We decided that we would just have a small family dinner for E's birthday with just mum and dad, grandma and her god-parents Pamela and Garry. I had 3 more weeks to go till the due date for my second child so was starting to get tired easily. DD1 and I had made some little party hats for the guests and 'Aunty' Pam had made the birthday cake. Little miss went off to bed about 8 and by 10.30 my husband and I were loading the dishwasher and tidying up. I got to bed by 11pm and promptly fell asleep.
 |
| A rare photo showing my 'baby bump'; DD1's 3rd birthday |
We arrived at the hospital by 2am and I sat in a little office giving my details to a midwife; everything was calm and unhurried. Then she said that perhaps she'd better examine me. When she did she said that I was 8cm dilated...hmm I'd read somewhere that that meant I was in stage 2 labour. All of a sudden things weren't calm any more. Normally in those days when you came into hospital, you had to have an enema (yuck) and a shower and change into their gowns...no time for any of that, they rushed me to a delivery suite.
Then there was a problem...my doctor had slipped away for a week's holiday with his family as no births had been imminent amongst his patients. That's no problem though...the hospital rang his locum, a specialist. But Dr Lee was also on holidays. So his locum (another specialist) came all the way from Wynumn in the early hours of the morning to deliver the baby of a woman he'd never met before. Dr Smith arrived at 3am. Little Miss DD2 came into the world at 3.20 am Thursday 20/09. She was small...only 6lb 8oz but nevertheless healthy. And it was a very easy birth.
Next day when the family came to visit, Miss 3 suddenly looked so grown up! She proudly told anyone and everyone, ' I've got a new little sitzer; her name is Demphaner (Jennifer)', eventually the baby became known as 'Demphy'.
So my girls have their birthdays a day apart; not how it was meant to be at all!
I don't think you could have plan the b-day of your daughters better if you would have liked to Maria. Having them a day apart 3 years later was pretty amazing! My grandmother (my mother's mom), my mother and I share the same b-day almost - except my mom was born on the 14 and grandma and I on the 15 of October.
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing Claud, having the 3 generations sharing the day or being close to the day. I've always tried to make sure that the girls each have their own cake but a few times they shared one big one.
ReplyDeleteI remember years when we had 3 cakes and sometimes up to 4! My mom had a beauty shop so her customers would also get her one or two cakes and then my Dad would buy another one or/and my godmother would bring another one. We would be so sick of cake by then of the week -lol, but it was always fun :-)!
ReplyDeleteAw they are such great memories Maria. Beautiful pics too. With 3 weeks to go, you wouldn't have thought that would have happened. What will be, will be. A lovely birthday surprise for DD1!
ReplyDelete(p.s. great that you got out of that enema too - I too remember them)