the best thing in my hospital bag was the lansinoh.
i didn't really bring clothes for myself but then i didn't realise i would be there for so long - god it was a nightmare. full story will come but can i please just ask two questions of the experts on here:
Q1. I have a Fisher Price Microwave steriliser but lost the instructions. I am guessing I wash everything in (soapy??) water first then bung it in there with some water and microwave it for how long?
Q2. When you are doing three-hour feeds (as recommended by the midwives until her weight is not more then 10% less than birth weight) do you go from start to the next start?
Q3. What if it takes you an hour? Do you feed again two hours later?
Q4. Why is she so sleepy during the day feeds and alive and difficult to put down during the night ones?
Q5. How do you know if she got the hind milk and emptied the breast before moving on to the next one?
Q6. Do all babies squawk and squeal and grunt in their sleep?
Quick birth story:
Post-wedding and reception etc - and my parents had just gone back to Surrey. My fiL was still here and dh was in Sweden so I decided to take him on a open-top bus tour of Copenhagen.
I kind of felt uncomfortable in my tummy area but put it down to constipation from eating over the weekend.
On the hour tour, I felt like I needed the loo but we start walking down the shopping street and stopping in shops and I am okay. Then in this amber shop, I get more crampy feelings and think "oh god - must go home and use the loo" so I actually take a taxi home and use the bathroom. But cramps don't subside and half an hour later, I start to wonder . . . . I call my dp who luckily is almost home and say I am in bad shape. I sit on my ball and do some hip rotations on all fours (according to my last antenatal class!) They do bugger all for the pain.
I call the maternity ward and get a fierce contraction during the call that takes my breath away. They tell me to get myself there. Take a shower, try and throw more stuff into my hospital bag and put on comfy clothes, then take a taxi there with dp. We are both thinking its probably a false alarm though, although i am doubling up in pain in the cab.
By the time I am there, the pain is shocking and relentless - every few minutes and I am throwing up in random toilets in the private rooms along the ward!
Get to delivery room at 3.45pm and examination shows I am 4cm dilated. Try breathing but pretty quickly I am "uncontactable" from the pain and my own trance (dh couldn't even talk to me).
i get an enema which is horrendous with the contractions. Gas and air makes me throw up more and I ask for a walking epidural and get one within half and hour. Its like pure magic and I feel great. I make some phone calls and tell my friends and parents that I am labour!
But it wears off really quickly as I just dilate really quickly and by 7pm, I am 10 cm and ready to push. I stay on my back and hold my legs in the air. The epidural has stopped working and the pain is awful but more "active" as I start to push. Baby is born 14 mins later at 7.14 according to my birth record and the placenta is out at 7.23. That moment when she is put on my chest is the first time I have opened my eyes in over an hour and its just indescribably amazing to see this little gremlin on my chest . . . .
Then dh cuts the cord and holds her on his bare chest while I get two stitches on each side but I have no serious tears.
Then we chill and hold her and listen to music for a while, before I get shipped off to Tenko ward for the next 5 night nightmare.
Too boring to recount but massively overhot ward (heatwave here in Copenhagen), indifferent midwives with contradictorary advice, lots of weird women (hormones I guess) wandering the ward in foul moods with diapers on and I don't realise that I need to ask and take charge of the situation with breastfeeding etc (I am just muddling along on my own - dh can't be there all the time and is spending some time with his (demanding) dad)
Finally though, after I try and check myself out and they weight baby and realise she has lost too much weight - I get help from a couple of nice midwives and start a feeding/expressing plan with help from them. Elodie has loads of blood tests (jaundice, sodium, creatanine etc) and gets examined by various doctors but we get the all clear on Sunday finally. I went back today for another blood test (her poor feet look like pin cushions) and her weight is slowly going up.
So that's my birth story. It was very quick and a little early, so although I was absolutely euphoric afterwards, I had a massive crash and have spent a lot of time crying. It still feels really surreal to have her now - I thought I had all this time to read the books and get my head around the whole thing . . . and being married and with a kid within a week - its such a trip (but a good one).
My advice:
get the enema if you can - felt good to know that I was "abluted" if that's the right word!
drink lots of water after the birth - lots and lots - think it helps with my milk flow.
ASK FOR HELP if you need it. Otherwise people think you are coping. I felt embarassed being such a novice (and not exactly young either) but then thought "sod it - they are the professionals". Although the midwives did contradict each other and I got confused for a minute - you can try a lot of different things to find out what works for you.
I really need to catch up on everyone's news. Hope you are all hanging in there and drinking that raspberry tea!
I haven't got the hang of sleeping while she sleeps (still pottering around) so I can get absolutely savage from lack of sleep but plenty more where that comes from!
pigley lots of women had small suitcases on the maternity ward. mine was humungous but who cares! agree with what was said early about your mum - she must think you are really sorted to be able to joke with you but its okay to tell her that she oversteps the mark sometimes. i love my mum but she is quite sharp and critical sometimes. do they think age gives you the right to be tactless???
back later
T