Introducing Brielle Alyssa Vining

On 15th of April at 8.50am we had the great joy and blessing of  welcoming a beautiful baby girl, Brielle Alyssa.  Her name is Hebrew and means God is my Might (Brielle) and joy and great happiness (Alyssa).  People have asked where we got her name from, and I truly believe that it came from God, as I didn't find it in a baby book or baby name website.  Samuel and Azaria are both Hebrew names, so I wanted a Hebrew name for my next baby.  I read through thousands of names, but couldn't find anything I liked for for a girl (we had the boy name sorted, and we didn't know the sex of the baby).   When I looked up the meaning of both names it really described how I got through pregnancy with Hyperemesis gravidarum (severe morning sickness).

This birth had to be a Cesarian section at the recommendation of two specialists.  I'd never had one before so the concept was very strange.  Shaun and I went down to Invercargill 5 days before the surgery was scheduled as the baby was sitting very low.  I actually had contractions all Saturday afternoon, but then they stopped at around 6pm.

Shaun and I had a lovely time in Invercargill, but we did miss Sam and Azaria heaps, as they were being looked after by Shaun's mum.

We had to arrive at hospital at 6.30am:

Here I am at 39 weeks,  in our room in the Maternity Ward at Invercargill Hospital.

Smiling away, but I'm actually really nervous as I don't like surgery (who does?!).  It was comforting being put in Room 7, 7 is God's number.

The empty bassinet waiting:

Shaun got to wear this hot doctor outfit for the theatre:

And these shoes:

Here we are all ready to go (iPhone selfie):

After two natural births the whole concept of a C section is just surreal. One minute you are pregnant, and the next you are being delivered of a baby without pain.  God had revealed to me in a dream that the baby would be a girl, and I knew in my heart that He wouldn't give me such a beautiful name for it not to be used.  In the dream I saw a girl and I saw her name written down.  Azaria wanted a baby sister so badly that she had been drawing pictures of me with two girls, one tiny for weeks.  My favourite two had me pregnant with a little girl in my tummy, and another with me holding the hands of two girls.

I cried and cried when she was born, as we had lost a baby early in pregnancy in 2012.  I truly believe Joel 2:25 that God "will repay us for the years the locusts have eaten", and this is something that  our Pastor said was a word for our church this year.  It's not that Brielle will replace that precious baby we lost, but that for a while I didn't know if it was in God's will for me to be a mother to three children on earth.  But actually, I'm a mother to four, I have one in Heaven that we will meet in eternity.

I wanted the birth to be as natural as possible, here I am  having skin to skin and being assisted by the midwife.  We were really blessed by one of the three anaesthetists, who not only distracted us with his quirkiness in the theatre, but was a keen photographer who took amazing photos of Brielle being born and straight after, freeing Shaun up to not have to play photographer. 

Nothing can describe holding your newborn baby for the first time. After she was born we went to recovery where I breast fed her for the first time.  She was born with two blisters on her wrist where she had sucked her wrist in my womb.  This meant I didn't need to teach her how to latch, she was amazing at feeding from the very bringing, another blessing.

Our beautiful girl, probably less than an hour old:

Back in our room after the surgery:

Having a cuddle with Daddy:

Sam and Azaria meet their new baby sister:

Sam was (and still is) completely besotted with Brielle, it was truly so beautiful as he wants to hold her all the time.

Azaria holding the darling little sister she so wanted:

I spend two nights in Invercargill Hospital, and then transferred back to Lakes District Hospital at home here in Queenstown.  The care at our home hospital was amazing, midwives Sharon, Anne and Sue (my previous midwife with my first two babies) provided such a loving and caring environment, and helped me sort out the feeding, and let me get sleep.  

The recovery from the C section is challenging, they give you a lot of medication to control the pain, including morphine through the spinal block, and then morphine tablets.  Brielle is 10 days old now, and I'm not able to do much except rest, although we did go out for a coffee with my Mother in law today.  The recovery is 6 weeks of taking it easy.  I'm doing everything I'm told to ensure the best recovery.

I leave you with my favourite photo, I just love the way newborn babies snuggle in:

Love and blessings
Melissa x