When I grow up.....

"I'm going to have big legs at the top like you that wobble when I walk......"

Thanks.

Children - aren't they adorable!?!?!

Bless her - luckily she is so adorable and makes me laugh every day.

When I'm a mummy....

I will have big boobies just like you.....

(all said whilst drawing her fingers further and further away from her little body LOL - I didn't think I had boobs that big!)

And apparently the reason I had Pippa is because I drink way too much soft drink, and the sugar made me fat and then out popped Pippa! Oh, if only it was that easy......

Layla has a current fascination with ballet. She was given a ballet set for Christmas and she just can't stay away from it! And it seems that she has influenced the Pip-star as well!

Layla's arrival

Layla was born at the awful hour of 6.25am - that's in the morning people!!!! What was she thinking? I wasn't due until mid-January but as I like having babies early she was born on 7th December 2002. She was a beautiful and happy baby but as soon as we put her in the car to come home she turned into a little monster.... and for the last five years has been the most terrible sleeper I have ever encountered! And very very impatient.

My waters broke (again! I was getting quite used to this by now) at 33 weeks with this pregnancy, with me ending up at William Angliss for about a week, then transferred in to the RWH for a few days, then in a taxi back out to William Angliss again.... yup, you read right, a taxi! The staff just popped me in it and told the driver where to go! Luckily I didn't start having contractions until I actually got to the front door of the hospital.

I had a private room in the hospital - even though it was a public one the service and staff are impeccable. So at around 5pm I started having slight contractions all by myself watching TV in my room, by 10pm they were getting bad enough for me to ask for Pethidine and get them to ring Damo to come in.... he came in, I chucked up the Pethidine and then Damo tried to have a sleep on the floor on a mattress (with no luck I might add!). At around midnight I begged to be taken to the labour ward, which at the time I thought was so far away but was actually about 10 metres down the corridor LOL but when you have to stop two or three times in those 10 metres then it does seem like 10,000,000 metres!

We eventually get there - I vomit again (noice!) then apparently transition started happening, I didn't know where to stand or sit or what to do, I eventually got onto the bed on all fours and refused to turn around so they could examine me. I do remember one nurse telling me quite severely that I was required to turn around NOW otherwise she would get the other midwife..... I didn't like the other one so I reluctantly turned around. Thankfully I did as I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing! But not before I demanded a c-section and they called my OB who was on his way...... but he didn't get there in time as after only about 20 minutes of pushing she was out! And she was a girl! And she was gorgeous! They put her on my chest for a couple of minutes and then took her away (as she was still 5 weeks early) to check her out and then took her around to the SCN.

Damo went with her and I stayed (obviously!) to try and get my placenta out. My OB arrived just in time to try, but alas, no amount of tugging on that thing was going to coax it out - even an extra injection couldn't encourage it! So it was decided that I would have to go to theatre to have it "manually removed" - sounds delightful doesn't it? All I can say is that I am glad I was asleep for it..... but I do remember being wheeled on the way to theatre and being on that "I just had a baby" high and telling every stranger I could see that "I just had a baby girl!" so got a lot of hearty congratulations, mainly from cleaning staff and psychiatric patients who were combing the wards looking for drugs LOL

So I finally got to see Layla at around 3 in the afternoon - she was such a little treasure - she weighed just over 5lb and was divine! She only spent 8 days in hospital with no complications and came home fully breastfed and happy, well until we walked inside the front door...... she was a very fussy baby, and after having Evan who was and still is a beautiful sleeper, I was shocked to have such a terrible sleeper! The only way she would go to sleep at night was on Damien's chest listening to his heartbeat.... we tried the bassinette, the cot, hired one of those swinging stork thingys, nothing helped. You had to stand up with her and rock her - she wouldn't even let you sit down! It's amazing I survived at all!

But we did and she is beautiful and she amazes and infuriates me at the same time.