The Hospital Stay...

Having never having to spend any time in hospital I was pretty daunted at the prospect of a 4 night stay, just me and Joel without Steve.

When it came down to it though it was pretty wonderful.

The midwives and staff were all lovely and very attentive and didn't mind me buzzing them at all at anytime and as that first night i was bed bound and catheterised i had to buzz them every time Joel wanted a feed and when he fell back o sleep to be put back in his cot by my bed.  Which was a lot.  Seriously, I had no idea the breast feeding would be so constant to start with.  I got about 3 ours of very broken sleep.

And in fact every night I was there I was pretty much feeding, and during the day.  The midwives said this was quite normal as Joel has a tiny tummy which fills slowly and empties quickly, a bit like trying to fill a leaky bucket I guess.  Anyway I know I'm very lucky to have a baby who amazed the midwives by having a brilliant rooting system and latches himself on with no problems.  I really don't have to do anything.  He puts himself in the correct position, doesn't mind left or right and just gets on with it.  Fr about 3 hours at a time!!!

After my first night there a health worker came and bed bathed me and changed me out of the hospital gown which made me feel better.  They got rid of the catheter after lunch and helped me up and out of bed to go for a shower which was great.  I didn't get to see what my body actually looked like but on having to wash my wound and remove the bandage I could feel that things were rather unattractive and saggy.  I didn't realise you got an overhang of tummy.  Whether that's a c-section thing or a pregnancy thing in general I don't know.  I was also very swollen down below, and I mean puffy as anything!

On the next day, I guess as part of 'getting you up and about' we collected our own breakfast from a buffet laid out in a waiting room.  I nearly killed myself laughing at the sight of all these women bent over and shuffling along with their trays.  It was rather like we were characters from The Simpsons, the old folk in the grandpa's nursing home.  I called it 'The C-Section Shuffle' in my head and it actually hurt my scar trying not to laugh at myself.  Sarah also had a Cesarean with the twins and she remembered the same thing from her stay in her Welsh hospital. 

The food wasn't too bad.  I loved the 9pm tea and toast round, and one night when I was up a lot they just supplied me all night!  and let my mm come before visiting hours to sit with Joel so I could sleep for a couple of hours (Steve had gone to his parents holiday cottage for the night and wouldn't likely hear his phone until after I needed the assistance).

I had numerous visits from many doctors to check on me and Joel.  Due to the nature of the emergency of his arrival he was under paediatric care for 24 hours and they reassured me he was perfect with no repercussions from the meconium.  I did enquire with his doctor about his tongue as I wondered of the possibility of a tongue tie (there's a noticeable bit of skin there) but as she was happy with his feeding she said it was fine.  (more on this to come...)


We had lots of visits from our parents and my sisters came over a couple of times and Steve's brothers came along but didn't seem too interested, they prefer the dog as Izzy is more entertaining.  I liked the 2 visitors only rule and the one time Steve's dad brought all of them in at once I felt too overwhelmed as they're noisy boys and squabble, and Joel was sleeping peacefully and I was tired so Steve mentioned this and it didn't happen again.  My sisters were quite enamored of little Joel but as his cousins had croup they couldn't meet yet.

So it came round to Saturday and I was looking forward to going home but a bit scared at having this new responsibility to care for.  I was discharged at a`round 5pm, but was told I could stay longer if I wished!  I had a big bag of medications to take and a copy of my notes which made fun reading as every note talked about Joel feeding constantly, (it was a bit like a good school report which was nice!)

Then we were off home and Joel was in his new car seat and crying as he wanted another feed so I sat in the back with him and gave him a finger to suck.  `we parked up and I slowly made my way to the house whilst Steve brought  Joel and we were home.

The new chapter of our lives begins here!