Roald Blog: July 2014

On June 1st at 4:22 Melissa Elisabeth Mether was born. She weighed a hefty 3.625kg at birth and measured 53cm. It all went very well and everyone is already very used to having Melissa at home.

But let's rewind back a bit and look at the actual birth. For our long time followers you might remember that Morgan's birth was everything but smooth. Days were spent at the hospital with future daddy running (ok biking but still) back and forth between home and hospital and spending nights sleeping on sofas and trying to find decent coffee before Morgan finally was born. Well, Melissa's birth was quite the opposite. On the morning of the due date (a Saturday) as we were having breakfast mummy started feeling some first few serious contractions. We weren't sure whether this was just due to the due date or actual contractions (or due to the very delicious scramble mummy was eating), so we didn't pay much notice. After a while they faded and we started thinking about June 1st as a good birth date. In the afternoon the contractions started again (while mummy was at the nail salon with Ms Jen) and got more and more frequent as the evening progressed. After having put a tired Morgan to bed and while daddy was in the process of lighting the grill the contractions were down to 3-4 minutes in between each. A warm bath didn't reduce the contractions and the grill was switched off (to daddy's dismay). The sleeping Morgan was quickly transferred to Ms Jen and Mr Jeff's house where a still sleeping Morgan was put in the guest bed. After discussing Jen and Jeff's new bathroom paint for 5-10 minutes a sharp contraction reminded us that we should be in a hurry and we left at 22:30 to arrive at the hospital around 22:45.

At the hospital we were given a very luxurious private room and a quick check confirmed that we were indeed in labour. The midwife was quickly called for and soon after epidural was induced. At around 0:30 daddy finally found time to buy some food and as mummy started to drift to sleep daddy was eating away (mummy wasn't allowed to eat due to the epidural).

At around 03:30 mummy woke up as she was feeling pushing sensations and a nurse quickly confirmed that we were close. As a very drowsy dad was trying to figure out what was going on (after 1h of sleep on the sofa) the midwife and nurse got into the room and prepared for delivery. After about 20 minutes of pushing Melissa was born and her relieving first cry was heard. As daddy was cutting the cord Melissa got her first skin-to-skin quality time with mummy. After various medical exams (Melissa did great) we were all moved to Melissa's and mummy's new room at the new-born section around 7am.

After lots of nurses and doctors visits (and daddy's frequent visits to the coffee shop), it was time for Melissa's first visitor, the #1 Big Brother. Morgan had surprisingly woken up to his good friend Emily tickling him. The surprise was quickly exchanged for fun as the children moved on to devastate as much as possible of Ms Jen's and Mr Jeff's house. Around noon there was not much left to destroy in the house so daddy and Ms Jen met in the shop to exchange Morgan for some flowers. Morgan was eager to meet Melissa but wanted to pass by the gift shop first to pick up a nice green turtle for her (and a venti Chai for mummy from Starbucks). With these gifts in hand Morgan's first meeting with Melissa couldn't be anything but a success and so it was. Morgan spent several hours trying to figure out what this small crying thing was all about but he soon got more interested by the iPad. He did however want to come and visit every day they were at the hospital and so he did.

After three days at the hospital mummy and Melissa finally made it home, only to find the moving trucks were coming 2 days later to move the whole family to a new house. But that is a different story best told in another post.

Here are some pictures from Melissa's first moments: