Winner
Another week has flown by with nary a pause for breath.
Monday was the 6 week checkup with the paediatrician who asked about his weeing, poohing, vomiting and colic.
‘Well, he has done two small chucks since he was born…’
He was quite surprised. ‘What about colic and crying?’
‘He sort of goes off every second or third night but not every night.’ Of course since then he’s gone on to prove me wrong and has cried every night when we’re trying to hear our favourite television programs (the TV is my new best friend at the moment).
‘What about feeding and sleeping at night?’
‘He usually lets us sleep for a 5-6 hour stretch at night’.
‘Don’t tell your friends then. You’re on a winner!’
Of course I knew that!
Smiley days are here again
Benjamin has been smiling occasionally for the last 2-3 weeks, and sometimes in his sleep – but yesterday morning he was very smiley, and was smiling in response to us (esp. Gary – he pulls better faces and makes sillier noises than me). We were very chuffed.
I can’t remember if he smiled for his cousins Marcus and Elise. Probably not. But he enjoyed being in Auntie Andrea’s arms and we did get a couple of photos before my battery died. Luckily Chris had remembered his camera so he has some photos he can send to us (hint, hint).
And he had a visit from Lee who came all the way from Sydney to see him, so us girls had a good goss that he had to listen to. We’re teaching him early what women are all about.
Saturday night was spent with Nanny and Grandad (Gary’s mum & stepdad) in Doncaster while we joined the Cowleys and Richard & Meredith at an Indian restaurant in Templestowe. They were all very disappointed that Benjamin the social butterfly wasn’t with us but occasionally arsenic hour rears its head around that time, so we thought that since we were going around the corner that he might like to spend some time getting to know his grandparents (we’re very lucky with three sets!) rather than take the chance of his inconsolable sobbing, even though it is happening less and less. Mind you, the other baby crying in the restaurant caused some leaky action anyway…
And Wednesday night was spent with Auntie Jodie wishing her bon voyage as she fulfils her dream of studying in China for a month as part of her Traditional Chinese Medicine course. You go girlfried!! Can’t wait to hear about how it’s going even though Benjamin (and I) will miss her terribly. With Auntie Jodie
Flying south
(Apologies for spelling errors, etc. but I don’t get time to proof read these days before Benjamin beckons so will do so when I can!)
Thought I had better do a quick update on the week seeing as the time has just flown.
Felt cocky on Monday because Benjamin slept for most of the day, so was able to do a few things around the house and cook dinner. I ended up feeling quite Domestic Godessy by Monday night thinking this looking after an infant thing was pretty easy.
Also started trying to put Benjamin in a routine seeing as Gary started back at work on Monday, thus freeing up my time to do writing, cleaning, general pottering around the house and catching up with friends at the tennis club for gin and tonics after lattes down the street in the motherhood domain known as the Fairfield shops (not to be mixed up with the mother’s club capital a.k.a Albert Park shops – when I worked in the area a number of years ago our lunchtimes were a minefield of trip hazards by unwary pedestrians when prams, strollers and ankle biters leapt out to disable you).
Tuesday nothing went to plan and I was still in pyjamas at 2pm. Benjamin decided that he didn’t want to sleep as he had had plenty the day before. Mark and Nicky had recommended the New Little Contented Baby Book and I felt worse and worse as each passing hour saw the recommended schedule fly further and further out the window. Managed to shower and then decided I had better feed and change Benjamin before his appointment with the Maternal & Child Health nurse at 3pm, so we were 15 minutes late. Was fraught with anxiety with our first trip by myself in the car and with putting Benjamin in his car seat, but he took it all in stride even though it felt like it took ages to work out how all the buckles fit. All that tertiary education didn’t seem to make a blind bit of difference…
The nurse seemed pretty relaxed about my tardiness, so I’m assuming it’s a regular occurence. Benny Boo had put on 780g since his birth, so he’s now over 5kg and also put on 6cm in length as well. Mum’s very happy with the injection of length (well, height) into the family.
Then it was off to Fairfield for a well deserved coffee at Cafe Qube where Benjamin could also meet Steve (one of the owner’s who’s shoulder I had cried on in a maudlin mood the day before I met my darling Gary) and then a browse of the bookshop where I met a lovely woman in her fifties. We connected immediately and worked out very quickly that we had the same birthday! Now I’ve only met 2 or 3 other people with my birthday in my whole life, so I was a bit chuffed. We compared birth stories. Her caesarian was a lot more complicated and life threatening than mine – she was 4 weeks overdue and had been in labour for 42 hours before they performed the procedure. Her son’s head was stuck in her cervix. They had to use a fair amount of pressure to pull him out, so much in fact that his bum got stuck in her rib cage. And because her doctor had let her labour for so long, her uterus was swollen so when they sewed her back up she got a bad infection and had green pus coming out of her cervix.
