The First 3 Months ...

Well, as you are probably aware that I am really, really, really slack updating my blog so I have decided to just summarise the first 3 months of Baby Jessica's life by posting heaps and heaps of photos with not-so-clever captions. From the photos you will see that little Jessica has changed so much, and is still changing everyday. At first I thought she looked like me, and then about a month later she looked more like Daniel, and now we don't know who she looks like so feel free to comment. She is losing a bit of hair at the moment so please be kind!! Jessica is our pride and joy, she has brought so much love and happiness into our lives and we now can't imagine what life would be like without her - plus ... I (Dez) would have to go back to work!!

Baby Jessica at home with Grandma (Dez's Mum), asleep in her bassinette, and in the arms of her first non-family visitor DrG (whom also visited with Mikey - aka Steve Gillies).

And here she is relaxing with Dad on the lounge and in the arms of Mum (she looks a little worried - maybe she has a little pain in her tummy).

Here is Jessica playing on her "bouncy-bounce" and in her cot (again she looks worried).

Playtime for Jessica on her favourite playmat (a present from Nanny Robin, Aunty Heidi and Uncle Mataio - parents of Jasmine and Willow).

Here is Baby Jessica with her cousin Isabel (left photo) and Isabel's brother Benjamin (right photo).

And again with cousins Benji, Jasmine (in purple) and Willow (in green).

A glamour shot of Jessica in one of her favourite jumpsuits given to her by her NZ gal pals Hayley and Pip (yes we made her wear it for the photo).

Two of our favourite "cheeky monkey" shots - she thinks she is so clever sitting up!!

These photos were taken during our first family holiday to the Blue Mountains.

And finally, our beautiful girl in two of her party dresses. In the photo on the right she is dancing with family friend Heidi D.

Time in Hospital and Going Home.

During our stay in hospital we were given some lovely gifts to welcome Baby Jessica into this world. Jessica and I would just like to say thankyou for your gifts and for visiting us and making our stay in hospital more pleasurable (and bearable).

Flowers from (clockwise): Members of Rm 410, Chemistry building (aka Rendina and Lindoy groups); Rosemary (Dr Dez's mum) and Robin (Dan's mum); Get Smart Landscaping; and Daniel.

Teddy bear from Adam, Heidi, Indianna and Charlotte; and Fairy from Robin.

Well after spending 5 days in hospital we were finally allowed to go home. Here are the last photos taken of Jessica at the hospital. She was so much smaller than we expected that the original going-home-outfit that we took to the hospital with us did not fit her so she just had to wear a boring old nightie (in fact last time I checked the going-home-outfit still didn't fit her)!!

Left: Jessica striking a pose in the hospital supplied clothes. Right: Jessica dressed in the only clothes that she owned which actually fitted her.

Well there isn't much more to say about my hospital stay ... the food was good (surprise surprise) and most of the midwives were really good (a few nazis though). Although I had a few breastfeeding problems (damaged nipples due to Jessica's powerful sucking action) everything turnrd out ok in the end (I won't bore you any further with the details as I am sure you just want to see more photos of Baby Jessica - I know I do!!).

Introducing Jessica Rose Fisher!!!

As stated in the last post, our daughter Jessica Rose was born on Tuesday 22nd August, 2006. "Jessica" after the gorgeous actress Jessica Alba (and the foxy cartoon character Jessica Rabbit from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" - yes you guessed it Daniel chose the name) and "Rose" after Dez's mother Rosemary.

I searched the internet for meanings of the names we had chosen. For "Jessica" I found a few different meanings: 1) Hebrew origin: God's grace; 2) Hebrew origin: He sees. Coined by William Shakespeare (from names Iscah or Jesca featured in the Old Testament of the Bible) in his play "The Merchant of Venice" and was the name of Shylock's daughter; a young Jewish woman who elopes with Lorenzo and converts to Christianity. And for "Rose", it is of latin origin: flower name.

Anyway, here are the first lot of photos of our dear little angel that were taken at the hospital.

Jessica with maternal grandfather, Darell.

Sleepy time for Jessica.

(Red mark on side of face is from the forceps - dear little thing!)

Jessica having her first bath.

(see Momma Rose, we do bath her)

Jessica asks "Who's my Daddy?"

Jessica gets a visit from her twin cousins.
(Left: Willow. Right: Jasmine. Twins born 13th July, 2006)

The Labouring of Dr Dez!!

We arrived at the hospital at 7.00 am Monday morning to start the induction process. The first thing that happened was that they hooked me up to monitors to see how the baby was doing. Naturally the baby was doing fine.

After being examined internally (an unbelievably cruel experience), the midwife inserted Cervadil behind my cervix. This was to be left in place for 12 hours to chemically initiate labour by bringing on contractions. Although 12 hours seems a very long time, I was told that it was necessary for first time mothers so that your body doesn't go through the whole labour process too quickly. Once inserted, I was allowed to walk around to let gravity and nature take its course but needed to be checked out after the first 6 hours to see how things were progressing. By 1.00 pm I started to feel some pains and when examined and monitored again, everything with the baby was ok but my contractions were a little too close together so they gave me some Ventolin to slow them down. However, by 5.00 pm I was in far more pain and could hardly walk. My contractions were 2 mins apart but the rest of my body had not responded by going into labour. Bed rest and panadine became my best friend.

