty soon after we knew but we asked them to keep it a secret and they all managed to keep their lips sealed.

The last trimester is obviously the hardest so I am expecting time to start dragging. I still sleep fairly well at night and have many things I want to so hopefully it will go fast.

Therese

Swine Flu Vaccine

I have read so many different conflicting reports about pregnancy and the swine flu vaccine. I am finding the more I research it, the more confused I am becoming.

It seems to me that there is a lot of stories out there that are naturally fear mongering both for and against the vaccine. What are your thoughts about it?

Editing to add this link that I got from DCF that seems finally to be balanced and without fear mongering. Scroll down to October 19th.

I think I am going to get it.

Ante Natal Visit: 24 weeks.

Today I saw the midwife and had a check up. Baby is growing well. Fundal Height is 27 cm and my blood pressure is fine. By this time with Christopher I was starting to swell with fluid but this time I am fine. I am still wearing my wedding and engagement ring too.

Here I am today.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday.

Here is my new maternity top that I finished on the weekend.

What I have been doing.

Amelia has a new outfit!



Tom and Christopher have new outfits.

I am 19 weeks pregnant and here is my belly shot.

Cleaning out.

Every time I am pregnant I go into frenzy cleaning out and making room for the new baby.

Today I started. I am starting off with the store room. I have a heap of fabric that has been sitting there since Steve did the room. Most of the fabric that is in boxes has been given to me. I keep it thinking I might use it one day. I have realized that a lot of that fabric is fabric that I probably wouldn't have chosen myself if I was in a dressmaking shop looking at fabric. I tend to buy patterns first and fabric second. I don't generally see fabric and think oh that would look good as a dress or that would look good as a jacket.

So today I bagged up 3 garbage bags of fabric. I will send them all to the St. Vinnies shop. They send it from here to a place in Adelaide that makes clothes to sell in the shops. I also decided on a few projects.

I haven't done very much sewing since the beginning of pregnancy and I want to do a heap for the baby. Each time I have been pregnant I have usually sewn a lot especially in the second trimester. I will do the same thing this time hopefully. This is the first pregnancy that I have been home schooling but I still feel pretty confident that I can get some sewing done.

Once I have finished cleaning out the storeroom, I will post some before and after pictures.

Pre natal testing.

Thanks so much all the people that emailed me and left comments here about pre natal testing.

We didn't actually see our Ob today. He was called into emergency surgery and had to leave the clinic so my appointment has been changed to tomorrow.

In talking over with Steve about the comments we have decided that if the scan and blood test come back with me as a high risk for a down syndrome baby that I will have a 20 week scan to find out. This link has more information about finding out about down syndrome.

Thanks Jennifer for the ultrasound link.

I think for me personally, I really would prefer to know and be prepared.

So very tired.

I think being older and pregnant is taking it's toll on me. I have been extremely tired every night by 9.00 and don't want to get up each morning. I think I could easily have a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.

I just thought though that tonight I would get others opinions on pre natal testing.

Because I am 42, my ob offered me the scan to measure the babies neck and blood test to see if I am in the high risk group to have a child with down syndrome. Steve and I decided to have it and tomorrow we will see him and get the results.

If I am in the high risk group, we can have an amnio done. I am in two minds about this. I think I would like to know and get as much information as I could before the birth so that I feel more prepared when the baby comes.

I also think that some people could put me under a lot of pressure to abort our baby if he/she has ds. I know I would just stick to my guns and say no way. I am not aborting our baby but I don't know how I would cope with people telling me that it is the best thing to do.

Your thoughts?

Thanks
Therese.