And just like that, she is one.







Happy Birthday Bird, now stop growing up.





Margot wore Jamie Kay, of course

My Dress is Miss Crabb

Keepsake box was a plain on from Keeps







Introducing Margot, and her birth story.

I know it’s a little late in the piece, but I thought I would officially introduce Margot via the blog! I took a few snaps to use for our Thank-you cards, and I just had to share a few ( yes, I am officially that mama, obsessed with my kid )

Margot’s full name is pretty darn long, and here is a little explanation of the names.

Margot Rae Pipiwharauroa Speeden-Adams

Margot, meaning pearl, something  beautiful made from hard times.

Rae, meaning wise protection, for her safe arrival into the outside world, and for all the strong women that prayed for her at the time.

Pipiwharauroa, is the name of her great great great great grandmother, it means shining cuckoo, who heralds in the spring after winter, the sign of new life.

Our little bird, our second born who has been long awaited.

Her Birth Story

Margot was very overdue, in fact, the night I went into labour was the eve of her induction. I was so happy to go into labour naturally as we had planned a comfy home birth. I started feeling contractions around 1am, and knowing it could be a while tried to get some sleep, breathing through the contractions and feeling nervous and excited all at once. I really didn’t get much sleep, and things started to pick up around 5am, so we called our midwife, she came over and checked how things were going. I was only a few centimetres dilated, so she and the second midwife took off for a coffee and we tried to get some more rest. I slept for a bit, then woke up to go to the bathroom and my waters broke,  calling the midwives they headed back.

It was such a beautiful morning, slightly overcast and cool, we popped the heat pump on, started filling the pool. I was pretty energised at this stage, enjoying the challenge of contractions, and was excited about meeting them head on as they got more intense. After a hard and long labour with Coco, ending in an epidural, I was eager to have the birth I had been envisioning. I moved about the house, chatting to the midwives, doing the dishes, drinking cups of tea and we all mentioned how lovely and comfortable it felt. My midwife checked Margots heart rate through a contraction, and it seemed to dip a little, she told me to move into a different position and listen again, it dropped again. At this point I remember looking at her, and her at me, knowing that I had heard it too, I immediately knew something was up. It all happened so fast then, she made the call ( side note, being the same midwife I had for Coco, she knew our history, and knew that any sign of danger we were off to hospital )So off we went. Luckily we live a couple of blocks from the hospital and were there in no time.

I was set up in a room and popped on a monitor. Then, placing oxygen on me they listened through a few more contractions. Each time her heart rate would dip, but then come back up again straight away, now I can’t remember exactly how many of these we listened to, but one contraction dipped, and didn’t come back up again. To be honest, I forgot a lot of this, I was still breathing through some pretty big contractions and trying to stay centred and calm. The next part is such a blur, but in a matter of minutes there was an influx of people in the room, putting in IV’s, prepping me for surgery and I was being rushed through the corridors on a hospital bed to the operating room for an emergency caesarean. Margot had what they call a prolapsed umbilical cord, the cord was over her head, so with every contraction, her cord was being clamped, and with it her supply of oxygen.

Margot was pulled out of me at 11.23am, a healthy 8 pounds 9 ounces, and taken straight away to the special care baby unit. Due to the cord being clamped she had been distressed in the womb, she had swallowed a lot of thick meconium, and it had coated her lungs. When she was born we didn’t hear her cry, we didn’t get to see her, we were in this great big white room while I was stitched up, all seven layers of me. It was three hours until we got to see Margot and two days until we got to her hold her. 10 days later we left the hospital with our daughter, still on oxygen and took her home. Navigating life attached to an oxygen tank wasn’t the easiest, but we were just happy to have her home. At 6 weeks Margot finally came off oxygen, and has been fantastic ever since, we truly feel incredibly lucky to have her, that she made it, and that she is now a healthy, happy, 10 week old!

We would like to thank everyone for their kind words, thoughts, prayers, gifts and good vibes, for those who have followed the journey that has lead us to here and supported us from near and far. We are grateful for you!



Simple Changing Table




