Our Tiny Human Is Here!

After 40 weeks and 3 days, pregnancy ended and motherhood began. Please welcome Sakura Lily Rose to the world!

She was born on October 30th at 3:44 AM at 8 lbs 10 oz and 55 cm in length.

Now before I go into a lot of detail about her arrival, there was a lot going on leading up to the big event that I want to cover.

Firstly, on September 30th (in Australia) my grandfather on my father's side passed away at the age of 90. Rex Woodruff was a wonderful man and although I never spent significant amounts of time with my grandparents I will always remember his constant desire to serve. This was not a sad event for me. He lived a great life and at the end old age was taking its toll. I knew without a doubt that because he had worked so hard to live a righteous and honorable life that he had returned to his Heavenly Father and was in a state of peace. In the LDS church we call this Spirit Paradise which is that "part of the spirit world in which the righteous spirits who have departed from this life await the resurrection of the body. It is a condition of happiness and peace." (lds.org) Rex has left a wonderful legacy behind with 7 children, 29 grandchildren, and now 18 great grandchildren! I will always miss our big Christmas dinners at my grandparents house with all of the cousins. I'm so grateful to have had such a wonderful example as a grandfather! Here is a link to his obituary.. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=rex-marvin-woodruff&pid=186839574&fhid=4550.


On a lighter note, Matt and I have kept busy while waiting for bub to arrive. One weekend we did archery with the YSA. Another weekend we had the Stake Ball which is a formal dance night and the organisers had done an amazing job decorating to fit the Beauty and the Beast theme. Unfortunately, Matt didn't feel well so I went alone, but I was glad I went! This was also the weekend of General Conference. As you may recall I had previously worked on a puzzle each time, but as I had finished the last one I decided to try painting this time. It was so relaxing to paint something for the baby room while listening to the leaders of the church speak.

Another big event was my baby shower. I organised it with a few women from the ward and I think it all turned out well! I was hesitant to do anything to begin with, but I realised it would be a good opportunity for women in the ward to get to know me better and for me to get excited about the new addition to my family. The shower was a lot of fun with games and refreshments. One woman in the ward made a fabulous decorated cake as well which tasted just as amazing as it looked! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful group of people in my life!

Paper Towel Baby Outfit Game

What Will Bub Look Like Game

My mom arrived October 18th and we got to spend lots of time catching up and shopping for the baby. It has been a very long time since I have been able to chat to my mom like that and although we were anxiously awaiting the baby to arrive it was awesome to have that time together. We went on lots of walks, toured Australia Zoo, rode bikes around Brisbane, and spent a day at Noosa Heads beach.

Lake Kurwongbah

Lake Eden

Australia Zoo

Brisbane

Noosa Heads Beach

Since my mom had booked flights around my original due date of October 22nd, and thinking I would be early since she had 3 out of her 4 kids 10 days early, we started to get a bit nervous when my due date came and went. Redcliffe hospital doesn't induce until about 10 days after the due date which meant my mom might only get a day or two with her granddaughter before she left on November 4th. Although we did lots of things to hopefully move it along - eating pineapple, acupressure points, raspberry leaf tea, walks, etc.. bub seemed content where she was at.

Finally, Sunday September 29th my cat woke me up at 3:30am. I noticed some pains, but I thought it was just indigestion or something. When I realised they were repeating I knew I was experiencing early labour pains. It was uncomfortable enough that I couldn't go back to sleep and so I just did some reading and waited until everyone else was awake. By around 7am I was having contractions at least every 10 minutes and I notified the hospital. They suggested I call back when contractions were about every 5 minutes. An hour later I called them back and they still felt I should wait at home, but because the contractions were getting more painful I really wasn't comfortable waiting at home for things to get awful. At the birthing suite they monitored me and I was progressing slowly and only 1-2cm dilated. They moved me to the maternity ward to wait it out and that's when contractions started to get really painful. As the night progressed I was starting to really struggle with the pain even though they had already given me codeine and panadol. Although I could breathe through each one I started to get really shaky each time one came. Lack of sleep didn't help either because they were too often that there was no hope of resting in between. It got so bad that one contraction was so painful it made me vomit. They checked me again and by now I was 4cm dilated and decided I could go up to the birthing suite when it was ready. At this point I realised I was in so much pain that I wanted the heaviest pain killer I could get - the epidural. All my plans of a natural birth went out the window and at this point I didn't even care. It took hours before the room was ready and the anesthetician could come in. During that time they gave me gas to help with the pain and it was still so bad I nearly vomited all over the midwife next to me during a contraction. I finally got the epidural around 9pm and spent the remainder of the night resting, but not really sleeping. Close to 3am they checked and I was fully dilated and the doctor decided to do a trial push. After that she decided I was ready to go and I spent the next hour pushing with each contraction. Although they told me I was great at pushing, I felt like I could have done better if I had a better lung capacity. They thought it was funny how Sakura was "excited" to come out because her heart rate would increase with each push and they even saw her wriggling to get out. Although I didn't know this until later, her shoulders got stuck in my hips and so I got a 2nd degree tear from the final push. Thank goodness for the epidural! I could feel there was a tear but not much pain and I had no idea how severe it was. They immediately put her on me for skin to skin contact and she was a perfectly calm baby and looked straight at me. My first thoughts were - We Did It! Secondly I thought, "she doesn't look like me at all" - she looked like some Asian baby. It didn't bother me, I was just surprised. She was a big baby with a full head of hair. After a while they wheeled me to the maternity ward where I would spend the next 24 hours. It takes some time for the epidural to wear off so I was bed ridden for a long time. The first time I tried to use my legs my left leg didn't quite cooperate and I fell on the floor. That night I finally got some sleep as Sakura slept for hours, but by morning I was over being at the hospital and eager to go home.

