My Birth Story - Recovery

Due to my infection, Evie was at risk too, so they'd warned me that she'd have to be whisked off to the SBCU to be given her anti-biotics almost straight after birth. So after I'd had my precious skin to skin 2 minutes, she was bundled up and taken off in my husbands strong arms to the unit.

I was, they informed me, being 'finished off' before being sewn up. Bloody hell, I did not need to hear that!

The feeling of what was happening was very similar to that of when they were pummelling me to get her out. It turns out this was them trying to remove the placenta. True to form and inkeeping with the rest of my complicated labour, my placenta was detaching inefficiantly, ie. it was coming away in chunks,so they were having to use extra force. Quite frankly, this doesn't surprise me.

After what seemed like hours but was I expect only 20 or so minutes, I was wheeled out to the recovery room to wait for Evie and Paul to come back. This was really hard.   was sat there, post labour and operation without my baby. It sounds so dramatic I know but to go through all that and for that long to not have her in my arms was torture. The nurse who was on duty to look after me must've thought I was a bit mad. I lost track of the times I'd asked her where she was. To be fair, and I'll use this as an excuse a lot for the rest of this post, I was still very drugged!

I think about a further 30 minutes had passed with me sat in the recovery room when they bought me in the famous tea and toast that I'd heard about. Legend has it that this meal after birth is the best tea and toast you'll ever have. Now, I have to be honest, I was famished. And had I been able to actually REACH the tray, I would probably agree! This seems to happen a lot, things being placed out of reach. Baby, tea, medication....

I did eventually get to eat and drink as Paul came out not long after that with my little bundle of joy all wrapped up. He handed her straight to me and even as I type this now, I was overwhelmed with the strength of pure love I felt for her! Just incredible. I've never known anything like it.

We snuggled up and I eventually had this epic cup of tea and cold toast (which is actually how I like my toast) and Paul and I just poured over every little detail of her in amazement. He'd been incredible and stayed with her whilst she had a horrid IV needle placed in her hand and her first antibiotic course. They were concerned that my infection had spread to her so for the next 4 days she was wheeled down to the SBCU to have more antibiotics. Paul, very aware of how important it was to get her out to me so we could have more skin to skin and feed, hurried the doctors up and somehow managed to get the time it would have taken cut down from an hour to half that. I'm so grateful for that, he knew I'd be going stir crazy without her.

So we sat for the first time as a family, calling all our mums and dads and siblings. All the while, my poor mum was hovering outside the door of the unit, unable to come in and with no reception to receive phonecalls. The last call she'd had was from Paul hurriedly telling her I'd gone down for an emergency c-section. Her stress levels must have been through the roof! I finally got through to her and reassured her that we were OK. The emotion in my mums voice was obvious and I realised then, holding my preciosu daughter in my arms, how hard it must have been for my mum to watch me be in so much pain.

By the time I'd been wheeled up to the ward it was Quiet Time which meant that all visitors had to leave for 2 hours giving Mums and babies time to rest. So I had Evie all to myself and it was time to have a feed! Having never breast fed before, this was totally alien to me. I latched her on as best I could and she went for it like a crazy little chimp! It turned out that it wasn't a very good latch and that first bad feed caused me problems for the following 4 days. I won't go into the varying nuggetts of advice I was given by each midwife/nursing nurse/passing stranger because that's a whole different blog post. All I will say is that it's taken me almost 4 weeks to really find MY way, or should I say OUR way. Evie hadn't read any books prior to being born so we both had to learn. Breastfeeding is bloody hard work but so important to me so I'm glad I persevered.

Eventually my Mum was allowed in to see me and I handed her grand daughter to her, so excited to see her face. Aw, it was a picture. I think my Mum nearly burst with love. I was still pretty wasted from the drugs :) I filled her in on the events leading up to the c-section and we all just sat there kind of in shock at the pure drama of the last 48 hours!

After 3 visitors were allowed again. My Dad and my sister were in at 3.01. There are not really any words to describe how it was introducing her to them. The pictures tell it better than I ever could.

After everyone had gone it was just me, Paul and Evie.The end of a really long journey, both the pregnancy and the labour! Visitors were allowed to stay until 7 but at 5 Paul asked if I'd mind if he took off as he was pooped. I too was shattered! What I should have done at this point was rest but instead I stared at my little girl until my eyes started to cross.

My first night wasn't particularly nice- I mentioned before about things being placed out of reach. This was mostly an issue with regards to the cot. Especially with the caesarean and the remnants of the epidural plus a catheter, I simply couldn't reach her. When the midwife did arrive to place her on my lap I then couldn't reach the bag with all the nappies in to change her. I'm simplifying this and I'm not sure whether I'll actually write it up or not but it wasn't the kind of care I expected to get on the first night after such a traumatic birth.

So for now I'll leave it at this...

Until next time x