On Friday we were blessed with a beautiful baby Girl, Zoe. After a few tense hours of monitoring in the Special Care Nursery to clear some fluid in her lungs, we settled in for the evening back in the main ward. The hospital provides a mattress on the floor for the partners of the mothers, and I stayed in the hospital until Monday night. There was not a lot of sleep, but that is par for the course. Zoe is feeding well, and has settled into a nice pattern of sleeping and feeding. Louise is still in hospital but is excited to be bringing Zoe home tomorrow.
Anyway, here are a couple of observations from the few days:
We are very Blessed
Sitting next to Zoe in the Special Care Nursery among some seriously sick babies, made me realise just how blessed I am having a relatively healthy baby. Even in those moments when I was scared watching Zoe trying to clear her lungs, I knew just how blessed I have been. I also had the privilege of watching the Special Care Mid-wifes give amazing care to some seriously sick babies. It takes special people to do that job, it must be emotionally taxing. They often care for a baby, for 2 -8 wks at a time. Hats off to the staff there, they are amazing.
The importance of support from Family and Friends cannot be overstated
When going through times when you are stretched physically, emotionally and logistically, the importance of having family and friends cannot be overstated. The logistical support my parents and Louise's parents provided made it possible for me to be be right next to Louise when she needed me. I also knew that my 2yrs (Alex) was in safe hands and I could focus on helping Louise through the first few nights. Big shout out to my friends who cooked meals, visited, called, messaged and most importantly prayed.
Planned verse Emergency C-section
Last time, we had been up all night, and in the early morning it all went wrong, from the minute they pressed the red button for an emergency c-section, it was crazy, people running this way and that. Things moved very fast, it was over whelming, it felt like the world was moving around us. I sat on the ground and just stopped moving for 30 seconds until a nurse got me up and into the theater.
This time, we had a planned c-section. It could not be a more contrast experience. You arrive, settle into a room, wait, kick back, watch the Olympics. It is surreal, I was sitting there thinking, by the end of this Boomers game, I will have a daughter. You enter the theater, there are jokes all round, my wife (the pharmacy accountant) was discussing the business case for a particular type of drug specifically the balance between the cost of drugs to speed the recovery time verses the benefits of increased throughput of a theater as they were beginning to make the incisions... like I said surreal.
First Child verses Second Child
Last time one of the mid-wives commented that we were (clearly) first time parents, I remember thinking, that is a bit rude, how does she know we don't have another child at home. Well now I know, having your second child you are so much calmer, and so much more relaxed. It is an entirely different experience, you know what to do, and can settle the baby so much faster. However, there are different challenges, for instance, how do you make sure your existing child get enough attention? and knows they are just as loved. When it comes to loving your kids, love in not a scarce resource, it is abundant for all your children, although, I'm sure it doesn't seem like that when you are 2 yrs old. I have noticed distinct changes in Alex's behavior and have switched places with the grand parents to spend more time with him. Certainly building a new normal for him will be a high priority for me, over the next few weeks.
Okay, that is all for now, I'll try to make the next posts a bit lighter.
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