Evangeline is two weeks old now

I can't believe another week has rushed by and Evangeline is now two weeks old.
She remains a joy to both her father and I.
Today we (Granny, Evangeline and me) went to have her little plaster casts redone. I can't believe she is already on her third set of casts. That makes her almost half way through the first part of the process to fix her club feet.
I am still feeling well, albeit a little tired. I am trying to sleep when and as often as I can get the opportunity, but there is so much work to do when you have a little baby in the home.
The dishes and bottle washing alone is quite a task. I am wondering how long it will be before the skin on my hands starts to flake off like Evangeline's plaster casts do after their soaking.
Henrik has offered to do the dishes this weekend to give my hands a break.
I am so lucky to have someone as supportive and helpful as him on this journey of parenthood with me.
Today we had a treat. He came home early from work so had a little extra time to spend with his favourite girls as he calls Evangeline and me. We enjoyed the hugs and kisses and attention.
This Sunday is Father's Day and I have organised a little something for him from his new born daughter.
I hope he likes it.

Motherhood is a steep learning curve

I can't believe that tomorrow my little baby girl will be one week old.
She was born by c-section on Friday, May 30, 2008, weighing in at 3.2kg.
She was due to be born yesterday, May the 4th, but my blood pressure elevated and my doctor decided it would be better to have her come a little early.
She had some irregular breathing when she was born so was put into the NICU initially overnight, but ended up staying there until yesterday when we finally got given the go head to take her home.
Last night was the best night and the worst night I have ever experienced. It was my first night with my little girl at home with me, but I was exhausted by the early hours of this morning when i still hadn't slept a wink.
She was very niggly and cried a fair amount which was unlike her as we had some to know her at the ICU when visiting her there. I tried changing her, feeding her, holding her, giving her a dummy, making shushing noises close to her ears, everything I could think of. She did seem to settle a little when I put her down to lie on her daddy's sleeping chest, but I still lay awake worrying that she might fall off or he might crush her accidentally by turning over or something. My new mother's mind was overactive in all the things I was thinking of that might go wrong with her. I didn't know if I should swaddle her tightly or allow her some movement. I started to doubt everything I thought I knew and what I didn't know became all the more apparent to me the more tired I got.
Eventually after her 5 am feed Henrik woke and said he felt I should really get soem sleep. He had been having some sleep, broken sleep, but sleep none the less, so he took her into the lounge and told me to get some sleep.
I managed to get about 3 hours of rest. I woke up feeling like a new Eve, much calmer and happier.
Henrik worked out a few things which were helpful to us. Firstly, Evangeline hates having cold hands and her little hands had been getting rather chilly in the night air. So we are having to make sure they are snugly tucked away under lots of blankets for warmth.
Secondly, the seems to dislike the dark a little, preferring it if there is a little light. This might be due to the fact that in the NICU there was light all the time so she is used to that. I am trying to organise a little night light which we will be able to leave on for her.
Thirdly she likes a little sound to cut through the quiet, also probably becasue she is used to there being a little noise around after her days in the NICU.
She seems to like music and so Henrik used the headphones and i tunes on my computer to play her some soft music into the carry cot she was sleeping in.
With these things in place she seemed a much happier little baby.
Another thing I was doign wrong was that I was reacting to every little moan or cry and not allowing her to settle herself a little. I have noticed today that she seems to give off a little groan from time to time and it doesn't necessarily mean that she is distressed.
So much to learn and so little time to learn it all in, but on the other hand I have nothing but time.... I'm sure to make some mistakes, but I guess I can only hope that on the balance I learn more and do more to make her happy the longer I know her.
As my friend Christine said, she is from me, but is apart from me and is really a little stranger that I am having to get to know like any other.

Dark Days and Nights

Now that the load shedding has stopped we thought out problems with electricity were ended for a while. Not so.
On Monday afternoon, on arriving home with my folks, Vera and Rachel, after a hectic shopping trip, we found the gates to our place not working properly. On investigation I found that the electricity had been cut off resulting in the gates being stuck on a loop as the battery ran down.
What a problem.
When I got into the house I found a note from the municipality saying that the power had been cut off due to the property being vacant.
My heart sank. With just over two weeks to go before Evangeline is born, and so much to do, I really didn't need that complication in my life.
I felt awful, couldn't even make coffee for the weary shoppers.
Today after two days of darkness and bumbling around in the night the power was finally switched back on.
It seems there was a mix up of some sort between the old tenants, the owner of the property and the new tenant. No one had given the correct information to the new guy so he was just as shocked by the situation as we were.
We pay for our power and water as part of our rent every month and so far have still not received a copy of our lease which was promised to us almost three years ago so we couldn't even go an have it reconnected ourselves.
I'm just glad that it is alright now, but the whole affair has left me feeling a little shell shocked. Henrik and I might find ourselves having to find somewhere else to stay rather sooner than we planned. With a little one life will be harder and we will not be able to just grin and bear it when these types of things happen. The owner of the property says she wants us to pay a huge amount of extra rental and while we have been expecting to have an annual increase the amount she is talking about is way beyond what we will be prepared to pay, especially when considering the sate of the place. The roof leaks, the water supply is intermittent at best, and there are all sorts of other little things which we have been promised would be sorted but haven't been up till now.
Quite a stress, but I am trying not to let it get to me.