‘So, did you have any other children after that?’
‘No. It was too traumatic.’
Well, that’s inspired me to write my birth story – which I promise is nowhere near as gory!
BIRTH STORY – TAKE 2
I was due on Saturday 19 May, which came and went with nary a peep from Ben. In fact, with no signs of impending arrival. I was so frustrated I took up knitting a few days earlier to help me deal with the waiting. I did get 3/4 of the red blanket done and now it sits near the couch remonstrating with me for not finishing. Went in on Monday for a CTG scan (monitoring of the baby’s heartbeat). Right at the start when they were still connecting me up they noticed a dip in the baby’ heartbeat, but I think it was more to do with not being connected properly. The rest of the session was fine but because of the start they wanted me in again on Tuesday.
So in I tripped to the hospital on Tuesday morning for another scan. All good. Then my ob sat me down and said that he didn’t want me to go too long over and that the earliest he could book me in was Friday at 5pm to have the ripening gel put on my cervix (and if I’m ready to pop it would start contractions), and if I didn’t go into labour spontaneously then he would put the oxytocin drip in at 7:30am Saturday and it would be full steam ahead. (The hospital only takes 3 induction bookings per day.)
Then he rang me on Wednesday morning to tell me that one of his patients had gone early and that he wanted me to come in tonight. Yikes! So after quick calls to Gary, Mum and Jodie it was preparation time.
Gary came home early and we calmly drove in at 4:30pm. Felt a bit surreal to know that we would be having a baby soon but without the mad rush to the hospital. So into a delivery suite I went to spend the night (fantastic panoramic views of Melbourne’s west) while Gary went home. They gave me some sleeping tablets because of the noise. It didn’t take me long to work out that there were at least 2 women in hard labour by about midnight as I woke up with each scream with their support people yelling at them like they were at a footy match! At 6am one of the nurses came in and asked if it was alright to put me into the maternity ward for a few hours as they had had a rush of women going into labour that night and needed my room! ‘Be my guest’, I said. I hadn’t gone into labour and wasnt’ going to stand in the way of women who had!
Gary arrived around 7am and found me in one of the maternity suites. They’d told me they would have a room ready for me around 9am so at 10:30am I rang for a nurse and asked about it. I have a feeling that they had forgotten about me but we were in a room at midday. Jodie arrived about 10 minutes later ready for the labour.
They put the drip in at 12:30pm, telling me that they would double the dose every half hour. ‘You’ll feel period-like pains at first which should progress into stronger contractions.’ Wasn’t like any bloody period I had had before! By 1pm I was on the gas and jumping around like a jack in the box from bath to bed to fitball to pacing. What I didn’t realise is that when they induce you you go straight into labour without your body building up to it, so the pain is a lot more intense. By 2pm my contractions were 2 minutes apart – which meant they lasted for about a minute and a half with a 30 sec break in between, so I asked for the pethidine.
By that stage it did bloody nothing for the pain and by 3pm I screaming for an epidural, writhing naked in agony on the bed, all modesty forgotten as people waltzed in and out. I had started off with trying to get dressed after getting out of the bath but that didn’t last long. Thank God I had Gary and Jodie there working in tandem to hang onto – one in front and one behind squeezing my hips to distract me from the pain during my labour.
The anaesthetist god walked in and if I could have fallen at his feet in relief if I was able to walk. I don’t know how he managed to put the injection in my spine in between contractions (about a 20 second window of opportunity which was the only time I could keep still long enough so that I didn’t end up paralysed) but he did.
At 3:30pm the epidural kicked in. Aah, the bliss. They had hooked me up to the monitors so they could see the contractions but I couldn’t feel a thing – just the way I liked it after the unbelievable pain.
I even managed to fall asleep for a bit. In between chucks from all the drugs in my system. At some stage (I was a bit fuzzy by then) they took me off the oxytocin for half an hour to give Benjamin a rest as his heartbeat was dropping every time I had a contraction. They started me up again at a lower dose but it was still happening, so they gave my obstetrician a call.
