Jamie's here!

Baby J finally made her entrance into this world on Sept 16th! Just for posterity's sake, here's her birth story....

We checked in the delivery suite at about 730 am after dropping C off at school. Shortly after, drips were adminstered to induce delivery (due to gestational diabetes) and the anaesthesist came to inject the epidural. A combination of these drugs left me very sleepy the whole time - I didn't have the mood to read my book or watch Heroes / TV, and was mostly sleeping. It didnt help that I couldn't eat anything, in case I had to go for emergency C-section. Things progressed rather slowly and at one point I was told that she could be delivered as late as late evening only!

But as fate would have it, during an examination at abt 3+ pm I was told to start pushing. Just a few (painless) pushes later, Jamie came bawling into this world - all gangly arms and legs! heh.. I felt more relieved that anything, that she was ok and normal.. and that's when I started feeling the full aftereffects of the epidural. I developed a fever promptly, started shivering uncontrollably (not that I was feeling cold at all!) and itchy all over (no manifestations of rash, just itch!). To help, the nurses gave me some meds, which I proceeded to puke out (another after effect of the epidural). Even when they wheeled me back to the ward, I was still having the fever, and it eventually only subsided the next morning, which left me sweaty and feeling horrible the whole time. I remember thinking, while waiting to leave the delivery room, " I feel horrid! Sweaty, immobile, and sick. How am I going to do this?" For the record, Jamie was born at 3.19 kg - hardly the "giant" baby Dr Doom expected! :)

Thankfully, things developed at a fast pace once the night passed, and my fever subsided, I started walking around and eating food. DH even snuck me in a cold Pepsi, which I so craved. We were discharged just 2 days later, and came home with Jamie! The next 2 days I had a splitting headache each time I sat up / walked (no thanks again to the epidural), but that gave me a good excuse to indulge in some Coke (the doctor said caffeine and paracetemol will help!) in this humid weather!

The first couple of nights were rather tough, she stayed awake from 2 am-4am, but last night she only woke once at 3.30 am for a feed and slept right back. I'm telling myself to enjoy it while it lasts - the wrinkly hands and feet, cherubic face, curly wispy hair and the whole small-ness of it all, because it'll all be gone before I know it.

I've taken quite a few pics, but haven't got round to uploading them yet. Stay tuned!