bubbles - I have had 2 sections. My first with dd was an eergency crash section after 24 hours of labour. I was totally out of it, dd was taken away to be assessed by paediagtrics as she was in distress before the section and was only returned to me fully clothed, so I had no skin to skin bonding time. I was totally out of it afterwards. I had a drain in the wound, a drip and a catheter. All of which stayed in for 48 hours. I was still out of hospital 3 nights later.
This time it was an elective section and was a wonderful experience. Yes, it is weird to know when the baby will be born, you will be weepy the night before and nervous that morning, but it is a lovely calming relaxing experience. You can choose to have more say in the experience. Most surgeons let you choose if you want to have a certain cd playing, whether you want to see the baby being born, whether you want to find out the sex yourself etc etc (try a thread search on here for last month on birth plan for elective sections in the childbirth section). You walk into the theatre yourself (don't forget your slippers and dressing gown or you will expose your rear end!) You will be wearing a surgical gown and support stockings (horrible white knee highs to prevent dvt). You will be shaved just at the top of your bikini line where they will make their incision. (they use a bic razor dry, it burns! I got dh to shave me the night before to save the embarrasment).
You sit on the edge of the table with your feet on a stool curled as small as you can and they put the spinal in. It does hurt a bit but pretty soon you start to go numb and tingly. They then put a screen up and do the op. It takes about 5 mins to get the baby out and the rest of the 45 or so minutes is spent sewing you up. This time I asked for the screen to go down so I could see Theo being born which was lovely. I made sure they didnt dress him afterwards, just wrapped him in a towel so that as soon as I got to the recovery room he was put on me for skin to skin, that was such an amazing experience and I bonded with him immediately. Dh took some lovely photos which I will treasure forever of theo looking right into my eyes.
After an hour I was moved onto the wrd (you have to stay on a 4 bed ward after a section here in Cardiff they wont let you have a private room) and theo was in a cot next to me. I had a catheter and a drip but no drain this time and my stiches are dispersible this time which is more comfy than the running stitch with beads I had last time. I stayed in bed with the catheter in till the following morning, you just call the midwives when you want your baby passed to you or if you need more water or anything. They will keep your pain unnder control, I had voltarol, tramedol and paracetaml at regular intervals throughout the day (I'm just beginning to phase these out now after 10 days). The next morning they will get you up out of bed after removing your catheter and help you get to the shower room.
Midwives will also help you breast feed if you need help with that and will help you do the baby's first bath etc.
I came out after 48 hours which is normal here but can be longer at other hospitals. You will be sofa and bed bound for several days but need to walk around the house as much as possible to avoid leg problems. A midwife will come out every day till day 5 as you will probably have daily injections of clexane which is a clot-busting drug to help with legs too.
make sure you pack: lots of big granny knickers (not disposable, nice cheap comfy ones that go way above your scar); your own pillow and feeding pillow if you have one (you will need lots of back support as lying down will hurt for a few days); nighties or long t-shirts (for the first day you are bed bound as you will have a catheter and wont be able to wear pants or pj bottoms - you'll have a pad put on and be sat on a special absorbent pad too); loose clothes for coming home in (your abdomen will be very bruised and sore).
I would also recommend getting hold of some arnica tabs (from health food shop - it's helped me with bruising this time). I also wash the wound down twice a day with a bit of tea tree oil in cooled boiled water (I had a wound infection last time as I have an overhang so the wound got moist and infected) This time I'm using the tea tree and putting a maternity towel over the wound twice a day and it's healing really well so far.
Please on't worry about the bonding. I certainly had no problems this time, spend as much time as you can with him lying on you and just gaze at him, you'll have no problems.
Sorry this post is so long! must go and feed the little man now - let me know if you have any other questions and good luck!