He came in at 7pm and examined me. I had only dilated 2cm in the last five and a half hours (on average you’re meant to dilate 1cm per hour) so he said, ‘My job’s easy. I look at the data and at what’s been happening and it’s pretty easy to make a decision. The labour’s not progressing and the baby’s in distress with each contraction, so the baby’s going to have to come out.’ So he explained the procedure to me (30 minute procedure where the baby is born in the first 5 minutes and the next 25 minutes is spent sewing me up) and called his medical team together (another obstetrician, pediatrician, anaesthetist, midwife, nurses – cast of thousands, really!). The anaesthetist came in and topped me up and they had nearly finished prepping me for surgery when I chucked again. They had moved the sick bags so Gary couldn’t find one in time – so I ended up chucking into my hands which meant it went all over myself. I was so distressed as all I could think of was ‘I don’t want the baby’s first smell of me to be vomit!’ The nurses changed my gown but wouldn’t wipe me down as they were trying to rush me into surgery ASAP. I was shivering uncontrollably and couldn’t focus on my ob who was trying to get me to sign the disclaimer as all I wanted was a face washer to wipe my face and arms with. I think Gary managed to get one for me before they whisked him away to be gowned up.
Finally got a cloth and into surgery I went. All the staff came over to introduce themselves, all happy and chatty. I was still shivering and not really in the mood for a chinwag. I just wanted them to get the baby out! They sat Gary at my head with the paediatrician and I had the screen in front of my face. He said to Gary, ‘If you want to take photos you’d better stand up now.’ I could feel the heavy tugging and then heard a thin wail as our son started to cry. Gary went to cut the cord while the paediatrician asked, ‘HOw are you up with your Australian literature?’ What? How is this relevant? I know I’m spaced out but…
‘Umm… good.’
‘Well, your son looks like a character from Australian literature’ and with a flourish he presented a wrapped up Ben to me and placed him on my chest announcing, ‘He looks like the Magic Pudding!’
I gazed at him in amazement and was able to touch him for 5 minutes before they handed him to his father and whisked me away into recovery for half an hour. Then they wheeled me back into the delivery suite with the rest of my new family.
Birth story – Take 1
I just haven’t had the time or inclination to write up my birth story. I keep thinking I’ll be inspired and write a brilliant and moving account but the weeks are slipping by without my muse banging me over the head (could it be the lack of alcohol and/or sleep?). We’ve been pretty lucky so far and have been getting a good amount of sleep (for a newborn). Usually 3-4 hours before we’re up for the 3am feed, then another 2-3 and a half hours afterwards. And although he does get unsettled of an evening, it’s not every evening and now we are learning the warning signs and try to stave off the attack before he becomes inconsolable. A couple of hours work put in around 6-8pm when we’re not so tired is much easier than at 11pm-1am when we are desperate for some sleep.
And I can’t believe the weeks are slipping away so quickly. Benjamin is nearly 4 weeks old and the intensity of the birth experience – and the pain – is fading quickly. As everyone says, you do forget. It’s still pretty fresh, but I’ve gone from guffawing at injections after the labour as feeling less painful than a mosquito bite – and far less painful than a paper cut – they hurt! To now complaining that my nipples feel a bit sore when Benjamin jumps on the boob seems rather trite compared to that. But it still hurts. Just not as much as labour.
Well, Benjamin is calling so this will have to wait until later, or tomorrow.
Another cold day in paradise
Benjamin has been very good today. Mind you, we’re coming up to arsenic hour shortly so who knows (i.e. any time between 6 & 11pm when he doesn’t want to settle but we’re all learning how to deal with that and to read when he’s getting over tired). With the cold weather we’re venturing out later and later in the day, spending our mornings all cosied up in the dual heating zones of our apartment watching the weather roll in and the waves crash onto the shore. The antics of the Maine geese and cockatoos are keeping us amused throughout the day as well. They’re making a mess of the croquet lawn though.
Time to give the breasts a rest for a few hours. Whoever said that breast feeding is completely natural and pain free isn’t obviously talking about the first 3 months! The pain is nowhere near as bad as it was after the first few days (probably something to do with the heavy painkillers I was on after the Caesarian which meant that I didn’t really pick up on how chewed my nipples were getting until I started weaning myself off them). So they’ve toughened up somewhat but they still get a bit of a workout.
I admired my new tiger striped self in the mirror today – a lovely legacy of symmetrical stretchmarks between my waist and hips – which I thought about showing off in my bikini in the indoor lap pool today, but then I thought better of it. God knows what came over me. Exercise! God forbid. Although I suppose I’ll have to do something to tone up the post partum belly. The waist has come back (phew, I thought it was gone forever) but need to get rid of the extra hips and thighs. Not as happy with my enormous bosoms though – they do get in the way of running and even turning over in bed. I just don’t know what to do with my arms now. And when Gary asked if this meant I wouldn’t want a boob job now, he’s right! Not that I’ve ever seriously considered getting one – except of course if they end up going to my knees after breastfeeding!
