Wow, congratulations guys!
Welcome, Anne-Marie!
<snifle>
Congratulations!
I am so very thankful that things went well, and that darling1 and darling2 are having a nice “lie in” at the hospital…they both worked hard and deserve a slight break before you take them home and start trying to figure out how to GET SOME SLEEP!
My best prayers and love are coming your way.
Welcome to the world, Anne-Marie dearest…it isn’t a perfect place, but you have parents who love each other AND you…so I know you’ll be fine. In fact, you’ll be SPECTACULAR!!!
My Love,
Cheri
Finding out you’re pregnant: 
Early pregnancy: 
Later on: 
Early labour:
Later on: :rolleyes:
The birth: :eek:
Annie’s welcome to the world: 
Fantastic news Mr. and Mrs. Leech and G’day Anne-Marie.
Congrats to the leech family and new baby Anne-Marie!
Congratulations! Does this mean that two double-Doper babies (two parents being Dopers, that is) born today? No wonder so many countries have parades on this day!
Leechie-dear, that’s a great thread title, and leech mate, your post was very moving and memorable. I’m just sorry I didn’t have enough lead-time to wish you both chookas!
Now just let me know when you want Minky (the Monkey) back for Anne-Marie.
Lots of LERVE
Redboss
Congrats to the leech family, and hurrah for little Anne-Marie.
Ooohh, I’ve been away from the boards for two days and look what goes and happens.
Congratualtions to you both! So glad that things went well, even if they were a bit rushed. And I love the name–Portia was on my list before I found out my sprout had boy parts.
So rest up, cuddle close, and enjoy your new daughter. You’ll fall a little bit more in love with her every day, until you can’t even remember what life was like BB (before baby).
Much love!
bella–who is now even more anxious to get her own show on the road (five weeks and counting!)
Just a little bump up to say the baby photos are up at -
http://users.tpg.com.au/leech01/Bubbaleechie/bubbaleechie.html
Jeez, Leechboy, any sooner with that camera and she’d still be inside The Wife!!
She’s adorable, and I predict she will have you firmly wrapped around her little finger in three days.
So, when do we introduce Bubbaleechie and Baby Doors?
Cute bebe!
Congrats!
She is GORGEOUS!!! All that thick, dark hair…and those long fingers!
May I be the first to predict that you have an artist on your hands? And just think…when she is world famous, I will be able to say that I was the first person to see her potential!
I am very happy for you all.
PS…cute pic of the LeechKitty, too! Mine usually abandons her cute pose and sits down to clean her nether regions as soon as she sees the camera. Quite effective, and NOT as good a photo op as yours.
Bump
We arrived home about 2 hours ago and I’ve just hopped online to say thank-you to everyone.
Bubbaleechie has had her first feed at home and is now having a nap - YAY!
I’m all over the place emotionally right now but I do know that I’m exceptionally lucky to have a husband like leechboy. He has been amazing throughout this whole experience.
I’ll come back and post a proper update later on but for now lots of sleep is in order.
Welcome back Leechy…and let’s hope Bubbaleechie does plenty more of that sleeping stuff for you too.
When you get a chance, and when you’re feeling up to it, let us know how things are going, OK?
In the meantime, take care, and don’t forget that we are all wishing you well.
Wow! What a rollercoaster ride the last 6 days have been. Just a warning the following may be a bit long.
Just for the record it is a bit after 5am here in Melbourne, Australia. However I am not awake because of the baby. Someone decided to ring – at 5 in the morning! No idea who as they just breathed and hung up. Annoying, thank-god they didn’t wake Leechboy or Annie. On the plus side, now I’m awake and they are asleep I can cruise the SDMB.
The c.section was a very strange experience. Due to the high doses of steroids I’m on for my Crohns disease there were some problems with the epidural which in addition to the contractions made me get really scared. Up until then I’d been cruising along in a nice state of denial but it’s hard to ignore reality when someone is trying and failing to stick a needle in your back. The actual operation itself felt like someone was washing dishes in my stomach. They pulled Annie out and showed her to us and we both went “Is she meant to be purple”? One of the nurses took a photo of her at that stage so when I get the film developed there will hopefully be one purple baby photo to torment her with as she grows up. After they did an initial check on Annie and cleaned her up a little they took both her and Leechboy away. I drifted in and out whilst they stitched me up and told me what a good patient I was.
