Eloise Georgina Smart

Mr Matt and Mrs Joanna Ryan

2009-11-29T20:00:00.003+08:00

Congratulations Matt and Jo on your beautiful wedding day.

Go the Yankies!

2009-06-03T22:09:00.003+08:00

Thanks for our matching 'toddler' hats Nan and Grandad

Day out with Parker!

2009-03-07T20:00:00.000+09:00

On a lovely Autumn day, whilst Boo was away in Yallinyup for a boys weekend, and Peter and Jo were away for their babymoon weekend in Mandurah, cousins Parker and Eloise enjoyed a day at Heathcote Reserve in Applecross with Mum/Aunty Sharon and Nan and Grandad

3 generations!

2009-03-02T20:00:00.001+09:00

Eloise the shopaholic!

2009-03-01T20:56:00.000+09:00

Eloise 9 days old at Carousel Shopping Centre!

Eloise with Santa at Garden City Shopping Centre - 1 month old

Eloise food shopping in Coles - 5 weeks old

Eloise & Grandad at Gloria Jeans, Garden City at 6 weeks old!

Eloise having lunch with Nan in Myer, Garden City - 2 months old

Eloise & Parker at Gloria Jeans, Garden City (again :) - 3 months old

Oo la la - look at that butt!

2009-02-25T17:00:00.003+09:00

Check out Eloise's new Minilala MCN (modern cloth nappy)... sooooooooooooooo cute. Thanks to Mel, we were lucky enough to get 3 of this handmade nappy's when they were released and sold out within 2 hours!!! This is her plum kimono with some of her new hair clips. Isn't she gorgeous?

Tummy time

Oh no - I just filled my nappy :)

More pictures of the other patterns to come....

Happy 30th Joey!

2009-02-22T10:00:00.001+09:00

Joey is the first in the group to reach the big 3-0. We celebrated with high tea at the Leaf Tea Merchants in Mt Lawley. Here's the b'day girl - happy 30th Jo!

And the rest of us before we devoured our Parisan morning tea.

Our blue eyed girl!

2009-02-22T10:00:00.000+09:00

Our beautiful princess was playing with her favourite dolly the other day. She is growing so fast. Check out those eyes. Mum must you continue to take so many photos of me!

Dr Smart's Graduation Ceremony!

2009-02-17T19:00:00.000+09:00

The day had finally arrived, and Eloise got to share in the special evening along with Boo, Mum and Dad. Here are some pictures from the evening:

Ratpack at the Perth Zoo

2009-02-14T20:45:00.000+09:00

The youngest Chelsea supporter in the family!

2009-01-30T20:00:00.001+09:00

Christmas 2008

2008-12-25T21:09:00.003+09:00

Induction day and birth-day

2008-11-05T17:10:00.000+09:00

My due date to give birth was Melbourne Cup day (4th November 08). We attended a check up with my ob Dr Thyer around lunchtime and had a tentative induction date booked for 41wks for 11th November. At this appointment I reported that I had experienced reduced foetal movements in the previous 48 hours, and he reported that "the baby's" growth had slowed during the last 3-4 weeks of my pregnancy. He told us to pay our bags and come back to hospital in 4 hours, as I was being induced that night! We were shocked, anxious and couldn't believe our ears - we would be meeting our baby within a few days.

We returned to Mercy hospital later that day after letting our family and friends know, and the process of induction commenced. The first step was the gel and balloon insertion at around 8-9pm. Unfortunately at around 11pm it had fallen out, so Dr Thyer had to return to the hospital to reinsert it. After a mild sleeping tablet, Boo and I had a lovely final sleep through the night!

The following morning was all systems go. Mum arrived, Boo and I were refreshed. A catheter and cannula (I was strep-b positive) was inserted, and my waters were broken at around 9am, then bam... within 15 minutes the contractions started. I was able to cope with focused breathing for a while, then turned on the TENS machine - what a dream! I successfully used this for most of the pain management during my labour. By around 12.30pm I was 6cm dilated. The intensity of the contractions escalated over the next two hours, I tried gas once, but didn't like the sensation, so went back to the TENS machine, unfortunately during an internal at 2.30pm, I was now 5cm dilated. The 'baby' was in a posterior position and the pressure of the cervix had caused dramatic oedema (swelling), and I was constricting, not dilating. After my fantastic midwife Carmen contacted Dr Thyer, he suggested that I have an epidural to reduce my tension during contractions and hopefully reduce the swelling and allow me to dilate. At that time (unbeknown to me) Dr Thyer had suggested Boo and my mum that I would be having a Caesarean if I had not fully dilated by 4.30pm!

The next few hours seemed to pass in minutes... after one anaesthetist come and left as he was not satisfied that the epidural had been prepared correctly and didn't have time to hang-around (he had a booked Caesarean to get to - thanks alot!!!), Carmen managed to find a fantastic alternative anaesthetist who performed the epidural. Oh my goodness - I was so anti-epidural before the procedure... and couldn't believe how fantastically brilliant I felt after its insertion - this was around 3.30pm. Over the next 45 minutes I felt fantastic and could feel only slight tingling during contractions, despite enormous contraction peaks on the monitor. At 4.25pm, I had another internal performed which showed that I was now 10cm dilated. The epidural had worked - as you can see in this pic, and I had escaped a Caesarean by just 5 minutes! The room was then busy over the next 20 minutes, Dr Thyer arrived and by 4.50pm I started pushing. Since the drugs in the epidural were still working, I didn't feel a thing during the pushing phase and used the mirror as visual feedback to push (I was told that I wasn't pushing hard enough at one point as I was laughing and joking whilst pushing :). We watched as a thick matt of dark hair emerged from below, then at 5.10pm, our beautiful precious healthy baby daughter Eloise Georgina was born, weighing 3.2kg (7lb, 4oz), length 48cm. What an amazing day that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Baby shower - August 08

2008-08-31T21:28:00.006+08:00

The fantastic cake made by Ms Pond (the now Mrs Ryan)- isn't she sooo clever!

The theatre room (now the nursery)