We have some brilliant news: my baby sister decided she wanted to come out last weekend and was born on Sun 7th of Jan at 01:31 AM. She is unbelieavably cute, and I keep wallking up to her pointing to her nose saying "baby" and "nose" :-D She has her own site that you can reach using this link (www.abicat.me.uk).

But my parents had the ultimate nightmare for a while....first my sister had scared my mum half to death by hardly moving the Saturday before she was born. We all rushed to Rikshospitalet where they established that her pulse was very high and the doctor decided to induce the birth since the due date was only 3 days away anyway and she was obviously stressed by something. My dad took me to Ingunn's and came back shortly after. At 10 PM they broke my mum's amniotic fluid sack, at 11 PM she was given an intravenous drip to speed up labour, and at around 1:23 my sister's pulse suddenly dropped from approx. 140 to 80. The doctor had to use all his strength to pull her out using a suction cup, and my parents witnessed the one thing you don't want to see during birth: the umbilical cord wrapped tightly round her neck and as if that was not enough: a knot on the cord itself. She was rushed out and given an oxygen mask, but relief....my parents heard a little noise from her before she left the room. She was brought back reasonably quickly and was breathing fine and everything seemed OK. I came to see her after kindegarden, and wanted to wheel her little plastic bed around (but wasn't allowed to).

But in the evening my sister started fussing and crying, and neither my mum nor the midwives managed to calm her down. A pediatrician looked at her past midnight and established she needed to go up to the newborn intensive ward for observation because she had twitches in her arms and legs. Later that night she had long-lasting cramps and had to be given medicine to stop them.

The next day (Monday) was an utter nightmare for my parents. Bartine had to have an EEG , full anesthetic, MRI scan plus a lumbar puncture to check the contents of her spinal fluid. A lot to go through for such a little person so early in life! The results weren't ready and interpreted by the consultant (overlege) until late afternoon the day after and my parents have never been so anxious in their entire lives.

Luckily, the consultant had very good news: the MRI scan did unfortunately show some damage to parts of Bartine's brain, due to lack of oxygen. The cause is unknown, could have been the knot on the umb. cord, or it being wrapped round her neck, or simply just a failing placenta. According to the doctor attending the delivery, it was most likely the knot that caused the damage. However, the consultant said he didn't think it would give a lasting impact since newborn babies have a unique ability to compensate for these things (unlike adults). Other brain cells will hopefully take over the functions of the damaged ones. In the very worst case she will get a light version of cerebral palsy and possibly damaged vision, but we obviously keep our fingers crossed. My parents were very very relieved indeed after these news!!! There is little reason to believe she won't be 100% OK. She will need to take medicine for her cramps for 3 months, but already from day 3 she has been taking a low dosage and the cramps have not returned.

Aunt Hilde flew down from Trondheim on Wednesday to look after me while my parents stayed at the hospital to be with Bartine, who had to stay for observation at the newborn ward until today. Until Hilde arrived I stayed at Ingunn's. I had a wonderful time with both of them, and I've been taught some new words :) Bartine could finally come home for good today! She also spent most of yesterday at home. She's doing very well, sleeping and eating lots and while she's awake she's a delight. Unfortunately, she does eat several times a night and does most of her sleeping during the day, so we have to try and make her swap those activities over ;) Finally a big thank you to absolutely everyone we dealt with at Rikshospitalet! They have all been very professional, yet sympathetic. When something like this was to happen, we could not have been at a better hospital! My parents will never ever understand those people who choose home-births!!! Also, thank you so much to both Ingunn and aunt Hilde for looking after me so well and bringing me to kindergarden every day!