My First days as a mum of two - Day 2

So where did I leave off last time... oh yeah, it was about 6am the day after my C-Section and had a rude overworked nurse that night....have put off doing this day a bit, it was a hideous day and not one I like to rethink!!

So I rested a little through the morning and although I hadn't slept (just a little dozing) all night, I didn't really feel too bad, although the pain was amping up a fair bit, more than it had by this stage last time, but I put it down to having already had one so it was bound to hurt more (scar tissue and all that) As well as I had been warned the after pains are much worse the second time round. Yes they sure are!

I had a lovely nurse/midwife for the day shift, I also had her last time I was in so was very pleased to see I had her again. She informed me that my morphine that I had been given in my Spinal Block was a 12 hour dose (ie, would have worn off by 1.30 that morning) but they could not find my drug chart, hence why I had not been given anything except panadol since I came out of surgery. This explained the pain!!! Panadol just don't cut it after major abdominal surgery. She proceeded to spend a fair amount of time ringing around trying to find an "available" member of the pain team to either find my chart or write up a new one....

Still nothing was resolved by the end of her shift (3.30ish) and I still had nothing but panadol and was by then over tired and SO SORE!! This in turn was rubbing off on Amber, and she was getting more and more worked up, not feeding properly, not sleeping, and so of course, making me more and more upset.

The next nurse that came on after this was another I had last time and she was DISGUSTED that nothing had been sorted, and so wrote up a prescription herself, changing what they had said I should have to something stronger, as she wanted me up and out of bed that day, and no way was that gonna happen at that point. (I should have been up and showered that morning). So finally first part of drugs was sorted, had them, waited awhile for the other part of the cocktail she had written up for me, and by then Amber was so worked up and I was frazzled and upset at not having gotten out of bed for over 24 hours.

Mum, hubby and Dex came to visit just before tea time, and Amber still was crying almost non stop. Nurses had taken her out of my room to try calm her but no way was that happening. In the end my no-nonsense nurse expressed off me and gave it to her with a syringe, then pushed her bed into a corner, wrapped her up tight and said to leave her to cry, which goes against everything I believe in as a mum!!

This wasn't working, Amber was screaming, Dex was banging his head on a window wanting to go play and my tea was horrible, just to top it off. In the end, I burst into tears and just couldn't stop. Mum went to Amber, patted her for a few seconds and she just stopped crying and fell asleep. Go the magic power of nannas!!

Adam and Dex came to me and gave me lots of cuddles, I even got Dex to get up on bed with me as I missed my Dexter cuddles so much and I started to calm down.

They left for a bit so I could rest and Adam was coming back to help me have my first shower once he had taken them both home. Amber slept for a good 2.5hours solid and I managed to doze a little as well and by the time Adam came back, I was a lot calmer and ready to attempt getting out of bed.

I remembered very clearly what it felt like the last time round when I had my first walk from bed to bathroom. It feels like your insides are going to fall out!!! It is a hideous feeling and by the time you get to bathroom you are way too tired for a shower.

My lovely husband showered me, while I just hung off the shower rail. We did the same thing last time. I'm sure it's not every man's idea of a good time, but he did it, he even shampooed and conditioned my hair for me!!

Once I was showered and dressed (knocking one of drips out of my hand in process and spilling blood EVERYWHERE), I walked to a chair and had my first go at feeding Amber properly and unassisted since she was born. This combined with the shower and I was a new person. Amazing how the little things like being able to leave your bed and look after your new baby for yourself and make things so much better.

I actually got a few hours sleep this night, and didn't need to push the bell for help once, which again helped enormously with my frame of mind!!

Stay tuned for day 3. Amber is now 2 weeks old and am getting into being at home alone with 2 kids now that hubby is back at work, so taking a little longer than planned to do these posts!!

Nikki

My first days as a mum of two -Day 1 (C-Section Day) Part 2

See part 1 here,

While in Recovery, they gave Amber a try at latching on, and like her big brother, she did it like a pro. No problems at all, and latched she stayed for the next hour and a half... Yes, my poor nips is all I can say!!


