Grace is 11 weeks old tomorrow, I cant believe she is growing up so quickly! She's moving on in leaps and bounds, the most recent development being the finding of her hands. That's her finding them, I already knew where they were! She has started sucking on them and waving them, and I might just be wishful thinking but I'm sure she has started grabbing my hand more purposfully while feeding her!

Another new development is that she will have a conversation with you. She isn't quite up to saying "nose" yet (she will!) but she will coo at you (something she has been doing much more than normal) and then wait for you to reply, and then coo again! The smiles are coming thick and fast, and you can pretty much coax oone out of her anytime, except during the early evening when she turns into a right terror!

We had 2 major ventures this last couple of weeks. Firstly we went to mandurah for a weekend with the family, that was an adventure! It was great to have mum and dad to help me out all weekend, and I think they secretly (or not so secretly!) loved it too! The weather was great,

So a quick update, Grace is 9 weeks old in about 3 hours. In some ways its flown past and seems like just yesterday we were in hospital, but sometimes it seems like we've known Gracie forever, and have had so much time together.

Simon had last week off, so he got to spend lots of time with Grace and I had lots of help. It was a really nice week! On wednesday after mothers group (which simon attended!) we had to go to Rheola St in West Perth for Grace's first round of immunisations. I thought I was ok and very brave until afterwards when Simon told me I'd been weird since we walked in and I realised I felt a bit funny about the whole thing. But Gracie was very brave and only screamed for a few minutes. For the rest of the day she was just a bit clingy, and slept for hours that night.

She's now pretty much smiling on demand, I cant explain how nice it is to be grinned at at 4am when the rest of theworld gets to be asleep but you have to be awake feeding baby. Having a milk drunk little girl look at you and her face break into a giant grin makes it all worth it! Both Grandmas were very happy to get smiles! However, these smiles are countered somewhat by a new development in crying, sort of an angry yell. Not a pretty noise to wake up to. Also, the last few days have been... pooey, to say the least!

Mum and I sorted out her clothesa few days ago, and my goodness, that girl has a lot of outfits! She has even outgrown some, which kind of makes me sad. We put the first outfit she ever wore into a special box we are making for her of things like the paper on the day she was born, her umbi-stump, things like that. THe rest are going to PMH for the small babies, because they are pretty special to us so we want to them to be used for something special. Grace being so small and me spending 5 days prior to her coming in hospital was stressful enough, I'm sure someone with a sick baby doesnt want to have to go out and find clothes that fit!

I've also decided its time to get working on her baby book, we got given a really cool one with heaps of detail, so I need to sit down and fill it in. Stay tuned for further updates!

Gracie's birth story!

I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday the 25th of Jan, and my blood pressure
which had been steadily rising was skyhigh, so the obstetrician admitted me but
gave me the night off to pack my bags, get loose ends tied up and most
importantly, say bye to my dog! Friday morning (Australia day) was about 100
degrees C as I fronted up to the hospital for my "overnight for observation"
stay, as everyone assumed the heat was pushing up my Bp. Long story short, I
spent the long weekend (it felt like a long long long weekend) in hospital, with
a short reprieve on Sunday evening to go home, get some more clothes, and again,
hang out with my dog George. All weekend nurses had been telling me they thought
Grace was breech, which meant that if she had to come out early it would be via
caesarean section, because the doctor wouldnt induce a breech baby. I was pretty
upset about not getting to experience labour, but i had convinced myself that's
what was going to happen. Monday morning I had an ultrasound which surprisingly
revealed the baby was bums up, which was the first shock, the second being that
I was going to be induced the very next day!

Tuesday the 30th at 8am I was given the gel to 'start me off' and had just some
mild cramping until about 1pm when I had the delightful experience of the doctor
breaking my waters. Painful, messy, unmentionably awkward, but most definately
effective! I spent the next 8 or so hours having contractions and playing
Scattergories (thanks Maddie!!) until an internal examination (another festive
event) revealed I was only 1cm dilated, and believe me, nothing dashes the
spirits like being 1cm after 12 hours! After a chat with my wonderful doctor I
was warned that a c section was looking likely, and we decided an epidural was a
good idea to make sure my Bp stayed down, to help me relax and to make sure we
were prepared for an emergency c section, should the need arise.

