He has been a dream baby, the sort we should all have as our first.  He started sleeping though the night at a young age, he is one of the most well travelled babies I have ever met.  He is easy going, and full of giggles and laughter.  (I can hear the 'awwwwws' from here....and yeah I can hear the whinges too LOL).

OK enough of the good stuff.....you want juicy bits?  Well let me recount for you the whole story from the start.  If this is too boring/gross/TMI for you, then you can skip this bit!  I kept a small journal of that fascinating journey called pregnancy!



14 January 2005 (14 weeks)

OK well today is my birthday and today was also the first time I got to see my baby via ultrasound.  So with happy snaps to share, I thought I would start a Baby Journal!  As you can tell, turning 30 has turned out to be no different from any other birthday I have had in the last 9 years :)

So lets go back a few months.  I thought I might be pregnant around November.  Apart from the obvious, I was soooo tired, and suddenly my ankles became swollen.  I bought a home pregnancy kit from the supermarket and did the test...positive!

If I was worried how my mum would take it, I shouldn't have.  I don't think there is a more excited 'grandma to be' in the world!  My partner Michael was equally excited, so all was great. Just some negative people in the dog world seem to think it's something bad and worth gossiping about.  Well let me tell you here, that its NOT bad, its fantastic, and we are all very excited!!

So went to my GP and he ran a full load of blood tests which all came back really good.  I don't have any nasty diseases (LOL) and I am O Positive Blood Type (never knew that).

 And that brings me to yesterday, when I had my Booking In at Hornsby Hospital. Because I could not give them dates they wanted to know, they decided to send me for a 'Dating Ultrasound' which brings me up to present!

So I am currenty 14 weeks.  The ultrasound photo is --->.  It's not great, the images we saw on the monitor were much better, and the original machine she did it all on were far better than the one we did the photo on. But never mind, you can still see it, just! LOL As you can see the head is to the left. We wont know the sex for a while yet, but she did say that because of where the placenta is I should feel movement pretty early (maybe around 17 weeks).



Friday 11th March 2005 (21 weeks)

Well I have been a slack bum and not written since my first entry!  Oh well, best laid plans and all that! 

Since then I have had another ultrasound and a hospital visit, and have my next visit next week!  My belly is growing and just last week I started feeling the little bugger boot about.  I have also found out the sex but dont want to ruin the surprise for everyone else, so its between just a few people in the know!  Starting to get bits n pieces together but still have to clear out the spare room to put it all into!  Spare room presently has all my sisters furniture, some of my dads stuff and a single bed.  The bed is mine LOL  So when I get everyone into gear will try and rehome everything so the bubby has its own room.

Thats about all Ive got to write for now.  All is well and I will report back again as soon as I can!

1st April 2005 (approx 25 weeks)

OK OK OK I have been soooooo slack and not added anything for ages!  But there is really not a lot to report.  All is well, Im fine, baby is fine.  I am busy packing up the WHOLE HOUSE so that the 30 yr old carpet can be ripped up and tiles laid.  Its a mammoth task, let me tell you!!!  But it will be soooooo good once its done.  I will then be setting up a room out the back for my retired Lhasa's, so that I can get my dining room back, and I will only have 3 permanent house dogs (unless we keep another baby from Lexie's next litter...) and it will be a little easier on me with the baby.  I am going to be strict with what comes back into the house this time, I dont want it so full of clutter like it has been.  About time I had a house that looked nice! LOL

Back to baby.......he/she is kicking up a storm now, and the last few days I have started to be able to feel it from the outside too!  Its a fabulous feeling, I must say.  Though a bit funky when you feel it from the outside!! 

When the house is all finished I will scan in the latest pics of bubs for you.  They are all packed at present.

OK back to packing!

6th August 2005 (almost 4 weeks old!)

Well I knew I would be terrible at keeping this up to date, so here I am and the little one has arrived!  But to make it better for you, lets back track.....

9th July - Sutherland Shire KC, went along to the show and showed Daisy, people were quite impressed I was still showing with a week to go until the baby was due!  Had a great day out, but was a bit miffed I would have to miss the Sunday show.  Nova also got 6 points, shown by Angela as I could not run with a Kees anymore!

10th July - I had an appointment at the Hospital to check my blood pressure - it had been showing a possible slight increase at my last visit 2 days before.  They checked it a few times from 10am and by lunch time they had decided to keep me in overnight for observation, as it was still high and starting to climb. 

About 5pm roughly (I cannot remember the times exactly now) the Doctor came and checked me over and told me that she thought that they would induce me that night, as my rising blood pressure was a concern.  OK I thought, this is it!  I was NOT ready, it was a weird thing to take in, but I would agree with whatever was best for me and the bub.

7pm and the Doctor comes back for another chat.  Having spoken to the Head Doc, and studying my notes and ultrasound results from the past, she then tells me they have changed their minds and decided to perform a caesarean section!  My BP is still going up and its to the point they want to deliver this baby so I can settle back down.  Because I had just eaten dinner a little while earlier, the anaesthesiologist decided it would be MIDNIGHT when the surgery would go ahead.  In the meantime they took me over to the birthing suite to be prepped and to get an epidural in that would help lower my BP.   I madly rang everyone telling them to get back to the hospital PRONTO!

The whole experience from here on was CRAZY and very SURREAL.  I am showered and shaved.  Then one of the biggest ordeals starts in they try to get a vein so I can go on a drip......about an hour later and a BABY SIZED butterfly needle in the back of my hand (and lots of bruises up and down my arms) I am hooked up.  Then they insert the epidural......weird weird weird.......and then I sit around for the next few hours, with midwives and nurses and doctors hovering around doing all sorts of things. I have my BP checked like every 10 minutes......

Midnight arrives and I am whacked onto a trolley and wheeled away to theatre!  The surgeon decided my little butterfly needle just wont do, and so tries again, this time getting one in first go and with NO pain (unlike that hour earlier.....).  They pump in the full epidural and I go numb.  Michael almost faints and they take him outside into the fresh air - apparently it was very hot in the little waiting area for my benefit, and it made him feel light headed.

 In the theatre and I am lugged onto the table and can feel myself being moved around like a rag doll.  You can feel everything but nothing hurts.  Suddenly you feel yourself being tugged around, and I can even feel hot liquid spilling over me (I am guessing it was either blood or the amniotic fluid) and very very quickly our beautiful baby boy was born!  The whole time I was shaking like a leaf from the drugs, it felt like I was in a freezer!  Baby was born very quickly but it took ages for them to sew me back up.  But they held the baby near my face for a while so I could see him.  He was healthy and normal.  He was born at 00.28am 11th July 2005 and weighed 8lbs.  He was 53cm long and his head circumfrence was 38cm (which they assured me was big, but it doesnt look "big").

I wont go into the details of the next 2 days, lets just say it was a blur of pain and drugs.....morphine drips are interesting things to have!!!  On the 12th they had me out of bed and showering and trying to walk around.  Recovery was harder than I thought it would be, and to make it worse I had woken up with a cold the morning of the 10th and I wanted to cough so bad.....

14th July - I am biting at the bit to go home and finally at 7pm this night they decide we can go!!  YAY.  The next few days are a bit hard adjusting back into home life with a new person.  I am glad that I got into the Early Discharge Program as I got to have the Midwives visit me at home for the next 3 days.  I really appreciated having them come to my home and check up on us both.

It took nearly 2 weeks but finally our baby has a name!  TOBY JACOB PURCHES is such a joy, he is an easy baby to live with, he is so soft and quiet most of the time, and we both adore him.

And here are the photos - I will endeavour to swap these around as he grows :)  No promises though!