A day at the beach with Aunty Bee

Today Mum and I met at Aunty Bee's place and took her to the Bluff so that she could have a walk on the beach. We had a lot of fun trying to collect seawater for her and not get too wet by the waves.
Aunty Bee almost fell over in the water when the wind whipped her fragile form. She got quite a fright and had to sit down and have a sweet to recover from the shock.
I enjoyed the water on my swollen feet. We went to a shopping centre to have a drink and draw some money and did a little grocety shopping.
I must say that the Bluff has both changed and stayed exactly the same.
The shopping centre was an amazing change. It has grown like a well nurtured mushroom and has more than its fair share of shops now so that people living on the Bluff probably feel they never have to go to Durban anymore to do their shopping.
We only went to the one shopping centre, and there are two, so one can imagine how much choice the local people have now.

First day of my "new job"

Today I begin my new job. Yesterday was my last day at work at the shop and today I begin on the long list of things to get done before Evangeline arrives.
I feel a little strange not getting ready to go into the shop and know I will miss my co-workers, but I am so excited about finally being able to get started on my "nest building" that I'm sure the day will fly by.
Henrik and the rats are a little worried about what me being home means to them. Both are looking a little warily at me as I make my lists of things to throw out. Henrik has made me promise not to throw anything out without consulting him first.... he wants "right of inspection" of the black bags I plan to line up for disposal. I have grudgingly agreed to this even though I'd rather just chuck things without having to go through everything twice, but I guess it does make sense to have a plan to prevent me from going a little crazy in my enthusiasm.
Today I tackle the kitchen, washing and bathrooms, I also hope to make a start on the bedroom, but I fear all that needs to be done there will take a day of its own.
I have my last visit with the Prof (my specialist psychiatrist) before Evangeline's birth this morning, so my day will be broken into two halves. I am confident she will be pleased with how I am coping as I have had a good run of mood stability during this pregnancy so far. Henrik is coming along so that she can give him information about things to watch out for after the birth. Apparently it is not uncommon for bipolar mothers to have bad episodes of depression following the birth of their babies. For that reason I will have to go and see the Prof within two weeks of Evangeline's arrival.
Apparently the statistics for hospitalisation during pregnancy of bipolar women is very low, it seems that something in the pregnancy often helps with mood stability, but the statistics for hospitalisation for an episode following the birth is very high.
I will in all probability have to remain off my Lithium after the birth as I want to breastfeed and Lithium is passed into the breast milk, so far I have been fine without the Lithium and I am praying I continue to do well.

Dark Days and Nights

The load shedding schedules have been put in place to confuse me. I am convinced of this. They seem to follow no discernable pattern, leaving me at their mercy dazed and confused and reluctant to start anything for fear that I will lose all my work when the lights go out.
We were load shed twice last night. The lights went out at 6pm and only came on again at about 8:20. onlyt to go out again at 8:30. Bleakness all round. We couldn't even watch an episode of Lost. And the washing we were doing was just abandoned.
I have had to revise some of my plans for after Evangeline's birth because of the power outages. For instance I have decided to go the liquid sterilising route for her bottles and dummies etc. as I don't want to have to rely on the power being on to use the microwave.After the bleak and dark night last night. Henrik had a spot of difficulty this morning when he bashed the car into a tree reversing out of the driveway.
I heard the crash and got a huge fright as I thought maybe he had drivedn into the chain across the driveway. When I looked outside I saw the wall was still intact so I was relieved but my relief was short lived when I went and saw how he had bashed the front fender. Needless to say he was rather upset with himself. I felt terrible for him.
On top of all this irritation my car has been giving me trouble. Doesn't want to start some days for no reason. I took my battery back to the place where I bought it for them to check it. They said there is nothing wrong with the battery, it must be something mechanical and they told me to "get my mechanic to look at it."
Fortunately I have a mechanic on call all the time as Henrik is my mechanic. He checked everything and then took the old battery out of his polo and put it in nugget. Worked like a bomb, although that battery is old and giving notice. So now I have to go back and fight with them at Supa Quick.
I dread this.

Evangeline in splendid 4D

What a wonderful thing technology is. Today Henrik and I were given our first real glimpse of what Evangeline looks like. The 4D scan was so amazing, we could see the shape of her nose and lips and see how she opened her mouth to yawn.
The lady doing the scan was very apologetic saying that she was sorry that the pictures weren't that good but I thought they were fantastic.
I just can't wait to hold her in my arms.
According to the measurements of her head and stuff I am in my 29th week now, with the EDD still at 10 June, give or take a few days.
Mum was saying she hopes Evangeline comes earlier rather than later so that she can spend more time with her and I before they leave in July.