Aaleaya is 4 weeks old today!!

Wow that has flown, but at the same time I have made myself slow down and really enjoy the first weeks. Mainly the reason for my absence!! I have been passing by blogs but just not always commenting.!! Aaleaya has been doing really well and my wound has healed well after a small set back with an infection it has all cleared now and we are on track..! Our massive June month full of birthdays has kept us busy being visited for my b'day and visiting all the other Gemini's!!! Aaleaya is feeding really well and we went to the health nurse last week and she weighed in at 10 lb / 4.5 kgs!!! whew!! I really enjoy getting weighed as it makes it all the more rewarding I think as with breastfeeding I feel like I am still growing her if that makes sense!!! Kaitiaki is such a loving and awesome big brother and son. He is so in love with Aaleaya and will want to do anything to help. He has dealt with it all so well. Yesterday Aaleaya and I went and saw Rachael and Luca who was born on the same day, it was lovely to get out and have a cuppa with her, although we both decided we are vauge which is all normal 'baby brain'!!! At least we understand each other!! hehe Today we had Stacey and Braedyn over which was lovely Kaitiaki was wrapped to have someone to play with as the weather hasn't been outdoors weather at all.. Stacey made a lovely chocolate cake for us which went down well !! And she unpacked and re-stacked my dishwasher, *thanks Stace* what a gem. Tomorrow I have home help out to clean the house and Bree is going to pick Kai up for creche which is a big help, I am not SUPPOSED !! to be driving for 6 weeks due to the c/section but I have driven here and there no too far, mainly to work to pick up stuff to do at home.. We are getting excited about Nanny Rea and Pa Rich coming over from NZ in 4 weeks for tiaki's birthday and to meet the new addition!! Well for now I will add some pics and be back for a better update soon and on Tiaki's blog soon too!!! 2 weeks 2 weeks 3 weeks 3 weeks today @ 4 weeks

It's a GIRL ...!!!!

Aaleaya Janet Kahikatea Newth... My birth story starts 10 days overdue, on the Monday I found myself at the obstetricians as the I saw him at my 40 week appt and he had booked me in for an induction the following Saturday making me 14 days over. Upon having the weekend to ponder this I became very uptight and 3 stretch and sweeps later there was progress but not a lot. I thought about it more and more as with Kai he was almost 2 weeks over and had pre-eclampsia and I was induced went through 6 hours of labour to fully dilated but due to fetal distress and my heart rate going through the roof they decided on an emergency c-section. It was all very scary and everything was happening so quickly we barely had time to think about anything. This time I didn’t want to go through that or chance going through that again it was traumatic and I felt totally robbed of the ‘birth experience’. So I told the OB I wasn’t prepared to go through with the induction and that I would prefer to be booked for a c-section and hopefully with the stress and pressure off I may go into natural labour over the course of the next couple of days. He had tried to ring the hospital to organise the c-section and wasn’t able to speak to the lady so sent me home and said he would ring with the details but didn’t think it would be possible before the end of the week …. Once I got home there was a call from the hospital and the lady was lovely and said, as the words rang through my ears for hours later as it all sunk in .. ‘the only place we have available is in the morning I’m afraid’!!! I freaked and Massey said my face dropped!!! So that was it we were off to pre-op straight to the hospital and have blood tests etc. We were told to be back at 7am and I was first off!! We went to Mum and Ron’s when we left Kai and had explained the whole process of where we were going etc. He was quite excited. The whole process was a lot nicer and calmer than with Kai. The theatre staff were lovely as they were getting me ready for the spinal block we were all chatting away and it was a really nice atmosphere. Time for the spinal ….. it took 4 goes until she got it right and it was quite painful… I then got wheeled into theatre and Massey sat beside me. We had made it clear we didn’t want to be told the sex rather see for ourselves. After what seemed like an eternity Mass and I were talking away and talking to the staff, taking photos etc and then the tugging began…. Then there was a wail and bubs was shown to us, the cord was in the way so it was quite hard to determine the sex although finally we were sure it was a GIRL our perfect Aaleaya Janet Kahikatea Newth .. Massey was called over to cut the cord which he described as cutting someone’s finger!!! She was bought over to me and I got to touch her. Massey was holding her as they were closing me up and I was pretty much just gazing in amazement!!!!. The smells and sounds all came back to me as I was laying there (yuk!!) We were then off to recovery, this was the part that affected me most with Kai, being separated so I was shocked to hear they were allowing my request to take bubs into recovery with me AND Massey was allowed also. It was fantastic as Aaleaya was on the breast within 30 minutes of birth and we had skin to skin contact. I was then transferred up to the ward with Aaleaya still with me skin to skin. I was a little whacked out but thrilled to pieces, we decided to wait till I had some movement in my legs back before getting mum to bring Kai in so rang all the relo’s to spread the news. Once Kai arrived he was in awe of his new sister and couldn’t believe all her hair! After being so determined to have a natural delivery I was still really happy with the outcome as I felt I had been able to make the decisions about what I wanted. She was weighed in at 8lb7oz Huge compared to Kai!! Later that morning I found out Rachel, a friend I met on a birth forum had birthed her little girl just an hour after Aaleaya arrived!!! So we had a hospital stay together!! Although with so much going on we need a catch up coffee to talk babies (hey there Rachel have to catch up soon!!!)!! So born on Tuesday 22nd May, my ‘just’ Gemini is just perfect. I left hospital on Saturday and have been enjoying baby daze. Aaleaya is feeding and sleeping perfectly, we have the health nurse out tomorrow so will be interested to see how much weight she has put on. Well that’s my rather long winded birth story. WELCOME TO THE WORLD BABY AALEAYA xx