What a day!

My day started off early this morning … too early. Just after 4am early, With a dream … not a particularly nice one either. Went a bit like this: 

We arrive at the hospital for Luca’s birth – a caesarean section as planned. Doctor lady checks and I am “12 cm dilated” (in non-dreamland I have NO idea how dilated one can be, but in my mind that sufficiently sounded scary) so there is no time for the epidural! I don’t seem to be too perturbed by this and am thinking just chop me open Doctor lady!!! I then think to myself, well at least I always (this is true) have my camera in my bag so I tell Dave to just get it out and at least we will be able to take pictures of the c-section (never mind the fact that I am about to have a baby with NO drugs!) So, Doctor lady tells me to stay calm and injects something, with a HUGE needle, right into my belly. I don’t flinch. Dave looks a bit panicked, goes completely white and struggles to get his operating room clothes on. I remind Dave to get the camera out of my bag and he looks at me and says “Sorry” and then runs out of the room (which is about the size of a small walk-in-cupboard). I assume he’s just a bit nervous so I don’t panic and just shout after him, “Babe, I forgave you straight afterwards!” … straight after what? Still haven’t figured that out. Anyway, a couple of minutes go by and I start to wonder where he is, then I hear a loud “CRASH” and someone yells “He’s out cold!” and again I assume it’s Dave and he’s passed out or something. But the doctor looks at me strangely and all of a sudden I have a view out of the operating theatre and I see that it’s not Dave on the floor, out cold, it’s an old man. So where is Dave? I get this horrible feeling that he’s gone …

I woke up to the sound of the cat retching and then vomiting something hideous on the bedroom floor. I cleaned it up and was then wide awake and Luca was too … kicking up a storm. I eat a bowl of Milo cereal to calm us both down and try to blog but the internet had been capped. NOT a great way to start the day … 

Luckily, things really only got better from then!

09h30 – Olivedale Clinic, Maternity Ward, 4D Scanning Room

A very Afrikaans, very religious lady, with bouffant hair and more of a waddle walk than I have at just over seven months pregnant, welcomed Dave and I into the 4D scanning room. I expected the room to be all machines and buttons, but it’s pretty much the same as the obstetrician’s room and the sonar machine looks exactly the same too. Anyway, we settle into the position for scans and she squirts the cold conductor jelly on to my now rather large “bump”. From the second she placed the scanning majiggy on my belly, I was a mess. A weeping, sniffling mess of a mum-to-be. I saw our little boy, Luca Jack Dadic, sucking on his fingers, occasionally swallowing little gulps of amniotic fluid, his mouth opening and closing and slowly stretching his little arms out in front of him … his chubby little chipmunk-cheeks, replicas of mine when I was a baby 🙂 He cooperated for a while, allowing us glimpses of the gorgeously round nose and sleepy eyes that we will get to see in a couple of weeks’ time. I am officially in love and nothing else seems to matter. He is beautiful. Even Dave, who recently admitted that that he had no idea what we were looking at and gushing about at the regular monthly scans and check-ups, was speechless … there he was … little Luca. Wow. Very Afrikaans, very religious, bouffant hair lady rattled off a few things about miracles and something from Psalm 22 (although I Googled “Psalm 22” now and couldn’t find what it was that she said) but either way she was very sweet and whatever it was that she said made me all the more emotional. Very Afrikaans, very religious, bouffant lady handed us our scan print outs and disk with clips and off we went in a proud and teary haze, happy that we had now met our gorgeous little boy!

10h00 – Olivedale Clinic, Pre-Admissions 

Chantelle wasn’t joking when she said that they would ask us a million questions! We met with the wonderful Sister Eve and discussed, for just on 45 minuytes our medical history’s, cutting the cord, photographing the birth and the seemingly endless list of tasks for Dave on the big day (which, FYI is scheduled to take place on Monday, 25 May February [porridge brain] 2009!!!), including registering Luca as soon as he is born, calling Discovery to let them know he’s born and possibly the most important task (as far as I am concerned, at least), walking Luca with the nurse/doctor in his little “taxi” (the incubator, to keep his body temperature stable) from theatre and into the nursery, where he will be placed in another secure incubator to wait for me … HIS MUM … to return from theatre and really and truly get to to know the little guy. WOW! It sounds like it is going to be one of those days that flies by in a flash of memories … so babe, I am relying on YOU (no pressure) to multitask: manage all of the above and take pictures! I don’t doubt for even a second that you will do the most amazing job and our so will arrive into the world with everything taken care of … that’s just the kind of Dad you’re gonna be Baby Shoes! So now, I’m a crazy mixture of excited, nervous, ecstatic and nauseous at the thought of Monday 25 May 2009’s arrival … but most of all I can’t wait to see this little face in person. To see his tiny fingers curl around mine and his eyes, sealed shut in the womb for the past 38 weeks, open up and squint up at me … his mother.

 

12:55 – Olivedale Clinic, Parking Lot

After waiting over an hour for my obstetrician to see us and show us a few more pictures of little Luca with his hands in front of his button nose, Dave locks the car key in the boot and the whole morning of serene, emotional moments comes to an end with the chaos that ensues when the Dadics are around. LOVE IT!!!