raising willow… and dexter!

I can’t believe my little girl is 4 years old.

This is my post from this time last year:

A is putting together Willow’s new bike while we reminisce. This time three years ago I was in the early stages of labour. I’d woken up at 5:30am with contractions, but they were irregular to say the least. They remained irregular for the rest of the day. I had a student midwife who came to our place and we went for a walk around the shopping centre but that still didn’t help. By late afternoon I was fed up and wanted to head into hospital. The student midwife checked and I was a couple of cm dilated so we went in. The midwife there suggested that we go for a walk and had one last meal as a couple while our student midwife went home and had a rest.

Willow was born at 7am the next morning. I’d asked for ARM (Artifical Rupture of Membranes) at 3am, which really got things going. I don’t remember much of what happened between 4am and 6am because I was sucking back on the gas.

She was 2810gm and had to be taken away to have her BSLs done because she was so small. I wish that I hadn’t let them take her, but I made A go with her and I was stitched up in the mean time. I was 6pound6ounces and A was 7pounds at birth, so it wasn’t unexpected that she was so small.

We knew that she had a choledocal cyst and would have to have surgery in the near future, but we were just so happy that she was with us. I shared a hospital room with a mother who had half the city come to visit, so I was glad to get home.

She made me a mother, she changed me forever. She gave me back a mother-daughter relationship, albeit from the other end.

Present wise she got:

* 2 Hula hoops.
* Strawberry Body Shop shower gel and a tiny flannel that grows when you put it in water.
* A water spinner thing for the sandpit
* A set of Matroshka dolls from the Oxfam shop.
* A hairbrush with ‘best sister’ and a hair tie with a felt flower from Oxfam shop from Dexie.
* A mini beanie baby mermaid bag tag for her school bag.

I was worried it was too much and A thought it was too much, but each thing has it’s place and none or them are just going to end up on the mountain of toys that they already have. She was pleased with it all.

A made her Thomas the Tank Engine cupcakes for after dinner. He used that HAPPY BIRTHDAY candles that it was too windy to light at Dexie’s birthday party.

My Nanna gave her a set of sweet summer pyjamas, a family friend gave her a metric tonne of hair ties and A’s mum gave her this pettiskirt.

Dexie had to be in the photo. As soon as he spies a camera, he puts on a big cheesy grin. He has really started asserting his independence. He throws mini tantrums to get his own way. It’s quite cute but slightly frustrating. A says that he is stubborn and their FDCarer keeps telling me that he and Willow argue over food. I guess sibling rivalry is really starting now!

We are planning to go to Monarto Zoo this weekend instead of a party, plus there is the usual house work, uni work etc to do. On Australia Day we are catching up with a friend at the beach. How very Australian!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 pm and is filed under life, jim, but not as we know it, man of my dreams, mummy stuff, Uncategorized. You can follow responses to this entry through the Comments RSS Feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.