Knowing I was going to give Ben a bottle for his next feed meant that I could have my first cocktail in months (well, 3 months). Wasn’t too happy with the resultant alcoholic flushed face that burned afterwards. Will have to build up to pre-pregnancy tolerance again… one day.
And I’m already over my leaky boobs. As Gary rather gleefully pointed out, he doesn’t have to sleep on the wet patch any more. However I’m not happy about the fact that I’m creating my own wet patches without any of the previous fun, and wake up with a completely wet front. No wonder Benjamin squacks when he’s done one of his sneaky piddles that wet him right through. It may have something to do with the fact that it took me a couple of weeks to work out why I always seemed to need to change his clothes after I had put a nappy on him, as opposed to Gary who is much more expert at doing it than I am. As far as I could tell I was putting nappies on the same as him until it dawned on me that I hadn’t taken into account the fact that he was a boy, or had noticed what position his penis was in when putting a nappy on. Once I took that into account and wrapped him up centrally, so to speak, there were very few accidents after that.
Sunny days… are few and far between at this time of year
Monday 18th June 2007
We arrived at Lorne on Friday night for our week’s holiday (it had to be taken by the 30th June since I had bought it two years ago). In hindsight 3 hours in the car seat for a newborn probably felt like a lifetime. Benjamin was a champ and slept the whole way through until we pulled up at the front to check in, when he would have woken up starving. The drive from the front entrance to our luxury apartment at the back felt like the longest ever so we hustled up to the top floor and I fed Benjamin while Gary unpacked before we could ooh and aah over the apartment.
So far it’s been just like home – being at the beck and call of our wonderful new son – feeding, sleeping, with a bit more awake time now, but at least it’s with ocean views and we have Foxtel on here, so when I’m feeding at 3am at least I don’t have that terrible infomercial mush pounding into my brain.
After checking out one of the local cafes this afternoon (and there are a lot here) and a good browse of the excellent bookshop, we went for a long walk today out to the Lorne pier. Of course we chose the coldest day of the year so far to venture out but we were able to defrost with a hot chocolate in the kiosk on the shore. This was also the place of my first public breastfeed – which went quite well I might add now that I’ve had three and a half weeks practice – and it’s taken that long to get it right! Mind you, he took an intense dislike to the right breast at 3:30am last night, but he seems to have built a bridge since.
Getting started
I’ve been meaning to write EVERY DAY since we’ve been home with Benjamin (as well as religiously every day while I was pregnant). As you can see this hasn’t been the raging success that I had planned, so I’ve thought the best way to tackle this was to pretend that in fact I had been writing every day and it’s all just disappeared off the face of the earth. And that I may add back bits and pieces as I remember them (which in my slightly sleep deprived state will probably be never but at least I’ll feel better for even having thought about it).
I know Gary was very good and wrote something the day we got home from the hospital, but we haven’t uploaded that as yet, so stay tuned! That is, providing I continue to write regularly, as long as it’s not regularly twice a year!
Anyway, Benjamin Ryan James Ozga Andrews has been a star so far. Very placid, and of course, gorgeous. We’ve even had about 3 or 4 nights when we ’slept through’, as in he had a feed about midnight and then slept until 5 or 6am. Of course that was last week and this week it’s been more going to sleep about 9pm and waking up at 2:30-3am. But that’s still pretty good.
Highlights for today:
- He seems pretty happy with the Baby Bjorn sling that I’ve just put him in so that I can finish this post. Wasn’t too sure to start with but combined with a dummy it’s made him much happier.
- He received his first big parcel today – full of pressies from his big brother Cameron and Cam’s mum, Andrea: a lovely velvety blanket and a gorgeous little rabbit soft toy (with his own little blue blankie) which he already loves if shoving it into his mouth is any indication (and I think it is given that he hasn’t done that with any of his other toys!).
- I think he loves mum’s new purple breastfeeding tunic that she bought yesterday. Anything that makes access to her bosoms easier and faster has got to be good, and if she looks stylish in it, even better. All the more to match his natty new wardrobe since he’s been very lucky and received a plethora of new clothes.
