mom life – Simi's trinkets and treats

I absolutely love Christmas. This year I was super excited to spend it with my little girl, it being her first Christmas and all. We planned on dining at a friends house on Christmas Eve and then visiting another friend on Christmas day.

We set off to meet our friends at 5:30pm. When we got out of the car I thought Hazel felt a bit hot, but as you know the car seat can make a baby feel warmer. After having welcoming drinks we sat down to dinner. I had finished my first plate of food and was planning to get a second helping when I felt that my little girl was really feeling hot now.

Luckily my friend has 2 little boys and she suggested that we take her temperature. It was 39 degrees and we decided to take her to the Emergency Care Clinic.

The clinic was pretty busy so we had to wait. Apparently having a high fever isn’t seen as that important. To me, fever means danger. When I was young my parents always said we had to get the fever down or break the fever. They would even put us in icy cold bath water to try and break the fever. Breaking the fever was the most important thing. So naturally, I thought a high temperature is an emergency. The doctors reassured us that it’s the body’s natural response to a virus. They said they would put a urine bag on Hazel to check whether she had a UTI but they forgot.

We only got at around 11pm and sat up all night sponging her head to get her to cool down but to no avail. By 5 am her temperature was under 38 degrees and we thought we were out of the clear. By 9 am on Christmas day, her temperature spiked again and stayed at 38.5 most of the day. By 10pm it went up to 39 and we went back to the clinic. This time they referred us to the hospital. We waited for Hazel to have a wee in order to check her urine for a UTI test. At first she missed the bag and we had to wait some more. During our time at the hospital her fever broke and her temperature came back to normal. We only left the hospital at 5 am on the day after Christmas.

The rest of the day we periodically checked her temperature to make sure that it stayed low. That night it sounded like she had trouble breathing and off we went to hospital again…turns out we were just paranoid new parents

On Sunday night she developed a rash all over her face. We phoned the healthline and was advised to head back to the Emergency Care Clinic.

This time the doctor was able to explain to us what we needed to look out for in the case of a bacterial rash and told us that a rash iften appears after a viral infection. He was very informative and to be honest, the best doctor amongst all the doctors we encountered over the weekend.

All in all we’re glad she’s better and hopefully next Christmas we’ll be able to have more fun with Hazel.

Today my little girl turns 4 months and I thought I’d share her birth story with you.

She was due on Sunday the 27th of July so naturally I stopped working two weeks prior to get ready for her arrival. I packed my hospital bag. Bought apple juice, mini water bottles, some nut bars and fruit and nut mixes. We had our birth plan ready. I wanted to have her all natural. I even bought the Hypnobirthing book and downloaded birthing meditations. The plan was to breathe through the pain and only gas if neccessary.

Come week 40 and I was patiently waiting for my contractions to start….

By Wednesday she still hasn’t arrived. I then opted for sweeping. Still nothing. I did the sweep 3 times. When asked whether I wanted to be induced I declined, hoping that my little girl would make her appearance all in her own. But no…

Towards the end of 41 I was induced. I was admitted to hospital at 7pm on Friday night. At 10pm I was inducted with the gel. At 11pm, the contractions started. I had 1 every 10 minutes. I didn’t sleep a wink. Luckily I was able to walk around and sitting on this big leather chair was my saving grace. The chair was nice and low and I could pull my knees up to my chest, this helped a lot

At 11 am I only dialated 3 cm and the nurse broke my waters. Unfortunately there was meconium in the water which meant that now, labour had to be hurried along and I was immediately put on an oxytocin drip. Hazel did not like that at all, and her heart rate dropped. I was taken off the drip for an hour. After being examined again, I was still only dialated 3cm and there was talk of a C-section, which was honestly the last thing I wanted.

After an hour I was put back on oxytocin. Hazel’s heart rate was constantly monitored. Since she was posterior, I had to lie on my side the whole time, and let me tell you, that’s the most uncomfortable position to be in when dealing with contractions. After about an hour of this I asked for an epidural, baring in mind that I’ve tried the gas but it made me extremely sick

At around 5pm my midwife arrived. She turned on a diffuser and it calmed me right down. At around 6:40pm I could start to feel my contractions again and asked for a top up on the epidural. My midwife suggested that we check the contractions first. I have dialated 10cm. She said we shouls start to push. At 6:58 I started to push and by 7:19 our little Hazel was born.

It has been the best moment in my life even with all the ups and downs leading up to the birth. I had amazing support from my husband and my midwife was just fantastic. Even though I wasn’t able to Hypnobirth, I’m still happy about the outcome…a beautiful healthy little girl