The epidural was an experience in itself, everyone was banished from the room
except Simon (and believe me, I was accumulating quite a crowd at that stage)
and the anaesthetist kindly informed me mine was the second hardest epi he had
ever done, due to my curved spine. (Oh, I learned I have a curved spine too!)
Picture me curled in a ball, trying to not tense up during contractions,
gripping Simon's hands so hard he almost needed pain relief too, while the
doctor kept saying 'all im hitting is bone' each time he shoved this massive
needle into me. Pleasant! After what seemed like a fortnight (but im told was
just under an hour) he got it in, and it worked pretty well, but wasnt the magic
numbness I was expecting! It was ineffective enough that I could at least sit
up, and towards the end of each hour I was able to get up and go to the loo
before being topped up again. Actually, it seemed like it numbed my legs but not
my abdomen, which is weird.

I quite enjoyed labour and being able to huff and puff through contractions
while having ppl there as a distraction. I wont say it didnt hurt, because it
darn well did, but it was like a challenge and I would have liked to keep going.
I sort of felt like I was alone which helped me concentrate, but that I wasntlonely. I couldnt have done it without my wonderful support people Simon, Mum,
and Sue (Simon's mum), as well as visits from dad and kk and 7000 messages from ppl. All good things must come to an end though, and bout 1am
on Wednesday the 31st, the decision was made to go to a c section, which I was
not altogether happy about but I totally trusted my doctor and was in his very
capable hands.

I wont go into major detail about the caesarean, cos this is getting pretty
epic, but it was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. More than
anything it was just scary, everything was so totally out of my control, I
couldnt even move my legs. THe epi was topped up big time, but I could still
feel things happening, although not really pain, until they started seperating
my abdo muscles, which darn well hurt, probably made much worse by the terror of
being conscious on an operating table! The aanaesthetist (the same pleasant
character who did the epi) was, although a bit of a tosser, an absolute
lifesaver in there both for me and Simon, it was very overwhelming to go from
relitave calm to very intense in the theatre, with heaps of people and things
going on. And when he bought out the happy gas for me, I could have kissed him!
(In fact i just might have done, I dont really remember much from then on,
except for sucking down that gas like my life depended on it, and wiggling all
my toes through the entire surgery!)

Anyway, the story has a happy ending because now we have Gracie, who is the most
beautiful baby ever born (she looks just like her mummy!) We are sharing our
time between my place and Simon's place, and while its an odd situation I think
we are doing pretty well by her. She sleeps quite well most of the time, i think
my biggest downfall is not going to sleep when she does, so I miss out on half of her long sleep at night. Also, I'd seriously pay money for more than 4 hours of unbroken sleep!

After a rough start with the breastfeeding we are going really well now, with the help of a nipple sheild. I recently learned that Grace has a minor tongue tie (where the bit that joins the bottom of her tongue to the floor of her mouth is too far forward) which made me feel a lot better about our feeding problems. THere is such a myth about breastfeeding being easy and a natural ability, when sometimes its a downright pain (literally) and very depressing!

She has just started smiling, although I'm the only one she has smiled at yet, so of course no one believes me! Especially after I have spent weeks telling everyone that she isnt smiling, its just wind. I swear, you'll know the difference when you see it! She also coo's and gaa's sometimes, and I'm about to start with baby signing, just for fun!

My dog George and Simon's dog Diesel are both pretty put out about the next thing that screams and demands attention, but they'll get used to her. George recently had a haircut that was a little more extensive than I was expecting, so has been banished to mum's house until he is less embarrasing :P that, and he escaped from every conceivable spot in my fence, and the neighbours were getting sick of bringing him back to my house (I'm waiting for the first wave of baby George puppies to appear!)