I'm just beginning at this but a separate page is meant to be for the information that remains static in our lives and the story of Sascha will never change.
2009 did not end up the way we had thought it would. I was hanging out for Sascha's birth. I am not good at being pregnant and having gestational diabetes was just the icing on the uncomfortable cake that pregnancy is. So when my waters broke five weeks early I can't say I was at all disappointed. We had been at Marion shopping and the entire evening I had been laughing about Sascha feeling like she was very low and pushing at the door, so to speak. When we finally got to bed I felt a little bit of wetness and joked about the her coming to Craig. I then rolled over and had to send him off to get a towel. I did not want to ruin a nearly new, pillow top mattress!!
An hour and a lot of phone calls later, we were off to the hospital. Luckily both mum and dad were staying with us so we didn't have to move Huey who blissfully slept through the excitement of his little sister's birth. Though so did Phil!! Mum told him my waters had broken and he went straight back to sleep. I think mum didn't get much rest over night and neither did we.
I was so excited on the way to the hospital. I was laughing and joking with Craig between contractions. I was already say "thank god I don't ever have to pregnant again"!! Only downside to her coming early was that my obstetrician was on holidays so I had to have her partner who I had only met once.
The birth went very smoothly. My waters broke at midnight and our beautiful Sascha was born at 6.30am. They put her in my arms, I looked at her and knew that something was wrong.
I was handing her back before I can even remember really looking at her. The obstetrician and the midwife were reassuring me:
"She's just a bit quiet""We'll just take her and have a good look"
"We'll get her going"
And then it started to get to:
"She is very sleepy"
"Did you have pethidine?"
"No?"
And then the face mask with the balloon thing on it came out. They were pumping air into our beautiful little girl!
They then whisked her off to the nursery continuing to pump the air. Craig and I were then left waiting in the delivery room with no clue as to what was happening. Eventually the obstetrician can in to tell us that Sascha had a cleft palate and that feeding would be difficult. It was nice to have her to talk to as her daughter had a cleft too. She then disappeared back to the nursery as she was the only doctor on the ward that early in the morning. A midwife came in to ask us who we wanted as a paediatrician. We asked for the one that we had had with Huon but eventually they decided they needed who ever could get there first.
I was still lying in the bed that Sascha was born in when the paediatrician came in to tell us he thought Sascha had Pierre Robins Syndrome. He told us that she would have problems breathing and feeding and that they were sending our little lady to Women's and Children's Hospital as soon as possible. We had no idea what any of this meant!! Would she be normal? Would she be able to have a normal life? Was she mentally disabled? We had no clue.
Sascha was born at 6.30 and at 10 she was being taken by a recovery team to a different hospital where they weren't sure if they had a bed for me. I got to see her again just as they were taking her to WCH. I didn't get to hold her again until later that evening.
WCH luckily had a bed for me by 1pm. During the morning Craig and I had rung our mothers to let them know what was happening. I remember feeling pretty numb and Bev and Mum looking after Huon while putting on very brave faces.
Craig, Bev and I drove to the WCH where, after waiting in admin for over an hour, I was admitted and finally broke down in the toilets. Even with everything that had happened and not having slept for a day and a night I still didn't want to cry in front of Bev.
Craig came in and we just stood together crying for however long it took.
