Well it has been a bit of a whirlwind month. On the 10th February 2025 our little girl, Hazel Ruth, made her entrance to the world, two weeks early and with a little drama but we are blessed to have her here and now she is almost a month old.

Our little family of four has been in the newborn bubble and are quite enchanted by the little beauty. We did not know what we were having and so to have a little girl was quite a surprise. I thought I was having another boy but to now have one of each, I feel blessed. And her big brother Oscar adores her.

As this is a motherhood blog, I will write a bit of the birth story here because it didn't necessarily go the way I thought, as I had to have an emergency cesarean but we are all healthy and safe and that was the most important.

With Oscar I ended up having a cesarean because he got stuck in the pushing and his heart rate was dropping, but with Hazel I ended up having a placental abruption and so a cesarean was very much needed for the safety of us both.

For both my pregnancies up until the births I was a textbook pregnancy, yes as I am older they watched it closely and with Hazel as I was over 40, I had many tests twice and lots of check ups but all was well. I went into labour on Monday 10th and by the end of the day my contractions were 5 mins apart, I rang the hospital at around 6:30pm and they said to have some panadol and see how I was in an hour as I still sounded like I was doing well. Well, exactly an hour later I started bleeding, then it felt like my waters broke but there was a lot of blood and I knew something wasn't right so we headed into the hospital. From then on everything went quite quick, the doctors didn't like the amount of blood I was losing and so said to me they thought it best for a cesarean and I agreed. Hazel's heart rate actually wasn't dropping so she was calm but it was the best choice as they found the placenta had detached. So I am so grateful that i was ok with the choice and that it was able to happen as quickly as possible. I was never locked in to birth way because we don't know what is going to happen, I just wanted my baby to be safe.

Everyone involved was calm and friendly and again (same with Oscar) I had a wonderful birth experience, even though not exactly how I'd planned. Hazel was born, quickly checked over and placed on me skin to skin and she attached straight away and drank, which was just special.

Overall we were both healthy and well, I had lost a lot of blood and Hazel unfortunately had swallowed a lot of blood. So her little body took to getting rid of it through so many pooey nappies in the next few hours and then she also vomited blood over the next two days but other than that she was well and drinking well. Unfortunately because of having to get rid of the blood, she lost quite a bit of weight and then had jaundice so we went back within the first week for her to have phototherapy and after that the jaundice started going away and she started putting on weight which was wonderful. Hazel is now happily putting on weight and starting to show her character.

Aaron and Myself are so grateful to God for this little treasure. Yes we are back in the newborn trenches (I would love more than 4 hours sleep haha) but its so special and she is so tiny compared to Oscar. How did my two year become such a big boy??

So we are now a family of four, Aaron and I just celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary as well so it's been a busy time. 3 Years, 2 Babies but I feel so blessed.

If you are in the newborn trenches, I raise my coffee to you! But all you mothers, however that may be, I am in awe of you and it is something that is hard but amazing.