Meet Alba

These photos bring me so much joy. We did family photos with Light by Nika last year and absolutely loved them so much, that we knew we wanted to do it again this year, especially since we recently became a family of 5! She manages to capture our kids' personalities so perfectly.

We would like to officially introduce you to our newest member, Alba Atarita Ngahuia Carlson, weighing 7.6 pounds and born at 3.14am on the 19th of April.

She carries the name of her tipuna. Her middle names came from her great great grandmothers on Jake's side of the family. Since Belle carries the names of my side of the family, we thought it would be nice for Alba to carry the names from Jake's side of the family. Our two daughters' names connect them to their whakapapa and those that protect and guide them.

Alba is also a special name in our family, it use to be my nickname at school and also a character in one of my favourite books, The Time Travellers Wife. It also originates from Latin and signifies dawn and sunrise, Jakes favourite time of day. Her Maori name is Whetūmarama which means shining star. As when we were driving into hospital to have her the sky was so brightly light with lots of stars. 

I thought I would take this opportunity to share these photos along with Alba's birth story. All three of my births have been completely different. You can read Arlo's birth story here (which Jake wrote about). Arlo’s birth was very traumatic and became life threatening for me after hemorrhaging and needing emergency surgery after his birth. This led me to have a planned c-section with Belle. It was so calm and healing that I said "I can do that again" shortly after giving birth to her and decided straight away we would have a third baby. Which brings me to Alba's birth story.

It was found that I had a heart shaped uterus after my difficult birth with Arlo and explained why I hemorrhaged and needed to have my placenta surgically removed. I was informed that I would be at a higher risk of having a breech baby or an early labour because of this too. Both of which happened with Alba.

I was told early on that she was in the breech position and that it would be ok because I was scheduled in for a planned c-section again anyway. However, I was told that if I went into early labour I was to make my way to the hospital as soon as possible.

Two weeks before her due date I had a feeling and told Jake to make sure his hospital bag was packed. Must have been that mama intuition because at 1am in the morning I woke up in bed to my waters breaking. It wasn't just a little drizzle either, it was a full-blown gush of water! Something I hadn't experienced with my other two births.

I quickly made a call to my midwife and my mum who was on her way to look after the older kids. Jake also called the hospital to let them know we were on our way. It didn't take long before my contractions started ramping up and by the time we arrived at the hospital I was in active labour. The midwife on call quickly realized how far along I was and rang the theatre to tell them to start getting things ready. I was in a lot of pain at this stage and told them that I didn't think I was going to make it to the theatre as I could feel that she was coming!

By the time they wheeled me into the theatre I was getting the urge to push. I was begging for them to hurry and put the spinal block in. Finally! I laid down and immediately started to feel the effects of the spinal block. I was so thankful, we made it!

And just in time as when the nurse was putting the catheter in, she turned to the obstetrician and said, “um what do we do about this?” There was a little foot sticking out of me! Thankfully, the obstetrician was a total pro and said not to worry and immediately started the c-section. In a matter of minutes, I had my beautiful little girl on my chest and my eyes filled with happy, proud, overwhelmed tears of joy. She was in quite the rush! Born at 3.14am only two hours and 14 minutes from when my waters broke, and my labour started!

I enjoyed every second of our skin to skin while they stitched me up and took me into recovery. Alba latched perfectly onto my breast. I was one proud mama embracing all the newborn sweetness. So now I can say that I have experienced three different deliveries, a natural birth, a planned c-section and an emergency c-section. All three of my experiences were unique, wonderful, and challenging in their own way.

Alba’s first few weeks at home in our newborn bubble was heaven. She’s definitely a dream baby. She just fitted right in and went with the flow. As you can see from these photos, her siblings adore her. It feels so special to welcome another baby into the family. I can't say we are done because I don't think I'll ever feel done but for now we feel very happy as a family of five.

However she makes me want to have a fourth child...