I've just given birth

[OhToBeASeahorse]

And it was shit.

1st labour was awful. I had such high hopes for this one.

Managed just in the water with no pain relief until my waters went with meconium. Then G&A and straight to pushing. Baby came out, great, then her cord snapped. So we were to be transferred from birth unit to hospital. Then my placenta wouldnt come out.

Did the whole labour naturally then ended up in theatre. Now without my girl who is in SCBU who clearly do not support BF which I'm finding difficult. They will call m to go and feed her again in an hour or so but DH isnt allowed to go, fuck knows how that will work given I cant stand.

Sorry. Just needed to vent.

Oh op what a lovely update. An hour and a half! Clever greedy little girl!

Huge congratulations! Sorry it hasn’t been what you were expecting but you have just given birth to a brand new human! That’s amazing 💐

Oh, well done OP! I'm sorry it's been so shit. Thank goodness she'll be with you again soon- I can't believe SCBU's attitude to breastfeeding, to be honest. Maybe consider a complaint to PALS when you're better and the newborn fog has lifted somewhat.

Congratulations on the birth of your lovely DD and I hope you feel much better soon x

Your update has warmed my heart! Congratulations op xx

Good on your little girl! She doesn't want to be in SCBU lol. She's obviously a little trooper. Shaky start but onwards and upwards now.

So happy for you after such a rough and worrying start, and here's hoping all will go well from here on.

Op glad you are doing well. I went through something similar with my little one and I know how horrible it is, especially when you are separated from your little one and when you don’t have your partner with you.

I had a very similar situation to you. Baby was in scbu and they wouldn’t let him be with me until he was feeding and they pushed for ff as I wasn’t getting the hand if bf. I agreed to ff just to have him with me in the postnatal ward and once he was with me I was hell bent on breastfeeding and got lots of support from the midwives and carried on bf and didn’t need formula in end.

Sounds like your lo is going great and fingers crossed you can both go home soon. I’m sorry this has happened to you

Ps congratulations and well done to your little girl for feeding for so long!
Hopefully home soon so she can feed from the comfort of your sofa/bed

Sorry you had such a shit time, you must be so exhausted.

Hope you and the baby are back together again soon.

Want to tell us what she is like?

Congratulations, OP, sorry you and your little DD had a difficult start together. Can’t believe the lack of BF support! Ridiculous!
Hope it’s plain sailing from here on in.

And what an appropriate username! 😄

I did my full first birth without an epidural then had a third degree tear and placenta wouldn't come out so I had to get a spinal block in theatre. I know how gutting it is! My little boy went on to breastfeed for a year and a half after we were reunited. Congratulations

Congratulations and so pleased things have improved.
Well done on the feeding that’s great. Enjoy all the precious newborn snuggles now. Just the best thing ever ❤️

When you get home just jump in bed with her and have cuddles. Don’t try and do anything. You both need cuddles. Celebrate her and congratulations!! Takeaways were invented for this reason

Congratulations, Seahorse.
Hope things continue to go well.

Congratulations! I had a manual placenta removal with my first, it was scooped out in pieces. But I recovered from it really well, there were no issues at all after.

Both times I ended up in operating theatre for emergency c-section due to babies heartbeats dropping after 24 hours of me trying to give birth. Both times I experienced problems with initiating breastfeeding, but at the end I managed to breastfeed both of them until 2,5 years old.
They are now at school and I still feel disappointed and guilty sometimes. And also I feel ridiculous because I have 2 healthy children and my health didn’t suffer because of what happened. So what do I want?
I blame the modern culture of romanticising birth and how everything should be so natural and amazing. Expectations are too high.
Congratulations!!! It doesn’t matter that if something went against the plan, it doesn’t matter if you manage to breastfeed or not. You have your baby now and it’s amazing.

Congratulations @OhToBeASeahorse.

I hope things continue to improve.

I ended up with retained placenta after birth of DS. I had managed the birth with just gas and air and was worried about going to theatre and leaving DH and DS. So ended up having it manually removed in the delivery room with just gas and air for pain relief . Wouldn’t recommend that to anyone!

This happened to me with my second! Gutted. And I couldn't process the birth for ages because my immediate focus was just "Must get to newborn"

Breastfeeding was a bit slow off the ground because we missed the initial bit and also they had given him formula in SCBU because I wasn't there, I remember being really irritated by the cheerful way they reported "He's taking 90ml now!" well how the fuck was I supposed to match that expectation with colostrum?

Anyway, he had top ups for a while but I kept going with the BF and he was fully able to BF from about 6 weeks, but DH liked giving the bedtime bottle so we kept it until 4 months when he started to reject it instead.

@ineedaholidaynow how did you manage with just gas and air for it?!

I had a spinal but the force she used with her upper body on my tummy was ridiculous even with a spinal! To the point where they offered me a general anthestic! I didn’t accept but you must be a machine to have it done with G&A! Well done - I’m in awe!!

Glad to hear it's all going a bit better now.

It was shit, but its just the beginning of things and I hope from now on in, it is easier for you both.

I had my DC3 in NICU for just over 2 weeks. Not being with her overnight was so unnatural and the guilt of leaving everyday took a long time to pass but she is now a very happy, balanced nearly 3yo with good attachment.

• my NICU pushed BF and even though DC3 was tube fed for a year they encouraged me to pump, to get my supply up and I was able to express for DC.

@Changedmynameagain1 I was a gibbering wreck by the end of the procedure! I now know why they kept asking are you sure you don’t want to go to theatre. The person I feel most sorry for is the midwife. As DH was holding DS she gave me her hand to hold, it’s a wonder I didn’t break her fingers!

Hope you’ve got some rest dear @OhToBeASeahorse (great name!)
Congratulations! You’ll be home soon.

Well done for everything you have got through!
If you want to breastfeed then make a fuss and make it clear you do not want your baby having any formula! BF is especially important in this Covid world.
Hopefully you’ll be in the comfort of your own home snuggling with your baby very soon.

Seahorses completely have it sussed, procreationwise!

Glad things are looking so much better for you and her, that's lovely news

Hope you both get home soon and can settled down together, getting to know each other.

Congratulations!!!

Hope you escape home soon