Birth Story

A friend

My Birth Story is unusual...I documented our story when I began this blog so here are my posts below!
48 Hours Before Kinder Surprise




A friend of ours had recommended this super great Tokyo guide called Hello Sandwich which we completely fell in love with and ended up seeing lots of things we wouldn't have seen if we had only relied on our Lonely Planet book! 48 hours before our little Kinder Surprise we spent the morning drinking amazing coffee and eating homemade bakery goods (think Parisian quality!) in Ekoda at this teeny tiny six-seater cafe- thanks Hello Sandwich!

I had started to get cramps which I put down to 'period pains'! They were worse than I had ever had before but I didn't really think too much about it. I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome a while back and hadn't had my period for a while (it was always irregular....!) so I just put it down to that and soldiered on!

We decided to go the Yebisu Beer Museum which was whole lot of cheesy fun and yes I know...I pretty much did ALL the wrong things whilst with child as I didn't know she was in there! We drank delicious beers and read hilarious and very cool pop-up books and joked when we have babies we would buy them quality books like these...hmmm!!!

The cramps definitely got worse during the night but I hugged a pillow, took some painkillers (which p.s are SO hard to get in Tokyo, you pretty much need to go to a doctor to get a prescription to get anything stronger than Disprin...) and laid in the foetal position...haha







24 Hours before Kinder Surprise!




So I woke up on Thursday 11 November (exactly a week from leaving Perth!) and the 'cramps' were still there but we had planned to spend the day in Hakone and I was determined not to let something like period pains stop me from going on a cable car and a pirate ship!!!

I remember saying to Ross as we bought supplies for the hour train ride to Hakone if the pains are still there by the time we get to London I'll go to a doctor (that was in 4 days time!). Hakone is beautiful and probably is still one of my favourite things we have done so far in Tokyo! We visited the open-air sculpture park which was a definite highlight for me! The onsen footspa was bliss and the cute school girl who tried her english skills out on us was super 'kawaii'! My pains got pretty bad as I would physically have to stop and wait till they pass- Ross was pretty worried but I assured him everything was AOK and lets keep exploring!

We took the funicular up the mountain then took cable cars over Hakone which was spectacular we even caught a glimpse of Mount Fuji and saw the sun set over the mountains it was simply stunning! We had to run to catch the last pirate ship of the day but made it with seconds to spare so we were pleased as punch!

On the way back to our hotel Ross suggested we stop off at our favourite district Shimokitazawa and have dinner. We found this super cool place which was up this narrow staircase and filled with super cool hip kids and we were like YES! The whole menu was in Japanese (yes we know we are in Japan...haha) so we decided to order what our neighbouring table was ordering which was pretty embarrassing but funny. We would point to their dishes and nod- our waiter and our next door neighbours thought we were hilarious...we felt like dorks and wished we could read Japanese :)

We dined on sashimi, tofu and some type of steamboat and washed it down with beer and g&t's! Geez I know right...raw fish and alcohol biggest no-no's but hey I was still in the dark! Lots of my friends and family are like "How did you not know you were pregnant?' and I have asked myself this question everyday and worked out I had an excuse for everything that could have been a pregnancy sign. Gained a little extra weight- late nights at the office and pizza, baby kicking- thought it was bad digestion, cravings- thought I was lacking dairy (the only craving was yoghurt with nuts)- crazy right?

Exhausted from a great day of sight-seeing we trekked back to the hotel and fell into bed...! Ross went straight  to sleep and I had one of the worst sleep of my life....

My 'cramps' became more constant and I started to think there was something seriously wrong with me but never did 'pregnant' come into my mind. Everything from a twisted cyst in my ovaries to severe constipation went through my brain. At about 5am after taking a long bath I emerged from the bathroom and tearfully told Ross I needed to go to hospital because I feel like I'm going to die...so dramatic I know!

We rushed down to reception where the lovely staff tried to find us a hospital which would see me. Luckily we found one around the corner so we jumped into taxi. By this stage I was in so much pain I had my eyes closed trying to forget the bizarre stabbing pains which were completely foreign.

I was escorted into a room after filling out some forms of-course! The doctor looked at my tummy and told me I needed to pee into a cup (this was all in pigeon english) and for whatever reason I couldn't do it so they decided to do an ultrasound and I remember peeking at the doctor who had this shocked look on his face and him pointing to something on the screen. Next he told us he needed to call the gynaecologist  and this is where I started to freak out...I still thought I had a twisted cyst!







Meet our Kinder Surprise


So the gynaecologist came into the room and all I remember is that she giggled every time she said something to me which made me nervous. She told Ross he had to wait outside while she took a look at my lady bits. Everything was becoming a little too much for me and bursted into tears and then she dropped the bombshell.....um you're having a baby and I can see the head and we have to take you to the delivery room now. All I remember is shouting at them to get Ross NOW! Awww poor hospital staff would have thought I was loco.

Everything is pretty much blurry from this point...a million things were going through my head such as; we are going to China tomorrow what are we going to do, OMG I ate all the wrong things and drank alcohol I wonder if my baby is going to be okay, um I'm about to become a parent I don't know anything about kids, what names do I like, OMG what am I going to tell my Mum....I told you LOCO!

Here are some things I do remember about the birth:
  1. Asking for drugs/epidural and being told Japanese women have natural births....OMG
  2. Shouting FUCK really loud when being told to push and hearing everyone giggle
  3. Hearing Ross who was holding my hand the whole time shout out Holy Shit (in a good way) when she was born
We were told "Its a girl" then she was whisked off for a check up. We were told she was small but looked healthy and normal but they needed to do some tests to see if she needed to go to the ICU. I was then prodded and poked some more (OMG I knew nothing about giving birth only what Ross' sister had told me but she had c-sections...different!) then we were left alone. The whole thing took less than an hour.

We looked at each other cried a little but it still didn't feel real. Um...what just happened? The doctors came back with our baby girl and told us she was super small but AOK- what a relief! She looked super perfect, tiny but perfect. She weighed in at 2390 grams.

You know how before I said I like making lists? I told Ross to grab my iphone as I had made lists of names I liked...why I had made a name list- no idea! Ross immediately was sold on Tallulah and I completely agreed it was a favourite of mine not to mention the name of one our favourite musicians Tallulah Rendall! So I'd like to introduce our tiny tot Tallulah...

Isn't she just the cutest little thing you have ever seen?