Aww good luck, not long to go now 😊 I had a section 4 months ago and in one word I’d describe it as ‘lovely’! I’m maybe looking back through rose-tinted glasses but it was bloody great 😂 I researched, researched then researched some more and really went in with everything I could possibly need for a section. In the end up, as most people say, I didn’t need much of it at all. You don’t know how you’ll be after it, I really didn’t feel bad at all but bending down to the ground is a bit of a no go. Some staff in my hospital couldn’t have done more for me but at one particular low point when I was unable sleep (for the entire night) just due to being in a strange place and everyone’s babies crying, except mine! I had bled really heavily and it had gone on the back of my nightie. I had already had help to get up earlier in the night so I knew I could walk by then. My huge bag was on the floor though so there was no way I could get a new nightie, pants etc out of it. I pressed the buzzer explaining what had happened and a really unhelpful nurse just said nothing, plonked the massive bag on the bed and left. I stood kind of pathetically silent crying behind the curtain at the fact I was covered in blood and was going to struggle to even change my pants 🙈😂 that sounds horrific but it actually wasn’t, I was just feeling sorry for myself.
Someone on here suggested pre-sticking a maternity pad to some pants so you don’t have that faff if you need one quickly. Was wishing I had done that then! Best way I found to put them on too was while sitting on the bed (with a puppy pad type thing under your bum) and just kind of shuffling into them one leg at a time because stepping into them wasn’t happening. I changed my nightie but had only brought two so really didn’t want the same thing to happen again. From then on I slept with the nightie above my waist so that the blood would just go on the pants and big pad on the bed instead if it happened again. It didn’t though luckily!
For the baby just make sure it’s easy to explain to someone where the nappies etc are as it was a different nurse coming in to help me every time he needed anything. 22 nappies was more than enough in the end up, after much deliberation.
I took peppermint oil capsules because people said you got painful trapped wind. I didn’t at all but maybe that was because I took them, who knows! Colpermin they were called.
Have plenty pain killers at home, that goes without saying though. Enough big pants that you won’t have to hand someone a pile of bloody pants the second you get home to wash 🙈😂 I was relying on my partner to do the washing, which he never usually does and it wasn’t til I got home that I thought I’m bending down and putting them in myself rather than asking him to open that bag 😂 I think anything else that’s section-specific is just for ease of putting on/off. I had packed a long green dress (he was born in the summer) and my thinking was that it would be easier than pulling up trousers to leave. In the end up I was too scared I’d bleed through it so the joggers felt safer. Luckily I took two loose outfits for going home. My blood pressure randomly dropped the next morning and I was sick all down my top I’d just put on for going home! Again, pathetically sitting in a bed thinking I can’t get to the toilet because I’m going to faint but I’m going to be sick.. so just having to shout through the curtain for a sick bowl 🙈 Take plenty of snacks, more for a source of entertainment rather than hunger! A long phone charger, mine was 3m. Get your partner to set it all up before leaving the ward and leave all your bags on the chair or beside your bed within reach. Sliders instead of shoes for going home! I also took slippers but never wore them so the sliders alone would have done! Get your partner to take away anything you’re not going to need as well. I had shoes etc all lying under the bed that I had to try and pick up before leaving as he wasn’t allowed in to collect me 😩 so next time I’d go simple and just take sliders and nothing else. Hair bobbles, nice fresh wipes or something, again just for something to do if you don’t sleep! I took puppy pads so I could change my baby on the bed easily which saved too much moving about as well.
All in all I spent months building up to it and it wasn’t a patch on what I expected. The ‘after’ bit is the worst bit but isn’t even that bad! In scotland we get a baby box and they do really think maternity towels in them. I ended up putting one of them on then my maternity ones with the wings on over the top as bleeding through things was my main concern after it happened during the night. I also put a puppy pad on my bed at home for the first 5 or so days but all of a sudden the bleeding practically stopped after the first week. You feel a lot better very quickly and you don’t expect to!
Hope it all goes amazingly and you’re having newborn cuddles really soon 🥰