What’s in a name…?

Imogen Louise Alice.

Those are the names we end up giving our baby girl. And here are some versions of the meanings of these names:
In Irish, the name Imogen means- image of her mother. In English, the name Imogen means- Innocent. The name of the heroine of Shakespeares play Cymbehoe as a result of a printing error in the Folio edition of the play. (was originally Innogen).
In German, the name Louise means- a famous warrior. In French, the name Louise means- Feminine form of Louis: Famous warrior. Renowned fighter.
In Celtic, the name Alice means- Noble. In English, the name Alice means- Of the nobility. From the German Adalheidis meaning nobility, and the French Adeliz which is a form of Adelaide. Used in Britian since the 12th century; Alice became very popular in 1865 when Lewis Carrols Alice in Wonderland was published.
So she’s an innocent bub who will look like her mum, fight hard and is of the nobility…
Ok so we didn’t choose the names because of the meanings.
We knew she was a girl, even before we were told at 19 weeks. So at about 16 weeks we bought this name book and Rhys would read a new letter out loud every night. When he got to the start of ‘I’ he said, “what about Imogen” and I agreed that was a very nice name, but shut up and read all the I names from the beginning, don’t start at Im.
I think I had really liked Arabella, Astrid and Amelia at this point (the primacy effect at work, perhaps?)
But when we saw her little face and was told that yes she was a girl, when I got into the car after that scan I put my hand on my belly and said “Imogen.” And that was it, from then on when it was just Rhys and I around she was Immy.
Louise is my middle name, Alan is one of Rhys’s, so I thought an Al- girls name would be nice, and I thought Alice was pretty.  
 

A Real Mum

Imogen and I

I find myself thinking, I wonder what a real mum would do in this situation, at least once a week. I can not help but wonder when I will start to feel like a Real mum!
Don’t get me wrong, I am a pretty good mum, well I think so. I can always calm her down in a reasonable amount of time, usually I can make her laugh and I can change a nappy while covered in poo, without getting any on her.
But I still feel like I lack a certain mum confidence. Since she was born I have never been confident about my techniques and assumed everyone knew better.
During the pregnancy I had so many people, mostly health professional, doctors, OTs, nurses, take one look at me/my medical history and so they warned me that I wouldn’t be able to hold my baby, I wouldn’t be able to breast feed, she would probably need to go into care… that I think I was left convinced that I was just no good.
But she is almost four months old now, and I have breast feed her the whole time, and she very rarely leaves my arms when Daddy is at work.
Her Daddy does a lot when he is home, and my mum does a lot of washing and cleaning around the house to help out.
But right now it’s just Imogen and I and she is asleep right next to me, and after this blog I am going to clean the kitchen and make the bed. I think we are doing alright. I just wonder when will I consider myself a real mum? I’ll let you know when I do.

my cutie

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The Good bits

I really want to start another blog!
My husband bought me a laptop for my birthday so I finally am able to access the internet on something other than my iPhone.
I have been thinking about starting another blog since my daughter was born in June.
The thing is, is that I don't think I could be someone who blogs about everything, the good and the bad.
I'm afraid that all I plan to blog about is the good bits of being a mummy.

So please read! And if you're reading and think 'her life cannot be that great' I guarantee you that it is definitely not. These are just the good bits.

-T

The birth of my daughter

One of the first shots with her eyes open, daddy keeping a close eye on his lil girl

Daddy and Imogen do some skin to skin

I spent the last three-four days of pregnancy as an in-patient at the Royal Brisbane. I had every symptom of pre-eclampsia, the blurred vision, the headache, the on edge mental state, the high blood pressure, but it stubbornly refused to show up in any of my blood tests.



On the Thursday (23.06.11) I actually started to have regular contractions (after about five hours they gave me medication to stop them). On the Friday they decided they did not want me to go into labour and they decided to ignore the blood tests, diagnosed me with pre-eclampsia, put me NBM (nil by mouth) and set my c-section date to the following day.

I remember the morning of 25.06.11 better than any morning that has happened since, and better than most of the mornings that happened before.
I was exhausted (from being woken for OBs, ah! being in hospital was exhausting!)
I was so thirsty. I wasn't allowed water since midnight, and for a three litre a day girl it was rough going.
I was ready. I had spent three days campaigning for this and now that it was happening I was left with a complete inability to recognise that by the end of the day I would be a mum!
I took for granted that she would be fine and that everything would go well. So I was not that nervous.

The c-section was booked for 1030am, but when we got down to the operating rooms there was an emergency c-section that pushed ours back two hours.

So we waited, took photos of each other, sat quietly, bullied the nurses into handing over a cup of ice chips.
I think it was just after twelve, I had snuck off to the toilet and when I came out the nurse was waiting and it was time!
My blood pressure shot up to over 180/110 while I had my spinal block and eqidural put in. I was sitting with my legs dangling over the left side of the bed, trying to arch my back like a cat and pretend I was on a beach on Mykonos. When I was really in a room that resembled a supply closet.
The spinal block took effect quite quickly.
The doctor ran ice down my stomach saying "Can you feel the ice"
"Tell me when you put it on," I replied.
"It is on"
"Oh then, no".

The nurse asked Rhys what her name would be. There was a big pause so I said Imogen! Turns out he didn't reply straight away because he was tearing up.

We moved onto the next room, after they inserted the catheter. I was transferred to the operating table. They covered me in sheets of paper, put pillows under me arms. Put up a screen between my head and tummy and invited Rhys in.

I could feel it. I could feel tugging and pressure. It didn't hurt or anything.

After about 5 minutes we were told that it was time.

And then there she was! Being passed over the barrier, screaming angry little face.

She was weighed and measure (3.27 kg, 7 lb 2 oz, 49.5 cm in length).

And then she was in my arms! She was crying, I said 'hello, its ok, you are alright' and when she heard my voice she stopped crying and just looked at us. At me.

The doctors sewed me back together again and then we were in the recovery room having our first feed.

She was so quick at feeding. She was so strong. She was so beautiful. She was so tiny. She was all mine! and she was perfect.



36 weeks 4 days pregnant



Imogen and mummy meet face to face