2005 January

My mom Shirley had a long and hard labour. To read about it click here.

Week 1

What a hectic week, we had lots of family and friends who wanted to see me. It was quite disruptive and I kept mom and dad up quite a bit. Nevertheless we enjoyed all the attention, presents and well wishes.

My auntie and uncle Taryn and Peter Riddin left on Wednesday for Durban. I had my first braai on Thursday. Meat looked delicious but I only got milk! Gran parents Ron & Elze Kuiters and Great Gran Janet Oppermann left for St Francis. Gran helped a lot with the chores around the house, she made mom's life a lot easier, thanks!

Week 2

I have now settled down into a reasonable routine. I feed about every 4 hours and thankfully at night at 10pm, 3am and 7am. Dad is thrilled about that because he really needs his sleep.

Monday was interesting, we went out for lunch then rushed home to get ready for the doctor's appointment at 2pm. Dr. Suska Schoeman weighed me and I am now 3.7kg and all is well. My mom Shirley is also coming on well, her stitches have started to dissolve and she moves quite freely now. I think I got a bit over stimulated and cried from 2pm to 2am! My mom and dad were really at wits end, eventually I went to sleep and had a relatively good, albeit short night.

Friday I went to the doctor again, they needed some blood to run some tests. Was quite an experience but went well, I only cried a bit. Took a while to draw the blood because my veins are so small!

Week 3

My dad, Tim, went back to work this week. To make sure he remembered me I kept him awake most of Sunday night and Monday morning!

On Monday afternoon we went to the funeral of a good friend Les Martin who passed away after a long illness. I was well behaved and slept through the whole service. Les was the regional director of the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI). My dad met up with lots of old NSRI friends who he hadn't see for a long time. Les was a great and humble man and will be missed by all. Our thoughts and prayers are with Lyn and the rest of the family.

My grand parents from St Francis were here for the funeral and slept over on Monday night. They had to pick up some Dutch tourists from the airport, they were going to stay in their holiday flats.

Wednesday I went with mom to Bayworld or the Port Elizabeth museum for a meeting. She will be lecturing some visiting students from America in April and May.

Thursday I went with dad to work because mom had a meeting at the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE), now the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). All went well and I slept most of the time, dad managed quite well!

Week 4

Nothing much has happened this week apart from sleeping. I have been quite good at it and seem to be settling down into a routine. I have a feed at bed time, one about 2am and one at about 5am. So mom and dad can't complain! I get very restless from 5am so they need to go to sleep earlier is they want more sleep!

I also went into washable nappies (diapers) this week. Mom didn't buy the very small ones because I am growing so fast, however they are still a bit big for me. Man do I have a big arse with them on. They are great, mom ordered them from Mother-Ease in Canada. They took 2 weeks to arrive in the post. They are really absorbent and very comfortable, not like the nappies of old days! They are actually shaped like a disposable, only they are made of a very good quality high absorbent cloth.

On Friday I went to be weighed, I am now 4.6kg, right on target.

Week 5

On Saturday we went to St Francis bay to visit my grand parents and great gran. We all had a great day out there and a lovely braai, except I wasn't allowed any.

Sunday we went to Berny and Gavin Snow for lunch. Payton, Heather and I kept the adults busy while they were watching the Springboks, sorry Proteas, getting carrots from the English.

The rest of the week went well except for mom who has developed mastitis. We spent a lot of time at the doctors and going for ultrasound sessions to try and remove the blockage. I am still getting plenty milk, hopefully the problem goes away soon.

		Family Blog 2005 January VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Kayra’s birth

My mom Shirley had a long and hard labour. She started with contractions 2am Friday morning. At 7am my dad Tim drove us to St George's hospital hoping for an relatively easy birth. The plan was for as natural birth as possible, that meant as little or no pain medication, no oxytocin, no episiotomy, delaying clamping the umbilical cord, getting me on the breast as quickly as possible, and not going to the nursery at all. Well even though our doctor Suska Schoeman tried her best to keep to the plan, nothing went according to plan.

Our midwife Danielle got us settled in an we started on a birthing ball at 3cm. At 9:30am she tried the spa bath, that helped a lot. By 11am and still 3cm my mom gave up on the idea of no pain medication and started on gas. That was not very successful and by 12 an epidural was organized and when it was in place it started to work. By 1pm her blood pressure took a dive to 80 over 40 and there was quite a commotion to get her and me stabilized. They halved the epidural dose and things seemed to be going ok again, at that stage she was at 5cm. By 5pm she was at 8 cm and the pain really kicked in again. The epidural was pushed up quite a bit and by 5:30pm she was fully dilated and the epidural was turned practically off and we waited for Suska to arrive to get me out.

