23.22pm Saturday Started labour – according to Gemma – nearly 48hours ago. She said she saw my labour starting at somewhere around midnight so I was in labour for just over 7 hours.
Sunday
4.30am this morning and I woke up to find Jamie missing. I wandered out into the ward rather confused to find that one of the midwives had checked his temperature and found him to be a little cold so they had moved him to a ‘hot cot’ by the nurses station.
After the labour ward, I was taken onto the Transitional Ward where I will have to stay until Baby Borrill or Jamie George Francis Simpson as we named him this morning, has ‘established feeding’. At the moment – and because of him being pre-term - he lacks the sucking action required for breast feeding. He is currently being fed every 3 hours with Aptamil formulae milk. I have been attempting to breast feed with the help / bullying of the midwives, but he isn’t quite grasping it so to speak. So I have been put on what can only be described as a milking machine to at least stimulate my breasts into thinking Jamie is feeding and thereby (hopefully) producing more milk which will (hopefully) encourage Jamie to feed.
Because my waters broke on the 1st April, Jamie is having to have antibiotics which he gets once a day via the cannula on his hand. (Mummy had one in her hand most of yesterday!). This looks sore but it’s better than him having an injection every day. We have put a sock over his hand to hopefully stop it being pulled about, which makes dressing and undressing him difficult but we are getting better. The Bull changed two nappies today and I think I did a couple as well.
Yesterday is all a blur. The Bull feels the same way. I remember it not being too bad in the end and certainly not as bad as anticipated and worried about. And Jamie is Perfect!! At one stage I felt I had pooed – only to be told that it was Jamie’s head. Then it felt like I was sat on him. I do remember having my legs in stirrups and I did an awful lot of pushing during the last stages of labour but I can’t remember how long for. I didn’t really feel the contractions due to the epidural and had to rely on the monitor I was wired up to which showed them as numbers. 15+ generally meant I was having a contraction.
The Bull was very good. Rubbing my back when it got really painful – which I think was due to me straining – although he did get a bit flappy and could not find things when I asked for them i.e. water, lip balm, sick bowl. I was only sick twice. The second time due to drinking an energy drink far too quickly which then came back up equally as quick. I did feel better however for the puking!
Our midwife was fantastic. We could not have asked for anyone better. She told us her shift finished at 7.30am and he would be out by then. True to her word Jamie was born at 7.17am. What I could not get over however, was the amount of paperwork that she had to complete throughout the labour. It seemed she was always having to write something in the notes.
Somewhere along the way I seem to have lost an earring……and any dignity I may have ever had i.e. having to deliver the placenta – which I really don’t remember as I was too busy waiting to be told / hear he was OK. Then having my catheter removed, and having to use a bedpan when I felt like I was very high up on the bed and on display for all to see. Being on the 4th floor, I suppose it wasn’t really possible but who knows? And then finding out I had ripped myself during all that pushing, and needed to be stitched up. The stitches will dissolve by themselves in approximately 6 weeks. As for the number, I was told it was just one continuous stitch but I made the mistake of looking down while she was doing it and the sight of the hooked needle will be with me for a long time. At least she did it under local anesthetic. For this I am allowed to take paracetamol and am encouraged to have a daily bath. Of course, I will be bleeding for a number of days and the midwives keep asking me about the colour and the flow of it!
Tonight (Sunday) I got a bit fretful. The Bull had a few tears yesterday but mine have kicked in today. I currently have a cold damp flannel on my forehead and I am thinking about all I have been through in the last 48 hours and not knowing when I, sorry we, will be able to go home. One midwife said it would be 1-2 weeks. When they were giving him his antibiotics this evening one of the midwives did say 4-5 days, but it depends on the blood results. The pediatrician came today. He saw Jamie just after he was born and said today he was a bit jaundice but his breathing and chest are ok. He said we had to wait for the ‘cultures’ to comeback from the lab which has a 48 hour turnaround – meaning Monday morning. So at least tomorrow we will know if there is anything to really worry about. He also mentioned ‘established feeding’ as a criteria for going home…. It already feels like I have been here over a week, what with coming in last Friday, going home Saturday and back in Wednesday am.
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