The Day I Became A Mum

My Biggest Baby Turns 8 Today!

Look at that head, as if that was ever going to come out, god what were they thinking! This is a 1 day old baby you are looking at! My fault I guess, too many pies!

This time 8 years ago, I was only 25, I had been in the Army for 7 years, I had been married for 5 years, travelled Australia, travelled the world, owned our car and had bought our first home. However somehow with all that life experience I had no idea what I was getting in to!

I remember the day we decided we were ready to have babies, we were in Heathrow Airport waiting 9 hours for a flight home. I was in a book store walking past pregnancy books when it hit me, what a great project to start next lets have a baby! So the journey began, and went on and on and on. Soon it had been a year and no sign of a baby. Off to the Dr to be diagnosed with Polly Cystic Ovarian Disease, what the hell is that? Google, cry, google more and cry more! Long story short my eggies would turn in to cyst and never really made it out alive, no egg no baby. So we started Clomid, an ovulation stimulation drug, next thing there were two blue lines, after 4 tests, I was sure I was pregnant!

Then the morning sickness, 5 months of chucking, I got so good at chucking I could be walking along, chuck, wipe my face, keep walking it was like nothing had happened! After a long 41 weeks of carrying around some kind of mutant giant human, I was induced. After a long 16 hrs of “oh I am going to be a hero and do this with out drugs” came the call, “this kid ain’t coming out lets get you in to theatre”. I was so naive, it was a Monday and all day I had been hoping it would hurry up as I didn’t want to miss Friends that night!

Husband pops on some blue scrubs, off we go. Scary cold theatre, gets a bit real at this point. Few tears, bit of distraction from the Drs and next thing 10 minutes later they hold up this giant slimy beautiful alien! It was the next part that took the longest, the putting you back together takes a good 45 minutes but you just lay there helpless, numb, and happy so happy with yourself that you have made this little person, and there he is asleep in your husbands warm arms! 9lbs 14oz of Hungry Jacks and meat pies!

After an hour in recovery, I am wheeled back in to my room to find my family already in there. My Mum had bought doughnuts and they were on the bedside table and I remember thinking to myself “oh get them out of here, I just had a baby I’m trying to lose weight!” I don’t even think I ate one, looking back I should have eaten the whole box! Then my husbands side of the family came for a sneaky peek at the baby. Never mind me laying there on the bed in my gown with my catheter bag full of wee on display for all my husbands family to see. How embarrassing!

Then began the first night of the rest of our life, a night I will never forget. I was so tired, couldn’t get out of bed, still hooked up to all sorts of things. Nurses keep coming in and checking things, no one gets any rest. This baby thing keeps crying, I don’t know what he wants, my husband doesn’t know what he wants. Looking back it never occurred to me to feed him, just didn’t even think of it.

It took 3 days to decide on his name, it’s just so permanent you want to get it right. Stayed my 7 C-Sections nights almost too scared to go home really. I remember how slow my husband drove on the trip home, funny really he has never driven like that since! We were a family, finally! Instead of enjoying my time at home on maternity leave all I could think about was getting fit and getting back to work, silly girl. When he was 10 months old I did go back to work full time, because I wanted to. Didn’t hurt him, he has turned out beautifully.

Master (now)8 is such a great boy, I love him to bits! He is smart, so smart, makes me jealous I didn’t have the brains he has, he is funny, kind to his sister and helpful to his brother. I just can’t believe it’s been 8 years, enjoy it girls because it’s so true, they just grow up so fast!

Renee