After some practicing for a while the real push started at 6pm. After about 10 minutes my dad could see the top of my head. After 45 minutes there was still this small patch of hair showing. I was stuck! They decided to cut my mom to make some space but that also did not work and she was getting week so they decided a Caesar was necessary. My mom freaked a bit and said that she was going to get me out. They then decided to try get me out with forceps. Eventually my head popped out and soon after the rest of the me. I weighed in at 3.6 k They cut the cord immediately and at that stage I was very weak, my Apgar score was 7 at 1 minute and 8 at 5 minutes. After I gave my first cry they took me to ICU for observation. After they hooked me up to all the monitors and gave me some oxygen I started to get better and my colour improved drastically. My dad held my hand all the time, he's so proud of his new daughter!

In the meantime they stitched my mom back together. After an hour she was all patched up and then tried to come and see me. They weren't too happy, but after a fight let her in. She tried to feed me but I was too weak to suck. They then took my mom to her room and my dad helped her get settled. At 9:30pm my dad came to see if I was alright, I was sleeping and they had taken me off the oxygen. Things were starting to look up.

My dad went home to celebrate my birth and the new year with the rest of the family. My mom came to me at 1am and tried again to feed me, but I was still very week and it wasn't too successful, I did get some colostrum in though. At 5am she came again and this time I drank quite a bit.

At 8am the paediatrician had given me a clean bill of health and I was allowed to go to my mom. My dad arrived back at 9am Saturday morning pleased to see mom and me together.

Suska arrived at 10am and gave mom a check-up. She was quite happy and said we would have to stay for 2 days in hospital. You should have seen her face drop! She then said she was joking and told us we could go home. My dad wasn't expecting this and hadn't brought the piccolo with. The hospital won't let you go home if you are not in a baby car seat. So he had to rush home to get it.

My mom Shirley had a long and hard labour. She started with contractions 2am Friday morning. At 7am my dad Tim drove us to St George's hospital hoping for an relatively easy birth. The plan was for as natural birth as possible, that meant as little or no pain medication, no oxytocin, no episiotomy, delaying clamping the umbilical cord, getting me on the breast as quickly as possible, and not going to the nursery at all. Well even though our doctor Suska Schoeman tried her best to keep to the plan, nothing went according to plan.

Our midwife Danielle got us settled in an we started on a birthing ball at 3cm. At 9:30am she tried the spa bath, that helped a lot. By 11am and still 3cm my mom gave up on the idea of no pain medication and started on gas. That was not very successful and by 12 an epidural was organized and when it was in place it started to work. By 1pm her blood pressure took a dive to 80 over 40 and there was quite a commotion to get her and me stabilized. They halved the epidural dose and things seemed to be going ok again, at that stage she was at 5cm. By 5pm she was at 8 cm and the pain really kicked in again. The epidural was pushed up quite a bit and by 5:30pm she was fully dilated and the epidural was turned practically off and we waited for Suska to arrive to get me out.

After some practicing for a while the real push started at 6pm. After about 10 minutes my dad could see the top of my head. After 45 minutes there was still this small patch of hair showing. I was stuck! They decided to cut my mom to make some space but that also did not work and she was getting week so they decided a Caesar was necessary. My mom freaked a bit and said that she was going to get me out. They then decided to try get me out with forceps. Eventually my head popped out and soon after the rest of the me. I weighed in at 3.6 k They cut the cord immediately and at that stage I was very weak, my Apgar score was 7 at 1 minute and 8 at 5 minutes. After I gave my first cry they took me to ICU for observation. After they hooked me up to all the monitors and gave me some oxygen I started to get better and my colour improved drastically. My dad held my hand all the time, he's so proud of his new daughter!

In the meantime they stitched my mom back together. After an hour she was all patched up and then tried to come and see me. They weren't too happy, but after a fight let her in. She tried to feed me but I was too weak to suck. They then took my mom to her room and my dad helped her get settled. At 9:30pm my dad came to see if I was alright, I was sleeping and they had taken me off the oxygen. Things were starting to look up.

My dad went home to celebrate my birth and the new year with the rest of the family. My mom came to me at 1am and tried again to feed me, but I was still very week and it wasn't too successful, I did get some colostrum in though. At 5am she came again and this time I drank quite a bit.

At 8am the paediatrician had given me a clean bill of health and I was allowed to go to my mom. My dad arrived back at 9am Saturday morning pleased to see mom and me together.

Suska arrived at 10am and gave mom a check-up. She was quite happy and said we would have to stay for 2 days in hospital. You should have seen her face drop! She then said she was joking and told us we could go home. My dad wasn't expecting this and hadn't brought the piccolo with. The hospital won't let you go home if you are not in a baby car seat. So he had to rush home to get it. Then it was back to home to meet grand parents Ron and Elze Kuiters and George Parker Nance, great gran Janet Oppermann, and my uncle Peter and auntie Taryn Riddin.

		Family Blog Kayra's birth VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL