Life with 3

It's funny. I though it'd be a lot busier. Maybe when Raife is also on the move it'll get worse. It's really not that bad. I know, I know, I say that now......

But seriously, Raife has just slotted right in, the older boys have totally accepted him and adjusted to him and right now, it's lovely. I feel so happy and complete right now; I'm about fit to burst.

Levi's birth story

Sunday 21st January 2007 4.55 PM
Well, I’m booked for the caesarean tomorrow. I am just about to call the maternity desk at Geelong Hospital to find out what time the operation is and what time I need to be at the desk to check in and I’m starting to get very nervous.
5.05pM
We are the first ones booked in tomorrow, the hospital does the elective c/s starting from 1.30 PM and we need to “check in” at 11.30AM. I don’t know how I am going to sleep tonight. Hopefully the two Jim Beams Dad bought me will help!


Monday 22nd January
The big day is finally here! Obviously we were up early, I was able to have a muffin and some coffee before 7am, the cut off of when I could eat. I packed the rest of my bag and got Hunter ready for the day while Dad got ready. Mormor came over at about 9 to look after H for us while we were at the hospital. Dad decided to clean the ceiling fans (I’m sure it was to take his mind off things.) We left at about 10 and stopped at Pathcare to get blood taken. I had to talk your Dad into getting something to eat for his lunch because I knew it would be a long day! We checked in just after 11.


Dad got a parking permit so he didn’t have to run out and put money in the meter during the operation. Then we went and got settled in my room 617B, we had a lovely view of the helicopter landing pad! It was a very boring wait; your Daddy decided to play with the I.V stand and pretend to go fishing!

At about 12.30 the midwife came and told us what would be happening, and that the anaesthetist would be coming in soon. They went through the list of questions, what did I eat? Am I allergic to anything? What happened at Hunter’s birth? Etc. I stressed to them how concerned I was with the epidural not working this time and the Dr did his best to reassure me.


Then I had to put on the lovely gown and get ready to go. Dad also got dressed in scrubs, including the plastic shoe covers! He looked so dorky!At about 1.30 I had the epidural which worked (such a relief) and into the operating theatre we rolled. You were born at 2.13Pm and were absolutely beautiful and perfect. It was a shock to see you; you were covered in slime and looked really gunky. You screamed very loudly and it was fantastic to hear you! You weighed in at 3.465 kgs, were 51.5cms long, and had a head circumference of 35 cms. Just perfect!



Daddy cut your cord and had a hold of you (actually he wouldn’t put you down, or give you to the nurses.) I didn’t feel confident holding you while I was lying on the theatre table so I waited til we were in recovery.
It took us about an hour after you were born to decide on your name. We knew you weren’t a Jaxon but were stuck between Jett and Levi. In the end we decided on Levi.
We stayed in recovery for a little while getting to know each other, having a breastfeed, just making sure we were ok.


Dad went and got Hunter later that first night and he went straight up to you and said Hello and tried to touch you. He gave you a kiss too. Mormor, Poppy Mick and Aunty Kristie were your first visitors. Over the next few days we had Oldemor, Grandad, Anita, Julian, Nicole (etc), Aunty Kristie and Miki to visit.

We shared a room with a couple of characters. The lady next door had a big baby boy who cried all night long! It was terrible. They also brought in some kind of game console (I think Nintendo) and had a TV blocking the way to our bed which was closer to the window. So we left a day early, on Hunter’s birthday. The doctor found that you had a clicky hip though and that meant we had to stay and have the real doctor (as opposed to the student) check you over and ok us to leave.

Debt and other bad words.

Even the word pisses me off. Although to be honest everything is pissing me off right now. Maybe it's hormones, maybe just bad luck and not thinking properly.

