A is for ...

Here starts my A-Z Encyclopaedia of Me. Quite a few people have been doing these lately and I figured it could be a good way to get back into the blogging habit as well as having a little fun at the same time. My A-Z will go in order, but I won't be posting one letter all in one day in case I miss things out. I plan to do each letter over several days and posts, depending on what content I can think of.

So, here we go ...

[A] is for Aardvark
Don't all A-Z's have to start with this? No? Oh, ok ... onto the serious stuff then.

[A] is for Abbey
Abbey. Ab. Ab-kebab. Bee. Sometimes even Abigail, but only when she is in trouble. Abbey was born at the Lyell McEwin hospital in Adelaide in September 1998, the highlight of a year that included applying for and being granted a visa to move to Australia and performing the actual move just a short time before her birth. So this little one was definitely "made in England" so-to-speak.

I remember leading up to her birth that Jo's hospital check-ups sometimes ended up with her being admitted for a day's bed-rest because of her blood pressure. Jo also suffered with gestational diabetes during the latter stages of the pregnancy just to complicate things further. One check-up appointment around the 38 week mark resulted in us sitting back in the waiting room giggling in disbelief as we read through some literature on inducing birth. The appointment was on either the Monday or Tuesday and they wanted Jo into the hospital on Wednesday night to start the induction. At that stage it felt like there was no going back but we knew damn well that point passed many months ago!

I took Jo into the hospital around 8pm on the Wednesday night and they started the process. I left her there that night and back to the in-laws where we were living at the time for a restless night of sleep.

I went back to the hospital early the next morning to find a huge Polish intern with hands the size of baseball gloves trying to insert a needle into the back of Jo's hand. She'd also had a restless night of sleep and now she was scared of Eastern Europeans. He wouldn't be the last one either.

At some point during the morning they broke the waters and then put Jo on some IV drug to speed up the dilation process. Jo tried the gas pain relief, but that didn't work out, so she opted for the epidural which a student administered. I don't think I would have let a student do the job if I knew then what I know now about epidurals! I remember they kept bumping up the dosage of the IV drug over the course of the day, but nothing was really happening. Later that evening they worked out that they hadn't broken the waters properly (like, duh!). After the second attempt, everything moved along a little bit faster.

It's funny the things you remember. We watched TV on and off during the evening. Pretty Woman was on one channel, a film we normally would watch, but movies about someone in the sex trade wasn't that appealing at the time. The news was pretty depressing too with 200+ people killed in a plane crash.

The East European curse came back with carry-on style Matron Dorita (Dorito as we called her at the time) being in charge and yelling "poooosh, poooooosh" at Jo while pushing a fist into her belly. I'm sure this helped for something, but god knows what.

Abbey was finally born at 00:54 on Friday morning, having started around 8.30pm on the Wednesday night. Most of the last couple of hours were a blur, although I do remember being slightly worried when the pulse monitor that was attached to Abbey's head during the birth went to zero. I didn't even consider it may have just become disconnected! I do remember Jo getting very angry at Dorito and her "poooosh, poooosh" . I do remember tears of joy. I do remember being very proud of cutting the umbilical cord despite saying I didn't want to do it before the event. I do remember being uncomfortable with the amount of blood on the floor after the birth. I do remember ringing my parents back in the UK on a payphone and going through the dollars like there was no tomorrow.

During the "clean-up" and stitching afterwards we had the radio on and I'm sure somebody was messing with us. Three songs that we can remember that were played were Natalie Imbruglia's Torn, Green Day's Time of Your Life and the Go-Go's Our Lips Are Sealed, or Alex The Seal as Jo had previously thought it was called.

Jo was home a few days later with the new arrival. She was so small in the car seat that we couldn't see her and I recall being quite nervous about driving the short drive home on the main roads with our little bundle in the back.

Living with the in-laws at the time was quite helpful to some extent but it also came with it's frustrations. I had also been due to start my first job in Australia at Levi's on the Monday after she was born, but they were very good in giving me an extra week to settle in with the new addition. Jo struggled through with the feeding the first few weeks and probably didn't sleep that much. Once we changed to bottle feeding at night time at around 8 weeks, Abbey then slept through the night and things became just a little easier.

My parents got to meet Abbey for the first time in 2001 when we went back to the UK for a 5 week holiday. She had just turned 3 and although she was shy to start with, she came through eventually and they all had fun together.

Abbey turns 10 this year which is hard to believe. She's doing fantastically well at school in all subjects and she loves playing piano. If she can keep her mind on track over the next few years with her shool work I think she is smart enough to achieve whatever goals she may set for herself. At this stage she wants to be a teacher, but I am sure this will change over time.