we're home
need to write down what happened... feel free to skip this as it's going to be a sage but i just need to get it all out.
woke up on monday at 5.50 with a huge contraction which was unexpected as with my other 2 i started very slowly. had a couple more five mins apart so got out of bed, told dp to be rousing himself and had a shower to see if they stopped but they were coming strong so rang my mother at 7am to come round.
wenty downstairs and started timing them and they were coming every 4 mins and lasting 50 secs or longer so started to panic a bit with the hospital being so far away and it was really starting to feel like i was close. sat as still as possible til my mother arrived (at 9.30 ) and legged it out the door to the hospital.... one hour of hell in the car later we arrived and stumbled up to delivery ward. MW put me on the monitor and although they slowed down a bit i was getting 4 in 10 mins and was 3/4 cm dilated..... warned her i go quick at the end but she wanted to move me to a bigger delivery room so went of to sort that at about 11.15, started realing feeling the contractions the... felt lots of pressurte with each one and was kneeling on the bed hanging off the end of it writhing around for well over a minute with each... had a show and with the next contraction my waters popped so i pressed the call button as mw still not in sight. 2 nurses came running in and on the next contraction one of them noticed i was pushing and was actually stupid enough to say 'hold on, you can't push yet, therese wanted this birth and she not here yet' needless to say i ignored her and pushed, although felt myself rip a little so slowed down as much as possible after that. mw came in as i paused between his head and shoulders coming out and guided him between my legs so i could hold him while i mustered up the energy to move and lie on the bed.
had physiological third stage with him still attached and 59 mins later delivered the placenta and dp cut the cord on my tummy. rested for another few mins, gave him a lovely long feed and then toddled down to the maternity ward where i was supposed to be able to have a quick shower and be immediatly discharged
they were in the process of giving me the legal speaches and dire warnings invilved in early discharge when the ward mw became concerned about the fact that he was very grey with blue hands, as well as the fact that he'd been wheezing and choking since the birth. she took him to scbu to check his oxygen sats and all hell broke loose as they were frighteningly low and he started coughing and vomiting blood.
he was put on oxygen 100%, had a nose tube put in to drain his tummy, had a drip put in and bloods taken and a chest xray done all in the psace of about an hour. they wanted to test the blood to find out if it was his or mine but apparently the lab no longer does that test chest xray showed his lungs were really full of fluid though and they think he inhaled my blood on the way out. aspirated pneumonia was diagnosed and as he was tacalynseic (sp?) they wouldn't allow me to hold him or feed him til his breathing calemd down.
spent most of the night sitting with him and might have gotton slightly hysterical and angry at the nurses at one point when he was crying under the hood but they wouldn't let me hold him (though they said later i didn't even come close to as bad as some mothers are so guess they're used to it)
next day was a waiting game as his breathing was still far too fast and he was becoming jaundiced so they put him under the lights.
the nurss on night shift that night overruled the consultants opinion and let me feed him for ages which was lovely, and i was starting to try and express to build up supply.
next morning was awful though, his jaundice was worse so he was on 2 banks of lights, they would only let me feed him every 3/4 hours for half and hour and he was on the maximum dose of iv fluids... on top of all that hormon3es kicked in and the ward tried to discharge me and announced 'but you can't stay in parental accom' had no milk expressed and no way to get home and back for feeding so got ever so slightly hysterical (again) and the lovely scbu nurses got the social worker involved who insisted on me being readmitted.
spent the evening and night exppressing and feeding ad nauseum, was discharged next morning and after a few more hours in scbu (where idiot consultant had finally agreed with me that feeding on demand was the best corse of action ) had my dad collect me and bring me home, spent a couple of hours with the kids and drove back to hospital (driving not recommended with an unstitched tear btw) where i stayed xpressing and feeding til 11 then drove the half hour to my parents (was soi shattered at this point i damn near fell asleep at the wheel), got a couple of hours sleep and was up at the crack of dawn expressing... was back at the hospital first thing and spent all day there (managed to convince idiot doc that maybe he'd be hungrier for fluids if they reduced his drip rather than their way of 'we need to get more fluids in him before he can come off the drip'... and guess what, he was off the drip by last night and astounding the lot of them with his appetite! came off the lights too and had last dose of abs so was told if his bilirubin results had dropped more this morning he'd be discharged.
got a few hours sleep at my parents last night and was back in this morning car seat in tow adamant not to leave the building without him much to the nurses and doctors amusement. luckily he was the picture of health so they were happy for him to go home and he'll be reviewed on tuesday.
very peculiar driving my newborn home from hospital by myself but not as bad as leaving without him the last few nights, home now and he's so far being as quiet as he was in scbu... sure that will change soon though, turnes out i rememer how to feed and tpe simultaneously too which is why you've been inflicted with this saga
needed to get it all out though so hope i've not bored you all to tears.
dd and ds are delighted (poor dd was very upset by it all) and are pleased with 'our baby aaron', dd had made him a card at playschol and keeps showing it to him
questionkid, dinkystinky, mrsy, pempe, and givethedogahomebirth, congratulations and well done
can we also make my friend an honoroury member for the day? she's on the ward now in early labour since yesterday morning, not progressing but they won't induce her til tomorrow morning poor thing. she's shasttered and stuck in there as we live so far away she can't chance coming home. her dh is dying of a cold, exhausted and slept in the day room last night as he's afraid he'll miss it if he goes home and things progress quickly. feel so sorry for them, it's a ridiculous situation because of our distance from the hosp and i'm sure the stress is whats slowing her down.