Possum's Story

On the morning of September 27 I was lying in bed, awake, feeling Possum kicking. I commented to Rusty that Possum was kicking a lot and took his hand to feel my tummy. Right at that moment I felt a warm trickle and jumped out of bed for the toilet. By the time I sat down my pyjama bottoms were soaked and I said to Rusty I thought my waters had broken. We were both in disbelief. I was only 25 weeks pregnant!

I called the hospital and threw a few things in a bag whilst Rusty got the kids some breakfast then I drove myself in to the hospital. When I got out of the car there was a big gush, and at that moment I knew for sure that my waters had really broken. I think I had been in denial up until that point! I made my way into the hospital and found the maternity ward. I spoke to a lovely midwife who was most helpful and got me settled before the Dr arrived. They both made it clear that I had to be transported to our capital ASAP and they would call in the Royal Flying Doctor Service to airlift me. They did not have adequate facilities for a 25 week baby in that hospital and they were very concerned, given my 1 hr 15 min labour with Chicky that I might have the baby there.

I managed to phone Rusty and have him call my Mum and make arrangement for the kids and him to go to the city. Meanwhile I swallowed meds to stop contractions, was swabbed for Step B which I had with Bugsy and Chicky, had blood taken and had an injection of steroids to help Possum's lungs produce sofractin.

A few hours later I was transported via ambulance from the hospital to the airstrip, then flown to the city and again transported by ambulance from the airstrip to the major maternity hospital in our state. I was assessed and admitted on arrival, more blood was taken along with another swab and I was advised I was now on strict bedrest. That night I hardly slept a wink.

The next morning I was taken off for an ultrasound to check on Possum and make sure he was ok. He was ok, but the scan showed there was no amniotic fluid left and that Possum was a footling breech. Later that morning the team of Dr's assigned to me attended and advised that as Possum was a footling breech I would need to have a cesarean when the time came if he remained in that position. Further they advised as he was only 25 weeks it would need to be a classical cesarean as there wouldn't be enough room otherwise. I signed the consent required and asked what the averages were like for women in my position. How long did they normally last before the baby was born? The reality is generally they last not longer than 1 week. I received another injection of steriods to help Possums lungs too.

The following day, we are now at Wednesday 29 September. Rusty and I decided that if I made it to the following Tuesday for another wellness scan on Possum we would find out if we were having a girl or a boy. We also decided that if Possum arrived in the meantime we had a unisex name picked. Just aswell we had that discussion because at 3.45am the following morning I got up to go to the bathroom. When I got back into bed I felt a very strange senation, like there was something there that shouldn't be, then it started flapping about! I pressed the call bell as I was concerned and waited for a midwife. While I was waiting the flapping got worse and I grew more concerned. I hit the emergency bell and immediately half a dozen midwifes flew into the room. I explained that I could feel what I thought by this time must be a foot flapping about where it shouldn't be and they wisked me out and down to theatre in the blink of an eye. When we got to theatre they checked and sure enough there was a little foot prolapsed!

They had just enough time to give me a spinal block which ment I was awake for the operation and Possum was born at 4.04am. He was immediately taken to the Special Care Nursery for attention. His apgar scores were 6 and 8 so he was going ok, but going to need lots of help. He was 25 weeks and 3 days gesdation. Unfortunately Rusty missed his birth and arrived at the hospital as we rang to tell him it was a boy. I was advised later that even if he had of been at the hospital he wouldn't have been admitted to the theatre as it was a classical section.

The balance of Thursday is a complete blur. When they removed the spinal block they gave me a massive dose of morphine which had me fuzzy and asleep until 4pm. At that time I started expressing for my little man and when Rusty came back to the hospital that evening I visited the nursery and got to touch him for the first time.

And a funny note. Possum was due on Bugsy's birthday in January but he arrived on Chicky's birthday in September. He was determined to share!

Edited to add his vitals, oops!
Weight 865g
Length 34cm
Head circumference 23cm

Fav HS Programs

I have found a useful bunch of programs that I am using as HS tools and thought I would share :)

Anki - FREE memory system software, we are just getting started with this

Planbook - lesson planning software, LOVE this

Delicious Library 2 - library catalogue system, can't believe I didn't know about this one sooner

Year 3 (Draft Plans)

*Please note this is a work in progress. Various updates will be made throughout the remainder of 2010 and all of 2011.*

Learning areas, curricula and resources for Year 3 (8yo) to be addressed in a formal manner -

MATH

Miquon (should already be finished with this, but if not complete)

Kumon Word Problems

Activities for the AL Abacus

Life of Fred Fractions

Singapore 3 or 4?? probably 4

Hands on Equations

LANGUAGE ARTS

All About Spelling (should complete this year)

Writing With Ease (should complete this year)

Michael Clay Thompson Town Level?

