Gretel's Arrival - Part 2.

My apologies for taking so long to complete this story, I have been quite ill and not coping with life at all. It's funny, I never thought I would struggle after having a baby, especially now that we have 11! You'd think I'd have it all together by now. Top it off with a baby who has been an absolute dream and so delightful, and even I struggle to understand why so many days are filled with tears.

 My tears.

 Could it be depression? Or survivor-guilt? Or the unfulfilled dreams and goals? Or the dramas that have all come at once? I am feeling better, since just yesterday, and I don't really know what turned the tide. I suspect it was a number of things.

A few well timed questions from friends who genuinely cared to probe beyond my "just fine" reply to their queries of how I was doing. Spending a whole day crying out to God and telling Him I was lost and sad. Listening to uplifting music that opened my eyes to how much God cares for each one of us, and praise songs that shifted my attention to where it should always be. Having a wonderful husband who has worked his toosh off for nearly 20 years providing for our family, and still helps out as much as he can to keep the house running! Reading through loads of encouraging blogs. And the last thing, a really AWESOME thing, was getting the wonderful news that a dear friend who I have been praying for, is expecting a new baby! It almost made me cry, I am so happy that God has heard our prayers and given her this miracle!

 So now, I can leave my pity party behind and get back to doing the job that I am meant to be doing - helping my husband, raising our family and running our household. No matter what the circumstances are.

 Back to the story of Gretel.

 I continued timing the contractions and they were really erratic, though still strong. I have had similar beginnings to other labours and I was confident that it wasn't a false labour. I had a few cups of tea and hung around on Facebook for a while, but I didn't let on that I was in labour. In hindsight, I wish I had told some of my friends as it would have helped pass the time and I may have got some info earlier that could possibly have helped things progress a little faster. I suspect that her head was not in a wonderful position. She was facing the right way (compared to lots of the others), but the erratic contractions should have given me a clue that something wasn't quite right. My normal labour and delivery time is about 3 hours all up.

About 5.30, I woke Rob when I came back into the room with another cuppa. He asked how long I had been up for and we worked out that I got up half an hour after he gave up and went to bed, haha! At least he got a little bit of sleep. He wanted me to call the hospital and see if we should go in soon but I still didn't feel like it was going to be any time soon. I had a couple of pieces of toast and went through my list of 'last minute things to pack' and put them in my suitcase. I phoned the hospital about 6.30am using a number I had put in my mobile phone. A lady answered, a bit sleepily, and I asked if I had reached the maternity ward. She replied that I had not and that I had called a private room. Belatedly I realized it was the number I had stored when my mum was in that room the year before! I apologized for waking her so early and explained why I had rung that number. She was very sweet about it and wished me well for the delivery. I deleted that number so it wouldn't confuse me again and tried again.

 Finally I got through to a midwife and she didn't hear me properly when I told her my name, so she was a bit blase` about when I should come in. As she wasn't pressuring me to come in immediately as they usually do, I told Rob we could take our time and drop off Ethan at school on the way. This was the first day back at school for the term and having a baby on this day put a huge spanner in the works to get everyone off to school. Pipa stayed home to look after Karys and Taffy, Lorinda took Jacquie to her school and Ashton, Dart and Colt rode their bikes to their school. Ashton was limping a bit but seemed to be taking weight on his leg tolerably well, so I told him it would probably take a day or two to get better.

 Rob put my gear in the bus and I hauled my huge belly up into the front passenger seat and remarked that I was VERY glad that this was the last time I would have to do that! Ethan was a little perturbed about having me in the same vehicle as his good self and informed me that it wasn't a good idea that we were taking him to his school. He has been toying with the idea of becoming a paramedic and I told him that one day he maybe faced with delivering a baby. "That's why there's always a driver!" He shot back, "I don't need to EVER deliver a baby!" I had a bit of a chuckle at that! We arrived at Ethan's school and he took off with relief and we continued on our way to the hospital.

We arrived about 8am and I told Rob to purchase an all day parking ticket, which he set off to do. Then he picked up my labour bag and the camera bag and off we went into the hospital. From the time I stepped out of the bus to the time we arrived at the maternity ward, I had 4 good long, strong contractions! I thought it was just as well we arrived when we did because this baby appeared to be in a bit of a hurry now.


 Part 3 will have to wait for another day, it's way past my bedtime and it's freezing cold tonight.