photo: Giselle Alzina
27.7.09
Backblog
A whole month has slipped by without my being able to update the blog, it's been quite busy, so I don't feel too guilty but I do need to do some blogging penance and fill in the gaps backwards!
photo: Giselle Alzina
The whales are here and so are the tourists. I'm back in Rurutu and a few kilos lighter for it - Heimana is already two weeks old and appears to be feeding and doing all the other appropriate things that a small baby needs to do - including looking cute!
photo: Giselle Alzina
23.7.09
Homecoming
Yesterday we arrived back in Rurutu in the middle of a torrential rainstorm, with squalls which lasted most of the evening and through the night. It was definitely a wintry reminder that we're back in the Australs, compared to the sticky humidity of Tahiti. I'm glad to be back, and ready for the onslaught of guests. My daughter Heimana Hafwen was born on the 12th of July at 19h46, three weeks 'early', just like her sister. But I suspect that's where the similarities end, she's clearly quite a different little character - she's an unbelievably mellow little creature, not to say she doesn't have a good pair of lungs on her, she just prefers to keep quiet or kind of grunts her disapproval rather than full on screaming....
She loves to sit quietly squinting around at her surroundings, just taking it all in, quite a different temperament from her bossy big sister, who was always very ready to make her presence heard!
Here are some pictures from the hospital of Heimana and family.....
The birth ended up happening a bit sooner than 'expected', Viriamu didn't even make it in time. He had decided to stay on in Rurutu for the horse races on july 14th. I had also been hoping to make it over to Moorea for the 13th to see the midwives, obviously Heimana had other plans!
Second time 'round it was a very different experience, partly because I had half of my very well-meaning but noisy clan hanging around the hospital room for most of the day that I was admitted - funnily enough I didn't manage to get labor properly going until they had left (6 hours later!), but from then on it took me less than two hours to get dilated and deliver, talk about speed! Well, they had threatened to induce me if I didn't give birth within 24 hours of my waters breaking, so I had the incentive! But I also had some good advice from 'Birthing from Within' (I recommend it strongly as a great resource for pregnant couples) and unshakable confidence in my own body's ability to perform - which it did. Heimana was born just before 8pm on a sunday evening, just like her sister, weighing about 3kg and at 37 weeks, just like Matotea!
She loves to sit quietly squinting around at her surroundings, just taking it all in, quite a different temperament from her bossy big sister, who was always very ready to make her presence heard!Here are some pictures from the hospital of Heimana and family.....
The birth ended up happening a bit sooner than 'expected', Viriamu didn't even make it in time. He had decided to stay on in Rurutu for the horse races on july 14th. I had also been hoping to make it over to Moorea for the 13th to see the midwives, obviously Heimana had other plans!
Second time 'round it was a very different experience, partly because I had half of my very well-meaning but noisy clan hanging around the hospital room for most of the day that I was admitted - funnily enough I didn't manage to get labor properly going until they had left (6 hours later!), but from then on it took me less than two hours to get dilated and deliver, talk about speed! Well, they had threatened to induce me if I didn't give birth within 24 hours of my waters breaking, so I had the incentive! But I also had some good advice from 'Birthing from Within' (I recommend it strongly as a great resource for pregnant couples) and unshakable confidence in my own body's ability to perform - which it did. Heimana was born just before 8pm on a sunday evening, just like her sister, weighing about 3kg and at 37 weeks, just like Matotea!
20.7.09
Adjusting
Poor Matotea's having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the new baby, of course she is and always will be our baby, but she's not the only one any more, and while she's ever so gentle with her little sister, she's just a bit too keen.
We bought her a baby doll in Tahiti and she enjoyed that for a few days......
....but frankly the shine has rubbed off already, and she really prefers playing with the REAL thing. We tried to spoil her as much as possible while we were in Tahiti (including going to the funfair for the first time!), and I'm doing my best to make ' Matotea time' every day, but she is being extremely demanding and frankly a bit cranky at the moment, but I'm hoping it'll pass, she's been 'hanging out' with our guests to get some extra attention, it must be a big fall for our little starlet, though it's a bitter pill she'll just have to learn to share!
