Introducing You To My Little Miracle…

Tuesday this week was my first born's first day at School.  A day we had been building up to for weeks and had been excited about. 

I had gotten to bed quite late the night before, disappointed in myself that I STILL hadn't made time to sew in the little name tags to my Daughters School Uniform.  I fetched the needle, threads and scissors and put them to one side, promising myself I'd get up early and do it in the morning.

I crawled into bed around midnight, barely noticing the dull pain that had began to regulate itself in my tummy, and tried to get some shut-eye – visualising my little girl smiling goodbye to me in around 9 hours time, as I waved her off at the School Gates on to her next big adventure.

It was a scenario that was to never take place.  For at precisely 08:52 that very next morning, I was lying on my back in a hospital theatre, a team of medical professionals crowded around me, my Husband close to my side holding my hand, as we both looked up and caught sight of this amazing little bundle of life being held up by one of the Doctors for us to see.  A little miracle had made her way into the world, catching her first breath, blinking her first brief, and blurry vision of the Mummy she'd been growing inside of for the past 8 months. 

A titch of a thing.

Deliciously vulnerable.

Little Leanora Rose Beeforth had arrived…

My waters had broken 6 days prior to Leanora's arrival – but medical professionals were keen for my baby to stay put, given she would have been premature {she's not actually due to be born until 5th October!}. The day prior I'd been at the hospital for routine observations and been told my baby would definitely not be making an appearance in the next 48 hours. I was relieved at the reassurance.

But how wrong it was, for less than 24 hours later, I had become a Mummy of two.

It was all a little traumatic, if truth be told.  Those dull, regular pains hadn't left me all night had turned out to be contractions. Manageable though they were by the time the family was waking to say hello to Tuesday, I was getting more and more uncomfortable, so we decided to alert the hospital that we were on our way, just to check everything was OK.

On arrival, I was shown to the labour room – funny, I thought, still unconvinced I was in labour.  From here on, I was strapped to a machine that monitored my baby's heart beat.  In seconds the room was filled with the noise of tiny galloping hooves.   De-dum de-dum de-dum.  135 beets per minute. De-dum De-dum De-dum.  I was uncomfortable.  I hurt.  I could hear the galloping hooves slowing down.  And slowing down some more.  And I was aware they were almost stopping.  I sensed concern in the room.

More people, Doctors, Midwives, heads shaking, concerned glances exchanged.

"Your baby is distressed, we need to get you to theatre and deliver now via emergency cesarean".

A rush of activity followed.  Language I didn't understand; "Code 1 emergency – move her quick!".  Questions I couldn't make sense of;  "Are you wearing nail varnish?", and concern for my Husband, above anything else – where had he gone?

The following 5 minutes are imprinted strong into my memory.  A room full of people wearing surgical masks, seeing my Husband in purple theatre overalls, a sense it was all just too late as I felt my baby was literally about to be born right there and then as I lent forward to have a spinal injection administered.

And then there she was, this tiny, beautiful little human being, being cradled in 2 hands and held high for me to see for 3 beautiful precious seconds, before she was whisked away to the Special Care Baby Unit, and general anaesthetic was administered.

And everything else is a blur.

Leanora
was born 4 weeks early to the day, weighing 5lbs and 3oz.  We have had a
Midwife visit this morning and she has lost a little weight (most
babies do in the first few days), taking her to just shy of 5lbs, but
she is thriving well.  She is so alert, and strong, and amazes us with
her ability to throw punches with her teeny tiny little limbs, when
we're attempting cuddles! 🙂

So here I am, 5 days later, back home and feeling extremely delicate and
in lots of pain still, but oh so proud 🙂 I feel like the luckiest
woman on the planet.  I am so relieved that everything is OK, that we
got to the hospital when we did, that we were surrounded by the most
amazing team of medical professionals and that we have the most
fantastic supportive family that have helped us through the past, very
challenging few days.

I am also so very grateful to those of you that have taken the time to send my family and I love and well wishes over the past few days – this has meant so very much – bringing tears to my eyes on many occasions and making me smile when I needed a distraction from the pain!  Thank you too, to those wonderful friends and blogging colleagues who have sent the most beautiful gifts – we are all so very touched at your supreme kindness and generosity – I promise I shall be in touch with you all individually over the next few days to thank you personally…

For now, I'm going to spend some precious time with my family, welcoming our gorgeous little baby girl into the world – and resting when I can!  I had a heavy blood loss during surgery and am anaemic right now -  so shall also be enjoying the odd Guinness in between baby cuddles!! 🙂

I'll be blogging at least one feature a day from tomorrow {please don't worry! The opportunity to sit and relax and write is a God-send right now!) and my normal twice daily service should return over the next couple of weeks or so.

Needless to say, I would like to thank you SO very, very much for your patience and understanding.

I hope you all have a very beautiful, love-filled Sunday everyone 🙂

Relax and enjoy spending time with your families 🙂

With so much love,

Annabel, Philip, Eska and Leanora Rose

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

P.S – Thank goodness for Grandparents! Our first Daughter Eska made her first day at School after all and has come home this week with TWO stickers for being good 🙂 What a week!!! 🙂