Pirates of the Caribaen is not a good trilogy for me. I tried to watch the first installment on Halloween 6 years ago and about 10 minutes in labor contractions started. My husband and I sat there in the dark (it was before kids so we saw no reason to disrupt our viewing to give out candy), what we hadn't realized was a child much closer to home wanted some Halloween action of their own.
12 hours later I was so relieved I wasn't going to have a Halloween baby, I swear I spent the whole night with my legs crossed - I was not going to have this baby on the 31st! My best friend Teresa came to hold my hand, my waters broke and I got the giggles because she was so hyper, about ringing the hospital, about going to the hospital, about getting my hubby back from work, about checking I had everything I needed for the hospital. She couldn't understand why I wasn't worried and stressed about the events to come. Rachelle will testify I've always been keen to keep my babies on the inside for as long as possible, there they cause the least fuss and I get the maximum sleep plus I loved being pregnant. I knew I had the rest of my life to worry and care for them, the next 24 hours was going to be the tip of the ice-berg.
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| Snowing on the way to the hospital |
It snowed on the way to the hospital. My husband decided it'd been a really tough 18 hours for him and he needed a snack to keep him going - nothing you can say to that really! I'm not going to go into gory details, just to say that Jemma was born by emergency C-Section at 6.20pm on the 1st Nov 2004. She weighed 7lb 10oz had jaundice and I couldn't believe she was mine. She was breech, with her legs 'round her ears, poor wee thing, she wore a brace on her legs for the first 3 months of her life as both hips were dislocated (the first of many dodgy genes handed down to her with love from Daddy!). Another thing of note to happen on the same day in history is the voting in of George W Bush for a second presidential term, I guess I should keep this blog politically impartial so the less said about that the better.
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| Ist photo of Jemma Mary Read |
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| Jemma sleeping, I'm still drugged up! |
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| Proud Daddy, Jemma with her leg brace on |
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| Jemma chilling. She has her eye mask on she wore under the jaundice lights. |
We got through those first few nervous weeks, as all new parents do, although you may look back and wonder how? Now we've done the crawling, walking, talking, preschool and kindergarten stages, Jem is now a big grade one student, there are still challenges and problems although they vary greatly from when she was a baby, still it happens that as you solve one another micracously appears.
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| Jemma, 'A Good Witch' at Halloween, a day before her 6th birthday |
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| And not to be left out Annie the 'Baby Tiger' |
We went to her favorite restaurant to celebrate her big day and she chose her favorite dish, ribs with prawns. Men be warned, she is not going to be a cheap date! We ate cake and opened pressies and I thought about that eventful day 6 years ago, as all mothers do when their little ones celebrate being another year older, and wondered, again as all mothers do, how has that time passed so quickly?
2 comments:
So true... you always wanted to keep those babies in your tummy and I was DESPERATE to get them OUT!! Such a beautiful 6 year old you have (and 3.5 year old too!)! Love their costumes!
Thanks Rachelle, your 2 little cuties aren't so bad either!
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