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Well there are no surprises as I'm sure everyone (all 3 of you) who reads this blog knows that we welcomed Sakura Bella into our lives on the 9th of August!
But what may be lesser known is the story of her birth, so I shall endeavour to divulge a shortened version of that here.
On the day before 8/8/08, I tried everything known to man to induce babies, as I wanted Sakura to have a cool birthday! She was due on the 12th, so I figured she was probably ready to come out anyway. So I had a ridiculously hot curry, followed by a whole can of pineapple, a long walk around the neighbourhood and a few cups of raspberry leaf tea before bed. The 8th of August came, and the 8th of August went... or got as far as 11pm when I started having cramps and Kentaro hit the sack. I had never experienced any Braxton Hicks, or 'practice' contractions, so I figured I was probably having a few of them. They were annoying enough that I couldn't sleep, and by 3am they were downright painful, but after googling all I could about 'false labour' I seemed to fit the bill, because of the location, duration and frequency of the pains. I called the birthing centre just in case, and they told me it was false labour and to please stay home. I called them again at 6am to tell them I hadn't been able to sleep all night because of the pain, but because the cramps weren't coming close enough together and were not located in either my lower back or abdominal area, I was advised again to stay home. At 9am Kentaro awoke to find a very unhappy Indy. I told him we might as well drive to the birthing centre so they could at least do a physical assessment even though we would probably be turned away again. This first time mother stuff is so difficult because it's so easy to overreact! So in the car we went, and even stopped by the post office to check mail on the way. We got there, and they all confirmed my first mother status as I walked in, with knowing smirks on their faces. Then they measured my cervix and found it to be 8cm dilated, and I felt like giving them all the finger!!! I then decided I'd better call my parents! They rushed over, and at noon, I was given the go ahead to push, and another 3 hours later Miss Sakura Bella popped out!
And with my insurance with DFS, the whole birth cost me $50, which I reckon is a bit of a bargain for the world's cutest baby.
