The One About Alissia's First Meetings with People . . .

This month I've decided that my 10 on the tenth (organised by the fabulous Shimelle) is going to be related to Alissia, and the first 10 people that she has met.

First up are myself and Mark...

Then came my mum, or as she will be known - Nanny Ann...

Auntie C and Uncle T...

Her Grandma...

Her Grandaddy...

Her Auntie C and Uncle P... sadly no photos yet, but I'm sure this will be rectified soon

And finally my friends Cath and Allison

Ooops so there might be 11 people there but I couldn't really miss any of them off now could I?!!!

The One About Sleeping Like Daddy. . .

When Alissia sleeps she does a lot of wriggling, particularly with her hands, and makes all sorts of gestures with them, including playing the violin, and the flute and being a Ninja!  The other day she put her arm around her in the exact way that her Daddy does, and I had to be quick to catch her photo before she moved!

Well in the night M was in the same position whilst I was feeding Alissia, and I took his photo without him knowing!  Just look how similar they are...

The One About Song Lyrics . . .

Last month I completely missed Sian's Storytelling Sunday, so this time I'm getting a story ready that'll automatically post on the right day, especially in the case that Baby decides to make an appearance!

It was the summer of 1994, and the reason I remember that was because it was the year that Wet Wet Wet were at number one forever with 'Love is all around.'  It was the first summer since we'd moved back from France, and we went as a family on holiday to a caravan park that was near to my Grandparents houses in Hertfordshire.  It wasn't terribly warm or sunny, but then it wouldn't be in the UK when we'd been used to the hot French summers.  The caravan park had a swimming pool, shaped like a key of all things - it's funny the things you remember from your childhood!  But apart from that there wasn't anything else to do there.

When you're on holiday in a caravan as a child you have to amuse yourself, and being well travelled on  caravan holidays my brother, sister and I knew what things to bring with us to keep us busy.  On this particular holiday, I was eleven, my sister was 8 and my brother was 5.  One of things we brought with us was our walkmans and tapes (of course this was well before all the technology advances - they all seem rather old fashioned now don't they?)  Well one afternoon I was listening to one of the 'Now' compilations, and sharing the headphones with my brother, when the Janet Jackson song 'whoops now' came on.  I'd listened to the tape on more than one occasion and was able to sing along to most of it.  My brother listened to the song with me and then kept singing it over and over again because it was quite catchy.  Only he changed the lyrics from 'sorry I can't come' to 'sorry about the eagle!' And no matter how many times we told him what the actual words were he wouldn't believe us!

I'd always had this memory in the back of my mind was trying to tell M about it a while ago because he very often makes lyrics up when he sings songs when he hasn't got the music on.  The only thing is I could never remember the song that my brother kept getting mixed up with.  Then about two weeks ago I heard the song on Smooth Radio and it all came back to me, and I literally ran (well of course I didn't run being pregnant and all, but I got up there as fast as I could!) upstairs to write down the song so that I would remember so that I could tell M.

The One About Our New Little Daughter . . .

So after many months of waiting, I would like to introduce our new daughter Alissia Rose.  She was born at 11:40pm Monday 30th January and weighed in at 6lb 8oz.

For anyone not interested, I'm about to describe her journey into this world.  I completely understand people not anting to read this bit, but I want to keep a record for me while it is still fresh ish in my mind.  Please feel completely free to look over the photos only, I won't mind at all!

Her arrival was not quite as how we had imagined as we went in on Saturday night as I was worried about not feeling as much movement as usual, and was kept in over night with high blood pressure instead, as baby was actually fine.  I was put in a ward with four other ladies, three that were expecting and one that had already delivered her little one.  Well 7:20 am on the Sunday morning after not much sleep as I was up and down to the loo like normal, the bed was uncomfortable and the newborn was crying, my waters went!  I think this is due to hearing the baby crying through the night!  I know it's an old wives tale but I don't think my waters would have gone if I'd been at home.  What they don't tell you about your waters is that they don't gush like you see on the movies, they trickle out, and continue to do so!

So then we went from being kept in with high blood pressure, to being kept in as my waters had gone.  So Sunday was spent waiting, and waiting some more.  If nothing had started by Monday morningI was told they would induce me, as there is only so long you can go with no waters before there is a risk of infection.   Then at quarter to midnight on the Sunday I got really bad backache, I asked for some painkillers and was given co-codamol, and thought nothing of it but just tried to get some sleep.  The backache was really quite bad and so I didn't get much sleep and was up and down to the loo a lot which seemed to help, think it must have been the moving about that did it!

Anyway next morning I asked for some more pain relief and was told I couldn't have any!  Just before 10am I was seen by a consultant who told me I was actually 5cm dilated, and I'd got there all by myself through the night, without actually realising I was having labour pains!  So about 45mins later after M arrived we were taken round to the delivery room.  First thing I asked was if I'm in labour please could I now have some proper pain relief?  Luckily I was provided with gas and air and it helped immensely.  It also made me feel quite drunk and I had some very strange conversations with M and the midwife!  I seemed to nod off in between the pains and I think part of the conversations were part carried on from dreams!  At 4pm I was only 6-7am dilated so we had to keep going.  Anyway by quarter past 6 that evening I'd had enough as the pain was so much more intense, and so I asked for an epidural.  As soon as it went in I felt so much calmer, and quite hungry too!  (Especially as I'd not eaten anything all day).  At 7pm another check showed that I was fully dilated, but as baby was still quite high inside me, it was decided we would wait some more to see of she would drop naturally.  At roughly 9pm I started to push.  We had some really mellow music on in the background and the lights were quite dim and because of the epidural I was feeling quite relaxed.  Despite my best efforts at pushing baby was not dropping and the decision was taken to have an emergency c-section.

Up till that point, through the day I had felt quite calm and relaxed (well as calm as you can be with all that pain).  But this was when I got quite scared, and imagined all sorts of things, like being able to feel what was going on while they were delivering her.  And needing an emergency hysterectomy or anything being wrong with Baby.  But Mark was there with me reassuring me, and he saw her being born and was telling me that evertyhing was ok.  I haven't mentioned much about M in this post, but he was calm and so patient and supportive right from the minute I went into hospital, and I couldn't have done any of it without him.  Baby didn't cry straight away when she came out which frightened me, but as soon as she did I felt so reassured.

M went through to the recovery room with Alissia while they finished sorting me out.  Then came the best bit, having those first cuddles with Alissia.  We were in the recovery room for nearly two hours but the time went really quickly.

We got home very late last night, and so I've got three more days worth of news to share, but that can wait!  We've got lots of visitors coming in shifts this afternoon to meet our little lady!