We bought her a baby doll in Tahiti and she enjoyed that for a few days......
....but frankly the shine has rubbed off already, and she really prefers playing with the REAL thing. We tried to spoil her as much as possible while we were in Tahiti (including going to the funfair for the first time!), and I'm doing my best to make ' Matotea time' every day, but she is being extremely demanding and frankly a bit cranky at the moment, but I'm hoping it'll pass, she's been 'hanging out' with our guests to get some extra attention, it must be a big fall for our little starlet, though it's a bitter pill she'll just have to learn to share!
27.6.09
The Middle Place
I have just received another shipment from Amazon, so I'm greedily devouring my new acquisitions, and of course it gives me the perfect 'excuse' to sit still and relax, particularly as I'm just getting to be too big for words - I really do feel like I'm about to pop, and there's still a whole month to go, at least in theory!
Anyway today I want to blog about Kerry Corrigan's inspirational book 'The Middle Place'. A moving story about Kelly's experiences coping with cancer, but it's much more than just that, it really cuts to the essentials of life, and I'm able to empathize a little too much with the pre-cancer Kelly, who's not really quite grown up yet, but somewhere lost in between childhood and real wisdom! She also has just an incredible network of loving family and friends supporting her. It's really a remarkable book, and not the downer you might expect. The author also has a great blog - her article Daring girl is worth a read, not to mention her cancer support page www.circusofcancer.org. She is also involved with an interesting parenting site, based in the Bay Area - Science for Raising Happy Kids. Having spent time living in the Bay Area it really is VERY Berkeley. For me one of the starkest and hardest difference to reconcile between Viriamu and myself are our approaches to children and parenting, these are pretty fundamental differences in values, and it's becoming a big rub for me, I need to look for the balance between my sentimentality and his hardness. Viriamu had a very different upbringing, children here in Rurutu/French Polynesia (at least from Viriamu's generation) don't necessarily enjoy what I consider to be a real childhood, they are expected to work and put up and shut up, for the most part. While I believe in the values of hard work, to me family relationships here seem cold and joyless, children are not expected to be engaged in conversations and have opinions. That said I do feel that my own childhood, where I was cherished and protected from life by kind and loving parents, may have left me emotionally fragile, unprepared to deal with the harsher realities of life.......anyway this gives me plenty to ruminate about! I still have plenty to learn! Happy reading......
Anyway today I want to blog about Kerry Corrigan's inspirational book 'The Middle Place'. A moving story about Kelly's experiences coping with cancer, but it's much more than just that, it really cuts to the essentials of life, and I'm able to empathize a little too much with the pre-cancer Kelly, who's not really quite grown up yet, but somewhere lost in between childhood and real wisdom! She also has just an incredible network of loving family and friends supporting her. It's really a remarkable book, and not the downer you might expect. The author also has a great blog - her article Daring girl is worth a read, not to mention her cancer support page www.circusofcancer.org. She is also involved with an interesting parenting site, based in the Bay Area - Science for Raising Happy Kids. Having spent time living in the Bay Area it really is VERY Berkeley. For me one of the starkest and hardest difference to reconcile between Viriamu and myself are our approaches to children and parenting, these are pretty fundamental differences in values, and it's becoming a big rub for me, I need to look for the balance between my sentimentality and his hardness. Viriamu had a very different upbringing, children here in Rurutu/French Polynesia (at least from Viriamu's generation) don't necessarily enjoy what I consider to be a real childhood, they are expected to work and put up and shut up, for the most part. While I believe in the values of hard work, to me family relationships here seem cold and joyless, children are not expected to be engaged in conversations and have opinions. That said I do feel that my own childhood, where I was cherished and protected from life by kind and loving parents, may have left me emotionally fragile, unprepared to deal with the harsher realities of life.......anyway this gives me plenty to ruminate about! I still have plenty to learn! Happy reading......
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