A baby in my belly.

It is with much interest that we observe Hugo and his reactions towards Eloise. As a friend commented, he went to bed one night and by breakfast, he had a sister!

His understanding of the pregnancy was fairly limited, at best abstract. He accepted easily that there was a baby in my belly but deducted with a certain logic that his own deliciously round and soft belly must be housing a baby too. Hard to argue.

While we were a little worried about his reaction when the moment would finally arrive, we were also reassured by the fact that toddlers do accept a lot of things at face value. This is what we were counting on anyway.

As we had hoped, Eloise came in the middle of the night and Hugo slept right through the whole thing. In the morning, after a couple hours of sleep, we were faced with deciding how to present Eloise to her big brother. I came out first and Chris joined us with Eloise in his arms. Hugo soon noticed her and with a look of delighted surprise, he pointed and exclaimed, "Baby!".

Chris sat down to bring the sleeping bundle in his arms to Hugo's level. We were all staring and Hugo must have felt the intensity because his reaction changed to a slightly puzzled look. He stepped away a little and looked back and forth from us to the baby. When he started looking worried, we all snapped out of it and moved on to one of his normal games.

That first day, he ignored her and refused to touch her. We didn't insist and let him come to her. In the evening, he spontaneously decided to give her a kiss good night. He had accepted her.

With each day that passes, Hugo's interest seems to grow. He rushes over in the mornings and she is the first one he kisses good night. He leans over and inspects her nose, ears or hands. Today, I think he tried to pat her when she started crying.

And apart from that, he is just himself - a beautifully complex two year old who has probably already forgotten what life was like without his little sister.

Eloise & the storm.

Some said she was too comfortable while others said she was adding the final touches, either way, at nine days past her due date, the birth of our baby was highly anticipated. Despite the long wait, it was only an impossibly short labour that separated us from finally holding our new daughter.

I was woken from a deep slumber when my waters broke on a rainy night from Saturday to Sunday. Once I figured out what the warm water pouring out of me was, I woke Chris up and checked my phone. It was 2:10am. A minute later at the most, I felt a contraction. And another seven minutes later.

I wanted to be sure labour had well and truly started before calling the midwife. In retrospect, we probably should have called straight away but I expected some form of progression, similar to what had happened with Hugo. In any case, by the time Chris called at 2:30am, I was up and groaning my way through the house. Within a few minutes, the contractions felt more or less constant and I knew the baby, who had made us wait so long, was on the way out, and moving fast.

Celeste, the student midwife arrived first and found me in the midst of an incredibly powerful contraction where I literally felt the head dropping down. My anxious Mum heard me yell, "it's coming, it's coming!" from the other end of the house. I thought the baby would fall out of me right there and with help, I quickly shuffled my way across the room and onto the bed Chris had set up, in an attempt to defy gravity until the real midwife arrived.

Clinging on to dear life, I tried to slow things down until Jenny, my midwife finally arrived, a few minutes before 3:00am. I just remember her voice telling me she was here now which I took as the signal I needed to just let go. A few minutes later, at 3:08am, a beautiful little girl, with chubby cheeks and a mop of dark hair, was born. And making it even more beautiful, she was born at home.

As we all basked in this glorious moment, little did we realise just how lucky we were to have welcomed Eloise when we did.

Just two nights later, Newcastle was battling one of its biggest storms ever recorded, with winds reaching 120km per hour and flash flooding. Over a period of almost 24hrs, roofs were blown away, trees uprooted, cars swept away, power lost to thousands of houses, schools, hospitals, streetlights etc...

On that night, the midwives wouldn't have been able to come to our house and I doubt we would have had much more success getting to the hospital. By chance, we only lost our power for a couple of hours at the very start of the storm, while others are still waiting six days on. We got off extremely lightly, and for that, I am grateful.

In a strange way, the world did stop while we took in the enormity of becoming a family of four. When we emerged from the haze of the first days, so did the residents of Newcastle. We all stepped out at the same time into a world slightly transformed and as the city dusts itself off, clearing paths, fixing roofs, chopping centenary tree trunks and fallen limbs, so do we find our feet again.

After the storm, a sense of calm sets in.

For us, that includes our little Eloise Sophie van Lint, born on Sunday 19 April at 03:08am. 3.71kg and 51cm of adorable perfection.