Bravewriter Arrow?

Mosdos Ruby Level?

Independent reading :

HISTORY

Story of the World Vol 3 (Early Modern Times)

Story of the World Activity Guide

Supplemental reading (Book basket) :

SCIENCE

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding K-2

Going deeper where needed with Real Science Odyssey Life, Earth & Space and Chemistry

Snap Circuit 100

Continuing this from Year 2 (The Real Science Odyssey programs are 1 year each) probably adding in Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding 3-5 & Real Physics (if released yet)

EXTRAS

Getting Started with Latin (should complete this year)

Galore Park Latin Prep 1

Meet the Masters (Art program)

Logic & puzzle books

Violin (lessons plus The Violin Book Series)

Playdough

Puzzles

Wedgits

Cooking

Singing (Sing Books)

Educational Videos Online FREE

Don't we HSers love that word, FREE :) Over at TWTM people are often talking about the Magic School Bus Videos and Bill Nye The Science Guy. Well, I do remember the Magic School Bus from when I was in school, but Bill Nye?? Anyway thanks to the lovely people over there I now have links for a number of educational videos online which are absolutely FREE. My kiddos enjoyed their first episode of Magic School Bus this morning, they are begging for more! We will try out Bill Nye next. Here are the links -

Magic School Bus Videos

Bill Nye: The Science Guy

Newton's Apple

NeoK12

Year 2

Learning areas, curricula and resources for Year 2 (7yo) to be addressed in a formal manner -

MATH - drawing from

Professor B math

Rightstart math games

Activities for the AL Abacus

Miquon

Kumon Word Problems

LANGUAGE ARTS

All About Spelling

Writing With Ease

Michael Clay Thompson Island Level

Shared reading :

• Chronicals of Narnia
• Little House Series
• The Jungle Book
• Parables from Nature
• Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
• The Secret Garden
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Through the Looking Glass
• 50 Famous Stories Retold
• Black Beauty
• The Adventures of Robin Hood

HISTORY

Story of the World Vol 2 (Medieval)

Story of the World Activity Guide

Supplemental reading (Book basket) :

• Otto of the Silver Hand
• Canterbury Tales
• Beowulf the Warrior
• Marco Polo for Kids
• Joan of Arc
• Days of Knights
• Knight at Dawn
• Viking Ships at Sunrise
• Story of Islam
• Good Queen Bess
• Ancient Celts
• Galileo
• Who Were the Vikings?
• Muslim Child
• The Miracle of Saint Nicholas
• Knight
• The Girl Who Lost Her Smile
• Viking Tales
• Liang and the Magic Paintbrush
• Baboushka and the Three Kings
• Sundiata
• The Orchard Book of Roman Myths
• Favorite Celtic Fairytales
• Bard of Avon
• What were Castles for?
• The Ch'i-Lin Purse
• Indian Tales

SCIENCE

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding K-2

Going deeper where needed with Real Science Odyssey Life, Earth & Space and Chemistry

Snap Circuit 100

EXTRAS

Getting Started with Latin

Logic & puzzle books

Violin (lessons plus The Violin Book Series)

Playdough

Puzzles

Wedgits

Painting

Drawing

Cooking

Singing (Sing Books)

Weekly Report 4/9 - 10/9

We took a break from formal schooling this week but did attend Homeschool Group and Violin Lessons.

Dolphin Discovery Centre

Today we visited the local Dolphin Discovery Centre. The session was conducted by a marine biologist who has been working with the bottlenose dolphins in our area for the past 10 years. He was very knowledgable and quite a funny guy. The kids really warmed to him and got heaps out of the session. They are keen to head back soon so that we can see some dolphins. Unfortunately we visited at the wrong time of the day. Here they are with their certificates. once again thanks go out to one of the local Mum's for organising this wonderful event! Thanks also to the sponsors who enabled our visit to be FREE.