Hi everyone. I hope you're all well. Haven't been on in a while and also haven't managed to catch up on the thread since mid April! Apologies upfront as this is going to be a long one...
My little chap decided he wanted out on Wed 19th April (at 34.5 weeks) - apparently he couldn't wait until May 28th! As you can imagine I was a bit concerned. My waters broke at about 2pm and we got to hospital (John Radcliffe in Oxford) at about 3pm, finally gave birth at 9.15pm so nice and short as far as I'm concerend. I was starting to have contractions and back ache by the time I got to hospital. The first doc that saw me said that I wasn't dilated at all, then she did an internal and said that I was 8cm dilated!! As you can imagine I was a bit dubious about her (although I have to say that if I was 8cm this was going to be a doddle!). When they took me down to the labour room the midwife said that I was actually 3cm dilated which was much more realistic.
I have to say that I had a fantastic experience. My midwife was a real sweetie. And all the other staff that were involved were great, including the midwives on the labour ward. Unfortunately I had a seizure in early labour - my other half pressed the panic button and apparently it was like a SWAT team turning up, people rushing in from all directions! For some unknown reason they decided to put in a canula whilst I was having the seizure (pretty difficult to hit a moving target I would have thought), that was almost the most uncomfortable part of my experience and they wouldn't take it out for ages!
I managed to get most of the way through labour on gas and air but towards the end I decided that I wanted an epidural. Apparently I then had a bit of a rest and a snooze for about a couple of hours (!) and then I got on with the business at hand and pushed him out in about 20 mins. :) Had a 2nd degree tear but the midwife who stitched me up did a really good job and I was sitting down fairly comfortably in a couple of days and only took paracetamol/codine for about 3 days.
The baby went into intensive care as he was so premature but he was moved into the special care baby unit (fattening room rather than needing intensive care). They let me stay in hospital for 10 days so that I could spend as much time with him as possible and provide breast milk etc. After 10 days they chucked me out as I'm not allowed to be under midwife care after that. By this time he was nearly ready to come home as he had achieved his birth weight. We had to spend a night in the 'flat' which is a room in the hosp before they'd let us take him home. We've now been at home for approx 2 weeks and he seems to be doing really well, gaining approx an oz a day and is now 7lb 2oz (was 5lb 13oz when he was born which was quite a good weight).
My dh is now back at work but we've had his parents and my parents helping out so that we can get some rest. I have to say that I think we're really lucky as he seems to be quite a contented baby and only crys when he's hungry. We're doing a mixture of breast and bottle (with breast milk) feeding and he doesn't have a problem with switching between the two even on the same feed so I'd definitely recommend introducing the bottle early. Poor chap had to have a tube at first, which he hated and kept pulling out, so I guess anything is preferable to that! I'd also really recommend something called a Slumber Bear which is a battery powered unit in a cuddly toy which makes a whooshing noise which is apparently similar to the noise in the womb. The unit can be taken out of the toy - we've got it hanging on the moses basket at the mo. It really works a treat and settles him down if he starts to get restless.