At 8.00 pm that evening, the Cervadil was removed. Following another gruelling internal examination it was decided that my waters should be broken manually to further initiate labour. To do this they use something that looks like a long crochet hook - I am sure you can imagine this so I won't draw a picture. Having your waters broken is a very unpleasent experience. Aside from the physical discomfort endured while they are performing this procedure, the feel of the warm watery fluid gushing out and pooling underneath you is quite disgusting.

A few hours later they put me on drip of Syntocinin to ripen my cervix as my cervix had not begun to dilate. One hour later it had dilated to just 1 cm. Luckily the midwives also offered me the opportunity to have an epidural since my contractions were still quite painful and it would allow me to rest and get some sleep while my cervix was dilating. I gladly took them up on this offer - a must have for all induced labours. With an epidural they make you numb from the waist down, and this means that they need to insert a cathter into your urethra so that you don't wee yourself - another charming experience.

Around 9.00 am Tuesday morning my cervix was fully dilated (10 cm). I was informed that I could start to push with my contractions in order to get the baby out. How do you know how to push when you've never had a baby before? Well, when your contraction starts you just try to hold your breath for 10 secs and push like your really constipated and are trying to do a big poo, and you do this 3 to 4 times for the duration of the contraction - the whole process is very exhausting. Once you have started pushing with your contractions your body gets into a rhythm and each time you get this overwhelming desire to push down there - and the desire gets stronger and stronger as you get closer towards the end.

When you go to your ante-natal classes you find out all these weird and wonderful remedies for pain relief like rocking and having a hot shower, as well as a number of positions you can try whilst you are trying to push the baby out. However, when you have an epidural you are completely bed ridden and pretty much need to have the baby whilst laying on your back and knees up in the air - a great experience for anyone in the delivery room. This is probably the only downside of the epidural as the pain relief is fantastic. At least until it starts to wear off, which is necessary so that you have more control over your pushing.

Well, whilst I was pushing my husband counted during my contractions and the two midwives on either side of the bed allowed me to push against them with my legs (very necessary for leverage). However, after 2 hours (the time in which babies are usually born) not much progress was made with getting the baby out, although I had been told that my pushing technique was excellent. The big guns were called in (the obstetricians) to see what the problem was. An ultrasound revealed that the baby was stuck in the birth canal and that its head was around the wrong way which meant that the baby was facing upwards instead of looking downwards. Also this meant that the smallest part of the head was not presented for delivery. Mind you the baby was still fine through all of this. One of the obstetricians decided that it might be possible to manually rotate the baby and then deliver the baby using forceps. The obstetrician did manage to rotate the baby around the right way. My epidural was topped up and the apparatus for a forceps delivery was attached to my vagina. They also performed an episiotomy which is where they cut your perioneum (the bit between your vagina and bum hole) to prevent tearing that usually occurs with a forceps delivery.

Finally they told me to give one big mega push with my next contraction. I pushed as hard as I could and they manged to drag out the baby's head with the forceps. At that time they realised that the baby had rotated back around to its original positioning, causing me to tear quite a bit as they pulled it out. This was later described to me as 3rd degree tearing and after the birth it took about an hour and a half to stitch me up. They even had to take me into theatre so that they could get right in there. Now I have a new bum hole and what I like to call "a designer vagina".

With one more push the rest of the baby's body came out and it was all over - thank bloody goodness!!!!

Our little baby girl was born on Tuesday, 22nd August, 2006 at 2.22 pm. She weighed 3.785 kg (8 lb 5 1/2 oz old school) and was 49.5 cm long. After a long and painful process Mum, Dad and Grandma couldn't be happier!!!

Thirteen days came and went ...

Well as the title of this post suggests, the thirteen days until our baby's due date came and went. Our baby was due on the 10th August but when I woke up that morning there was no sign of me going into labour. I was still big and very pregnant.

The next morning was the same ... and the next ... and the next. In fact, a whole week went by and still nothing had happened. So I rang the hospital to find out how this baby was going to come out. They suggested that if there was no action over the weekend that I was to go into the hospital frst thing Monday morning and be induced into labour.

As expected, I did not go into labour naturally, so I packed my bags and headed for the hospital bright and early Monday morning with my husband and mum (Momma Rose) with me for support. By this stage my mum had been staying at my house for two weeks patiently awaiting the arrival of her first grandchild ... and I mean PATIENTLY!!!.

Only 13 days to go ...

Well, this is a picture of me (Dr Dez) and my husband (Dan Sprinklers) almost one year ago at the annual Alchemist's Ball.

The theme was "Magic" and as you can see we won first prize for the "Most Magical Couple". In case you were wondering (and couldn't figure it out), I am dressed as the voluptuous "Jeannie" and Daniel is the handsome "Major Nelson" from the legendary TV sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie".

Where is all this heading you may ask...?

(See below)

Things started to get messy a little later on into the night ...

... and then after a lot of dancing and alcohol they started to settle right down ...

... and then a few days later ... something magical happened.

Weeks later we found out that we were expecting our first child.

Now, almost 9 months later, time is running out for us as the dynamic duo with no responsibility (except for our dog Sammi and paying off our mortgage). We now only have 13 days to go until our little baby is due to join us in this world and we will finally become ... "parents" (scary!!).

Who will the baby look like? Will the baby have magical powers?

We will keep you posted!!

Our baby at 19 weeks.