Life is very beautiful!

Sarah Audrey Alice was born safe and healthy on Wednesday, November 26 at 10:41pm, weighing 3190g (7lbs) and 50cm long.

My labour was another quick one. I went to hospital on Wednesday afternoon for induction and on examination the dr found that I was already 3cm dilated. We were all surprised about that! I had been having strong cramps for a couple of days before that. We were given a few options: stay overnight anyway, go home and come back in the morning to have my waters broken or have the baby that night. We chose the latter!

I was pretty anxious about labouring and giving birth again. I think that’s reasonable, given my past experience. It took a few hours to go into labour. Sarah was being monitored the whole time on the ctg, so I could see and hear her heartbeat and I kept worrying about her, even though she was perfectly fine. Once I went into labour it was very quick. It was a good labour experience because all my contractions were 3 minutes apart, not all back to back like they’ve been in the past. I used gas towards the end, but I don’t like the gas because it makes me so light headed. In the end, Sarah’s whole body was born with one push. It was the most amazing moment. After I caught my breath, I was able to hold my precious squirmy, slippery breathing baby and my whole life made sense once again.

Sarah is named after Monte’s sister, who dropped everything to come to our aid when Charlotte died, even though she had just been to visit us and had only been home for 24 hours. She is also named after my maternal grandmother, Audrey Kenny (née Matthew) with whom I had a very close relationship, and Monte’s paternal grandmother, Kitty Alice, who Monte never met, but whose name he has always loved!

There is so much more to say about our little Sarah, who has brought and continues to bring so much joy and sunshine into our family! I can’t tell you how wonderful I feel, physically and emotionally. I’ll have to write more about our adventurous first week with little Sarah, and her homecoming, later on.

But before I sign off so I can go feed one hungry baby, I’ve got to say thank you THANK YOU to the wonderful staff at RHH, who looked after me so wonderfully this year. Thank you for supporting me and guiding me through the loss of Charlotte in January and the arrival of Sarah recently. I appreciate you all so much. And thank you for reading this. Please know that I appreciate your care more than I can say.