Once all was good I was wheeled to my room, where very quickly I started feeling pretty spaced out. I generally struggle to take anything harder than panadol these days, and in the end I had a bit of a cocktail of drugs what with the usual c-section suspects, the insulin infusion, the stuff to bring my blood pressure up and apparently something else to bring it back down when it got too high... so I guess it was to be expected that I would feel a little wierd!! Also, the night before going in I had maybe 3 hours sleep, because I kept on thinking about stupid, irrelevant things, as is the case when you really NEED some sleep!!


Adam stayed with me for awhile til he was sure I was settled, then he went home to get our son to bring him in so he could be first to meet his little sister.

They were back within about 45 minutes and he got to have his first cuddles. (Absolutely BESOTTED with her, by the way) then my mum and nanna came, then hubbys sister, then his parents, then hubby went home for awhile and Amber and I had some quiet time. Dad came for a visit a little later and then hubby was back again until it was time for me to sleep.


At this point we were both feeling exhausted and also noticing that already we felt a lot less stressed about being parents again than we felt for the first time with Dex, which was a nice feeling.

Everything was nice and quiet and I was quite relaxed, and Amber was already proving to be more of a sleeper than Dex at a few hours old, so I sent hubby home. 


1am came, my night nurse/midwife was one very stressed lady who every time came in made like I was a nuisance for calling her. (ummm HELLO I just had a c section and can't get to my crying baby without you getting her), and Amber became more and more unsettled as the night wore on, so I got more and more worked up, so in the end I asked her what she thought I should do, keep calling her or put her in my bed. She said I should just have her with me, handed her to me and left me to try and adjust myself and get comfy. Not an easy task with still slightly numb legs, an already really sore incision and a worked up baby. 

Anyone who has had a c section will understand how tricky it can be trying to get a brand new baby to latch when you are immovable from the waist down. It is SO hard. But with no staff on hand to help, I had to just try and manage. It was an incredibly long night, but even so, I still was feeling ok when morning came.


Stay tuned for Day 2, filled with more overworked nurses, lots of pain, stressed mummy and baby... oh and a lost drug chart which meant no pain killers for me....

My first days as a mum of two - Day 1 (C-Section Day) Part 1

Welcome to our family my beautiful wee Amber!!

I woke up early to have my breakfast before 7am, as required. After that, I showered, shaved, and used the special wash you have to use prior to surgery and made sure I had everything I needed. As I had Gestational Diabetes, I had to go in to Hospital at 9.30am for an insulin infusion. This didn't go so well last time and so I am a little apprehensive about it. 


We get to the hospital, and surprise, surprise, the maternity ward don't know why I am there as no one told them I was coming in early.... So we go for a walk, hubby has a pie (torture as I cannot eat!!) and go back up again. They decide to put me on the monitor for awhile to fill in some time, and HELLO I'm getting some contractions! (As I was pretty sure I was) So I guess baby girl wasn't going to be waiting around a whole lot longer if this wasn't booked for today!!


Anyway, it gets to 12.30, drips are in, monitoring done and I'm in my pretty gown and off we wander to Surgical Admissions. We are only there a few minutes when they say everyone is ready and that we can go through. So I walk (yes WALK, felt like a bloody long walk knowing what I was going to!!) to the operating theatre.

We get to Operating Theatre and I hop straight up on the bed. The local anaesthetic and Spinal injection terrified me last time as my blood sugars dropped to dangerously low immediately following it last time and am sure it will happen again. The injections themselves weren't as bad this time, thank goodness. But soon as I lie down, yep, my blood pressure drops really low (not sure about my sugars this time, no one mentioned), and so they give me something to bring it back up and I hear surgeon ask anaesthetist if he wants him to wait and his answer is "No, just get the baby out", which I think probably scared me just as much!!


I start to come right quickly as I did last time, and they were well on their way by the time I paid attention again. They broke my waters and I heard a really loud POP followed by a whole lot of splashing I didn't hear last time, and then a nurse saying "arrr... we need a towel..." Apparently when my waters went, they REALLY went! Within just a few minutes our beautiful baby girl is pulled into the world!!

Everything went perfectly, and as soon as she was cleaned up and checked over, she was bought to us for our first cuddle. Then my hubby went out to recovery with her while they finished stitching me up and cleaning me up. Apparently it was a good mess as they even needed to change my pillowcase!!!


Off to recovery I went, they weighed Amber and she came in at 7lb 5oz, which is smaller than her big brother at 8lb 8oz.


This is already a long post, so see here for the second half!!