Recovery was a bit traumatic. The doctors decided to put me on a self-administered morphine drip for pain relief the first night. Unfortunately no-one showed the nurses how to make it work. I remember the anaesthetist saying to start it at 11pm but all the anaesthetic I’d had should keep the pain away until around 1am anyway. Being the ‘good’ patient I am I shook of the anaesthetic early. It took 6 nurses until 12.30am to get the darned machine to work. Short and long story – OW! After an hour of the morphine I was happy as and slept the night away (waking occasionally to give myself another ‘shot’ of the morphine).
Even though we went to a private hospital I ended up in a shared room for which I will always be grateful as my roomie was there with her second child. I was able to talk to her and watch what she did which helped immeasurably. Most important was seeing how she reacted to the baby crying as I found it really unsettling and just wanted to cry each time she did. The hospital had a baby boom the day I went in – thus explaining why I was in a shared room. Got to the point where there were maternity patients in the surgical ward. Even the little room reserved for doctors to take nap breaks in had a patient in there! Talking to my obstetrician later he said that about half his patients had babies on May 1st. Must have been something in the air.
My in-laws have been amazing, especially my mother-in-law. She has 6 kids of her own and is now Omi (grandma) to 11 with another due in October/November. Day 3 in the hospital I was feeling really down and struggling to get Annie to take her feeds. My mother-in-law and her sister came to visit and stayed on for a couple of hours longer than planned to feed Annie for me. All day I’d been fighting to even get 20ml of formula into the baby and off those ladies went with all their experience and got 80ml into her in half an hour. Bloody amazing!
Leechboy said he given his mum the housekeys for a day and warned me she may clean up a bit for us. Clean up a bit! Understatement of the year, got home yesterday and the house was sparkling! She’d even cleaned Leechboy’s study a room I fear to enter. All the washing was done and ironed. There was even a casserole for dinner. I just sat there and cried when I saw it all. My sisters-in-law have all rallied around and helped out loaning us all sorts of things we are going to need. We really were not prepared for Annie to arrive when she did. Best thing we’ve got so far is the baby monitors. I feel much more secure putting Annie in her room and shutting the door when the monitor is there. Also it means we can spend some time with the cats so they don’t get jealous but still hear Annie.
Annie herself is wonderful, amazing, joyous, terrifying and bloody scary. Right now she is asleep and looks so adorable, heck she even looks adorable when her face is scrunched up and red from screaming her lungs off. Luckily she doesn’t cry a lot (yet), the best description I’ve had of her so far is ‘placid’. I like that! Hope she stays that way. She hates having her bottom naked (during changing and bathing), Leechboy is very happy about that and hopes it will carry through to her teenage years.
I wanted to breastfeed but due to my immune suppressant medication the paediatrician recommended bottle feeding. In a way it is good as Leechboy can feed her as well. He is a night owl and very rarely gets to bed before 2am so he does the late night feeds and I do the early morning. Helps us get a little extra sleep in.
I should go before I ramble on any longer. Thank-you to everyone for your good wishes and if you made it to the end of this post, thank-you for bearing with my rather muddled thoughts.
6am and there she starts fretting – 4 hourly feeds on the dot!
Take care, leechbabe. Very, very good to see you back on deck.
You are a champion.
Adorable Baby, Wonderful Parents.
Leechie, you are indeed a champion.
Thanks for popping in with all the news Leechy. You have been on my mind a lot this week. I think you were very wise to have her disembark before mother’s day, hopefully she will get birthday cash that can be translated into decent gifts for you each and every year
take care of all of you and holler if a neighbour can help in any way.
Your daughter is perfectly gorgeous and you sound like a wonderful mother!
Don’t forget to post more pics as she does more adorable things. Best wishes to you and your hubby, I bet you’re a wonderful little family.
Thanks for the update Leechbabe , I have been thinking of you from afar and wondering how you were all getting on.
Love the pics by the way! She’s a gem - as are you .