New baby
This post was written on the morning of September 19th and actually belongs before the post Breaching Trust. I have been waiting for Rosie to let the world know before I posted this.
It was a very exciting time for me this morning hearing that my daughter-in-law was in labour. She was booked in for an elective Caesarean on September 29th so this is 10 days earlier than expected and 12 days before her due date. Rosie has a history of coming into labour early and a history of needing Caesars, and I am sure she would have wanted to be closer to the hospital as the 29th edged closer. With her last pregnancy, she stayed with her parents for the fortnight before her due date as they live only an hour from the hospital as opposed to the three hours where Rosie and Levi live. I haven’t talked to Rosie for a week or so but assumed she would do the same again this time and I am sure she had probably planned to.
Rosie informed me this morning that the contractions were five minutes apart and I must say I was concerned as to what might happen should they not make the hospital in time. In both of her last pregnancies she needed a Caesar because the babies were too large to fit through her tiny birth canal. I didn’t want her to be futilely pushing or the baby going into foetal distress because she was still some distance from the hospital. I received a text from Levi at 11.23am to say they had made it safely there and were now waiting. I assume the wait is for a vacant operating theatre. I hope it is not to again trial the labour. She has already done this for the first baby. Rosie insisted on the Caesar for the second pregnancy, but by the time the ‘’team’’ arrived from their warm beds, the baby was already in foetal distress. It is important for medical personnel to listen to their patients, particularly ones like Rosie. I talked about this in The Collective Us. For that second pregnancy I had received a warning from Daniel that he was concerned about Rosie and the baby and was very relieved when I received a text to say the baby had been delivered safely. Whether the warning was about the labour or an incident where her baby was rushed by ambulance to the hospital after turning blue, some days later, I’ll never know. I have received no such warning this time around so I am sure things will go smoothly. It is just frustrating that some things don’t happen automatically.
With this birth, it will bring my number of grandchildren to six, three boys and three girls. I feel incredibly blessed to have these children in my life, even if I don’t see some of them as often as I would like. I am lucky with this family, in that they only live an hour away and often spend Sundays or other holiday times with us. I made a marker on the bathroom door at Christmas, where I will now record each child’s height yearly, as my mother did with her grandchildren. I just wish I had started it sooner as the granddaughter in the Gold Coast is already 163cm and is only 11. At least that was at Christmas. She could well be a whole lot taller than that already. That is the disadvantage of overseas family. We don’t see them nearly as much as we would like to.
If this baby is born today, his birthday will be three days before his big brother, who turns six on September 22. My two brothers were born on the same day and there was only 10 days between Michael and Daniel’s birthday. That seems to be a theme that runs through our family. Even as I am writing this, I am expectantly waiting for that text or phone call to tell me the baby has been delivered successfully, but I will not post this until after the baby has arrived and after the couple has announced their child. That is their privilege to let everyone know, not mine.
It is now the next day but as the couple has not yet posted baby’s arrival I will hold off until they do so. Their beautiful boy was born at 1.13pm yesterday, September 19th and weighed a healthy 3.5kg.