Yesterday I had a bugger of a day..... Hunter woke up with a puffy eye, puffy face (and bad attitude). On daycare day, off all days! Off to the doctor for him while I took Levi to care. He cried when I left him as he does. I nearly cried to, as I do!! Grabbed my statement from our locker on the way out and opened it at home- they were saying I owed them over $200!! After I deciphered the codes on there I realised they were charging me for Monday public holidays! Anyway called them and sorted that out.

Hunter came home from the doctors 3 hours later with a diagnosis of conjunctivitis and a viral infection. So he's very sore and feeling sorry for himself.

I raced to the hospital and put money in the meter for Raife's orthopod appointment to find it's not actually until the 2nd April! Dumb!

Decided to stop on the way home at the chemist for more kids panadol and got a parking fine for stopping in what I thought was a 15 minute loading zone but was actually a loading zone strictly for vans/trucks with a "G" on their rego sticker. This was according to the parking ticket lady.

$110 later....ka-ching!

Man what a day!

In good news for the day....

I paid off my credit card!! Go baby bonus! So some debt has been crossed off the list!!

Very excited about that.

Not much else to say really other than I'm hanging out for a decent nap today. Who wants to bet it won't happen??

Raife's birth story

JUST BORNTHE 3 OF US

CUTTING THE CORD

We were all set to have the c/s on the 12th March. Mormor was booked to watch Hunter and Levi, and Brad had the day off work. The hospital however, had other plans! On the Friday before the c/s I got a phone call asking if it was possible to come in on the Tuesday instead. “Absolutely!” I am so ready to meet my newest little man!! Unfortunately Mormor couldn’t get the day off work so it was off to daycare for H and Le. (Not that they minded!!)

So I spent a frantic weekend packing my hospital bag, the boys’ bags for daycare and their bags for Mormor. I also had to make sure that Dad had stuff to take to work for lunch…. we know what he’s like!!

Tuesday morning was a bit hectic. Got the boys off to daycare fine, almost cried saying goodbye but managed to hold it together! We came home again after realising we were way too early! Had a sit down and started to panic…. then off we went. I had to have a blood test before the operation, luckily I had Dad with me because without him asking to rush us through I think I would have been late!

We arrived at Geelong Hospital at 11 as requested, got set up in my room, room 617. Funnily enough it was the same room I had Levi in but the other bed. Sent Daddy away to keep himself occupied because the operation was scheduled for 3 and he would have driven me crazy asking when it was going to happen etc. So I read some magazines, talked to my Mum, spoke to the midwives, doctors and anaesthetist.

I called Dad and told him to be back by 2, as we would be “called” to go at about 2.30!! Then I started to get nervous.

Dad was right on time and the doctor was not far behind him so I got gowned up, and away to theatre we went. Dad got to put on a lovely pink hat and white overalls and they started to prep me with drips, and other paraphernalia. We had to wait a while after the spinal was inserted while the operating room was cleaned from the previous c/s. Then we had a blackout. That’s right, the power went out! Of course the hospital has a generator but it doesn’t really help a person to be relaxed!

Finally just after 3 in we went. There are so many people in the room and honestly I have no idea why half of them were there, I’m sure they all had a purpose but it kind of irks me that they weren’t all introduced to us.

There was a doctor/nurse in there that actually took care of Hunter when he was in special care, I remembered her face and while they were opening me up we worked out where I knew her from. She was lovely and stayed with us in recovery etc til we went back to the ward.

Your father was fantastic as usual, holding my hand and talking to me while taking the occasional peek over the sheet to see what was happening. He just chatted away and is a nice, calm presence.
Anyway…. finally we hear the suction going and then we heard a cry. Gosh I love that sound- My newest baby boy Raife was born! I have to admit that I had to have a look and see what gender you were because no-one bothered to say. You were here and you were beautiful! A gorgeous pink colour. Big long arms and legs. And your feet, my goodness, they are big!!

Daddy cut your cord and had a cuddle with you. We took some pics of the 3 of us together. Tried to feed you but it was too uncomfortable lying down doing it so we waited til we were in recovery.
Unfortunately as they were sewing me up, the anaesthetic wore off and once again I felt pain during the c/s.
They gave me pills to take in the recovery room but they made me feel so ill. We had our first cuddle in there and our first feed. Daddy and I decided that you were definitely a Raife, and then he had to go pick up the boys from daycare. We were in recovery for a really long time because the blackouts had caused the lifts to shut down so we were waiting for them to start up again.

I was in a lot of pain up in the room and we just couldn’t get on top of it. Then of course I was feeling so ill from the amount of painkillers they gave me that I actually started vomiting which is really hard to do lying down. Aunty Kristie came to see us but I think she was a bit worried about me so I sent her home and said to come back in the morning.
Daddy dropped your brothers at Mormor’s and came back up to see us. I’m sure we talked but the rest of the night is a blur of pain and feeling unwell, unfortunately.

On Wednesday Aunty Kristie came in and helped me do your first bath! That’s normally Dad’s thing, to do the first baths but he was up all night with Hunter vomiting so I got to do it. You HATED it. Really screamed the place down, which if I remember rightly, is why it’s Dad’s job! Also because he has larger hands that make babies feel more secure.
Anyway I did it, we did it, sorry!
You met your brothers that afternoon, though they were both unwell so didn’t stay long. Your Mormor and Poppy Mick and Aunty Kristie came in that night to say hello. And we got a surprise visit from Aunty Kezz which was nice.

Oh, one more thing I want to mention. We had a lovely morning on Thursday, Daddy came in to visit by himself and took us outside to the courtyard where we all sat in the sun together and got to have a chat.

We stayed in hospital from Tuesday til Friday when I’d had enough of being there with strangers, gross food, crying babies, and no privacy. We didn’t really have the hang of breastfeeding but had an appointment with the Lactation Consultant and I’m confident when we are at home we will get it.

Straight after your first bath!

Welcome Raife!

My gorgeous 3rd son Raife Warren joined our little family on March 11.

He is such a lovely little thing, perfect in every way. Something I noticed very quickly though was the size of his feet- they are massive! He is going to be a very tall boy (and keep his Mummy buying new shoes every few months!) His brothers adore him and touch him constantly. He is fully breastfeed which for me is a massive achievement. I am really proud of that. I am hoping to come in and do his birth story at some point. I will also write up Hunter's again and add his and Levi's.
I am actually feeling pretty complete at the moment. After Levi was born I'd have him and Hunter in the room with me and feel like I'd have to get up to check on .... Of course there was no other child to check on. Now, though, I don't feel as though someone is missing. I don't know whether there will be a number 4 at this point.
Plus can you imagine feeding 4 teenage boys???

OMG!

So we were booked in for the c/s for the 12th March. Everything was planned. B had organised to take off Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday to help organise the house and keep the boys occupied etc and Wednesday for the birth. My Mum was organised to have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off to watch the boys.
THEN... I got a phone call today from the birth suite asking whether I could possibly change to Tuesday. A whole day earlier! Yes, of course, shall I come now??? LOL
No, seriously, how exciting! 4 days til we meet our third child! Yet how scary. I was mentally psyched for Wednesday, now he'll be here Tuesday?!?!?
I called Mum but because Monday is a public holiday she can't have Tuesday off as well. :(
Luckily we have a fantastic childcare centre who said "No worries" when asked to fit the boys in.
So glad!
So I am feeling very happy that I went yesterday and bought the wraps for the baby and his going home outfit and the things I need for hospital. I also started to pack my bag yesterday so that's a relief.

Plans for the weekend are to clean the house, it's kinda grotty. I just have no energy and my back is really sore right now. Since B and the boys won't be here for the week, it should stay clean til I get home. (hopefully!) I want to make a few meals that B can defrost and warm up for work. Mum will feed them all on Wed-Fri when she already has the boys. I am hoping to be out of hospital on Saturday.
All this planning!! I am getting a headache!- Already!