Everywhere you look there are babies, it seems like everyone is having or has had one. It is a pretty ordinary common thing to do apparently. However, each child is this extraordinary, miraculous, amazing little creature (especially your own of course). This is the story of Gemma Zita Bettio's life on this blue-green planet of ours.
She is now two and a half weeks old, but firstly, how did she arrive? Well pretty easily relatively speaking. Yep, no horror stories for the campfires of mothers group. Wont be able to top anyone with stories of five days of labour (as the girl in the bed next to me experienced). For the gory details, my waters broke at about 1pm on Saturday as I was planting garlic bulbs (as you do on a fine autumn day). After a call to Rico and a call to the hospital and another call to Rico, and a frantic drive home from work from Rico (he was finishing up a few things) we went into the hospital to get checked out.
She is now two and a half weeks old, but firstly, how did she arrive? Well pretty easily relatively speaking. Yep, no horror stories for the campfires of mothers group. Wont be able to top anyone with stories of five days of labour (as the girl in the bed next to me experienced). For the gory details, my waters broke at about 1pm on Saturday as I was planting garlic bulbs (as you do on a fine autumn day). After a call to Rico and a call to the hospital and another call to Rico, and a frantic drive home from work from Rico (he was finishing up a few things) we went into the hospital to get checked out.However, the little girl was still holding on as hard as she could, quite happily, and not in a rush to go anywhere. "Go home, go out for dinner, it will be your last night out for a while", were the ominous words of the nurse. So after being booked in to be induced the following morning at 6.30(!) we went and got pizza with Val, Sarah and Max (see last photo of me pregnant). 
During dinner I got a couple of back pains, but didn't think much of it as you tend to get random aches and pains whilst pregnant. I started to get more suspicious later that night when these cramps started coming every eight minutes. They weren't too painful though, and I certainly wasn't screaming and cursing Rico, which is what the movies have told me I should be doing. When they were around five minutes apart we rang the hospital, "call us when they're around three minutes apart and more intense". Ok. At about 1am they were about 3 minutes apart and "bugger this", I thought I'm going in.
During dinner I got a couple of back pains, but didn't think much of it as you tend to get random aches and pains whilst pregnant. I started to get more suspicious later that night when these cramps started coming every eight minutes. They weren't too painful though, and I certainly wasn't screaming and cursing Rico, which is what the movies have told me I should be doing. When they were around five minutes apart we rang the hospital, "call us when they're around three minutes apart and more intense". Ok. At about 1am they were about 3 minutes apart and "bugger this", I thought I'm going in.So we made the (not so) mad dash to the hospital. Upon arrival we were ushered into a birthing 
suite, given a couple of panadol and a mild sleeping pill and told to try and gather our strength for the marathon ahead. I don't think I slept, but I was able to relax between 'contractions'. The back pains started to hurt a bit more but were managable. Though when the nurse started talking about this being only the first stage and muttering cheerful things like 20hours more of labour, I did ask at what stage do we have the chat about the epidural. Was not to be however, as Gemma decided that enough was enough, time to face the world and started to let go. The pushing part was actually easier than the part where I wasn't allowed to push because my body wasn't ready yet.
suite, given a couple of panadol and a mild sleeping pill and told to try and gather our strength for the marathon ahead. I don't think I slept, but I was able to relax between 'contractions'. The back pains started to hurt a bit more but were managable. Though when the nurse started talking about this being only the first stage and muttering cheerful things like 20hours more of labour, I did ask at what stage do we have the chat about the epidural. Was not to be however, as Gemma decided that enough was enough, time to face the world and started to let go. The pushing part was actually easier than the part where I wasn't allowed to push because my body wasn't ready yet.