The breastfeeding clinic went well yesterday. So nice to get some pointers (not an intentional pun) on technique, etc and sit with other new mums and see how it’s done. I thought I had cracked nipples last week (and I did – to the point the every time he sucked it felt like someone was holding a lit cigarette to my nipple, which is when I booked in to the clinic as it took 4 days for them to heal while I expressed and bottle fed instead and by then he’d forgotten how to breastfeed – but it only took about half a day (after a desperate phone call to the Maternal and Child Health 24 hour line) to get him back on. Clever boy! This other mum’s nipples looked like they were about to detach and fall off. Youch. But apart from that we had a lovely relaxing time talking about our experiences. Benjamin was also very good after having his tongue untied (frenulum – the bit under your tongue – cut to release the tongue as this has an impact on breast feeding) and it looked like it didn’t hurt a bit. I hope.
Well, since I’ve had both Benjamin and the cat fall asleep on me, I think it’s time for bed.
First photo
We went for our first obstretician appointment yesterday across the road from the Royal Women’s and had ‘the chat’ and an ultrasound seeing as he has a machine in his office. It’s not a high quality machine so the alien pretty much looked like a blurry splodge, but we could see the fluttering heartbeat – which meant – Oh my God, there really is something in there! It didn’t seem real until then. Well, it actually still doesn’t seem quite real, but to see someone in there was pretty freaky.
We made a person. There’s an individual in there that already has its sex, hair and eye colour and personality traits. That’s pretty freaky. Because until that point I wasn’t sure if there was anyone in there. And even though it’s 24.5mm long from crown to rump – it’s a lot bigger on the screen. And it was moving around – must have know there was a camera around. Not that the Ozgas like to pose or anything if there’s a camera in the vicinity.
I think it must take after Gary’s side of the family. My side of the family don’t do alien.
Still, there’s enough in there to start causing me anxiety already.
Not much to report
It’s been awesome having Gary back and with the new job and all, I’m finding it very difficult to get to the computer at night! Still hardly any symptoms except for sore breasts – and the tummy is definitely getting bigger! Flynn found it to be a very useful chin rest when we were all curled up on the couch watching tv tonight.
No particular cravings except for McDonald’s since watching ‘Supersize Me’ on Sunday night. I somehow don’t think that was the aim of the documentary – but perhaps me falling asleep about half an hour into it may have something to do with it since I didn’t get the ‘whole effect’. But I haven’t succumbed to the junior burger and small fries that have my name on it – yet.
One sleep to go!
Friday 29 & Saturday 30 September
Days 20 & 21: Kathmandu
Fly back to Kathmandu from this spectacularly steep runway back to Kathmandu. The next 2 days are at leisure in the many fantastic restaurants and bakeries to celebrate completing this incredible journey. You will be filled with excitement with permanent grins etched on your faces.
Note – It is important to note that if there is bad weather or low cloud conditions our flight back to Kathmandu may not go, giving us an extra day in Lukla to relax or do a day walk. We will return on Day 21 and be in Kathmandu by late morning.
Yeah – like they’re going to want to do extra walking!
Gary’s sent an email Friday night that I read yesterday morning and as of yesterday has been in sms contact. He feels that much closer now. He’s very excited to be coming home soon and says, ‘I think we are all a bit over it now and want to go home’. One of the guy’s on the trip, Paddy and his partner Victoria (who we met at the Nepalese dinner a couple of weeks before the trip) are also pregnant and are due in March. They live just up the road which will be quite handy. I’m guessing that’s why she didn’t go on the trip with them!
I’ve had a quiet couple of days as starting coming down with a fluey type thing, achy and headachy and cold, so have pretty much been taking it easy since Friday night just resting up and drinking lots of fluids (so over chamomile tea by now) so as to nip it in the bud. Seems to have worked as feel a bit better today and even managed to get a bit of sun yesterday – and hopefully a lot more today!
The intrepid trekkers wanted to know the final score for the Grand Final yesterday while they sitting relaxing in a beer garden in Kathmandu. Of course I managed to miss the end even though I had the TV on, but I was able to work out that West Coast had one since they were going up for their medals – and I knew what that was about since Gary’s son Cam’s team had won their grand final match in the country 3 weeks ago, and it was just like that! And I was able to sms the final bloody close score of 84 to 85 to them a few minutes later.
They were winding down for a big Nepalese dinner with a few beers and then getting ready to fly out at 1pm local time today. Gary’s having his ‘one night in Bangkok’, mainly because the flight straight back to Melbourne was booked out so they arrive at 18:10 Bangkok time and leave at 8:10 the next morning to arrive back in Melbourne at 22:55. I’ll just have to see if I can be bothered showing up at the airport… it’ll be way past my bedtime you know!