The first week home was a bit of an adjustment. Sakura did NOT sleep as well as she had at the hospital and I was feeding her every hour or so and struggled to get more than an hour or two of sleep at night. Matt went back to work so I wanted to make sure he got plenty of sleep and although my mom was willing to help I knew I needed to learn to get through the night by myself. We went and got some newborn photos taken, visited my friend Cate, and did some other errands with the baby. When my mom left on Saturday I went to the shops expecting Sakura would be calm and sleep like she had previous days, but unfortunately she was very fussy. I visited three different parent rooms and had to deal with her crying profusely at Target while I purchased a few things and headed to the next parent room. It was a rough reality check that not only was I on my own now that my mom had left, but that things would never be the same. How and when I go to the shops will be different, I now have to consider if I can take the baby with me to certain things, and I have to worry about whether or not she will be fussy when I go places.

Cate with Sakura

One of the blankets my mom made for Sakura

Jackie and her daughters paid a visit

Self soothing with her finger

Our first Sunday back at church was fast Sunday and we decided to do the baby blessing that day. As we don't have many friends or family here I didn't see any point in waiting. I had luckily found a white dress that fit her the day before and she was a perfect angel during the blessing. Our friends Cate & Dan Innis were able to come to the blessing and we had a nice lunch afterwards. Church was different as I suddenly had more than just the talks and lessons to worry about. I kept wondering what would be considered proper etiquette for dealing with the baby like should I always leave to the mother's room to feed her or what to do if she starts to cry or get upset. People have advised you just do whatever you feel comfortable with. The following day I met with the psychologist who confirmed the same thing. I basically want like a list of what is appropriate or right and wrong in terms of dealing with the baby. My psychologist reminded me that I'm an intelligent and capable person and to trust my instincts. Instead of learning the right or wrong with parenting, I just need to trust in myself and the Spirit to guide me to do what's best for me and the baby. I'm likely still going to be anxious when she gets upset in public places, but I'm glad I have a wonderful support system to help me get through the tough times of being a first-time mom.

Her hearing test - she has perfect hearing

I am finally adjusting to having a baby in my life. I just take things day by day and sometimes she is extremely fussy and other times she can sleep for hours at a time. I'm thinking something I was eating was causing some indigestion because she would be inconsolable right after feeding. She has at least been getting better at sleeping at night so I have been able to get around 5-6 hrs of sleep total! I've been surprised how tiring it is to take care of the baby during the day as well so I usually can nap when she naps as well. Our cat has not yet decided what to think about the new addition. For the most part Shade just avoids Sakura, but every now and then he will bodly try to sniff her. It will be interesting to see how their relationship progresses over time.

I'm not sure what to think about being a mom yet, but when I've already been enjoying my time with her including the occasional smiles and funny faces. I'm just grateful I'm not doing this alone and that I don't have any obligation to work! What I've really learned from pregnancy, labour, and my first 2 weeks of being a mom is to take everything people tell you with a grain of salt. I did everything I could to make pregnancy and labour better and yet nothing worked out as I had hoped. If my body didn't respond the way I had hoped to pregnancy and birth, why should parenting be any different? In the end you just do the best you can, pray lots, and trust the Lord to guide you with what matters most.