Surreal moments after just having a baby

[TheOddity]

It can't just be me who had this please say it isn't as I already think I'm a bit nuts.

The next evening after I gave birth, I distinctly remember going to Asda to buy some medication for all my sore parts. I insisted on driving there alone while DH stayed with baby as I basically wanted to escape the baby hell hole for half an hour.

The whole Asda experience was as close as I've ever been to a 'trip'. I remember thinking how no one realised I'd given birth less than 24 hours before. Everyone was still just living their lives, being normal, coping. I felt so weird, I can't describe, it was like a psychedelic dream.

Did anyone else have this surreal feeling? Strange stuff you did immediately post birth?

very surreal for me, because when I got home, my in laws had totally changed my house around, threw loads of stuff away, I couldnt find anything, etc. it was awful.

Another EMCS here - I'd been wheeled in to the operating theatre and was waiting for them to get started. I was annoyed that they were all fully occupied with another delivery in an adjoining cubicle. Suddenly the doctor waggled something at me and then took it away. It took a while for it to sink in that there was no other delivery in another cubicle and that they'd been delivering my baby. And the thing waggled at me was, in fact, my dd.

I locked myself in the toilet and refused to come out after pethidine, obviously they opened the door and sent dh in to try and talk me out but I was adamant that no, I was quite happy on the toilet so would they all just leave me alone!

Had no drugs at all with Ds 2 but was off my head on adrenaline as handed him straight over to dh and took myself off for a shower, midwife was not impressed, wasn't a smart move as I nearly passed out in there but I never told anyone that!

I found pethadine to be brilliant. Took the edge off the pain when I couldn't take it anymore and although I was talking nonsense, I felt fine. Very happy in fact, it was like being in a lovely exciting and weird bubble. I threw up half an hour or so after giving birth, but I think this is quite common, and the pethadine had long worn off by then.

The actual auditory hallucinations didn't come until we got home and I am convinced that was lack of sleep.

Vanillaradio just lol'd there at ripping the face off the toy monkey!

For anyone following this thread who is, perhaps, pregnant with their first or TTC the stories sound horrific, but they're told because we survived them, have seen them as funny in the cold light of day, have lived to tell the tale, and, in some cases, gone on to have more babies! Honestly, it's not as bad as this thread would have you believe!

A week after my baby's birth, feeding in the middle of the night, I was so tired and groggy but I happened to check my WhatsApp school group. It was person X's birthday and everyone had wished her so wanting to wish her too, I wrote, " Happy Birthday X! May you enjoy all the fatherly moments with (my baby's name)."

Oh wow-I'm so relieved that I'm not the only one!
I had auditory hallucinations after having dd-dh was reading her a story but I heard him saying all manner of horrible things.
YY to hearing babies crying when they weren't.
Had the 'the baby's in the bed' panic many times too. Also rummaging in my bedside drawer for a biscuit to stop my (then 3 month old) dd crying when she was actually fast asleep in the Moses basket.
I also (vaguely) remember the midwife coming to visit and Dd was in her bouncy chair with a poo in her nappy-the midwife commented on this and I said 'oh yes, I saved that for you to do'. I don't remember if I meant it or even if I knew she'd done a poo but I do remember the look the midwife gave me as if she knew I'd lost hold of my sanity

I appreciate that, Boogers, but coupled with my fear of being out of control, lack of sleep, and the agony of childbirth, being off my head and seeing shit or waking up in a panic because I think I've smothered my baby is a worrying thought.

Oh well, at least if it happens I'll maybe think of this thread and know why!

I gave birth 5 weeks ago so it's still vivid, any pregnant ladies out there shouldn't worry really!

I had gas and air and an epi - so no pethadine. Day 3 on the postnatal ward, which was day 5 of no sleep due to contractions - I saw a man standing in the corner of my bay, who wasn't really there! I thought I saw bats in the shadows on the curtains and when I got home every noise sounded a bit like a crying baby (water from taps, cars outside) only lasted a day or two and DP said he heard the same so it must just a hormonal or psychological thing!

It's not scary because at the end of the day you have a beautiful baby and labour is a very surreal experience that is so steeped in drama there are always a few laughs at the end!

Had dc1 at 1am into the Wednesday and ended up getting home the Friday afternoon (had 24h in due to meconium in waters). Although I'd had no more than an hours sleep since the Sunday night.

Got home had a shower, baby was asleep and I remember looking out the window and seeing a bus driving down our tiny street. A big double decker red bus.... turns out they were on diversion for a few weeks but upon first seeing that bus I promptly put myself to bed for a few hours dc1 was an angel and I actually got some sleep with him from the start

I'm so relieved other people heard the crying babies after birth too. When I've mentioned it to other people, including mums they've looked at me like this

I also had a few 'where's the baby' moments during the night and visions of dropping DS on our concrete fireplace and his skull caving in (had to leave the room with him sometimes because the thought made me feel so ill)

Once when DS was about 3 weeks old I remember ringing DP at work in tears because I'd convinced myself I'd given him shaken baby syndrome by pushing the pram down a cobbled street. The first few weeks and months particularly, I found i over worried about everything. It's a very odd time with your first baby I think.

With DC1 I had a pretty horrible birth but when he was finally there I just couldn't stop staring at his little face. I stared and stared for days on end and eventually everyone else's faces looked enormous and weird. I remember my DH looked like a massive hairy giant.

With DC2 I didn't have time for much staring, but during the labour I remember being on the monitor, DH had left the room (this might not be true either) and I was in my own. The beeps of the monitor morphed into that weird bionic man noise...like...BEEP eeep eeep eeeep eeeep...difficult to explain but totally trippy, good old gas and air!

So glad I'm not the only one! DS2 is 7 weeks old. I had the one someone mentioned about thinking their baby was a demon - huge black eyes staring at me in the middle of the night. A really awful feeling. Also lots of 'where's the baby?!' moments in bed at night!

I had pethidine and had a great time once I was on labour ward was chatting away to the midwife, and had a shower afterwards which I was raving about - "that was the best shower I've ever had! Woooo!" Was convinced I was fine despite seriously shaking and chattering madly.

Just reading Imnos post about her waters reminded me of something I had totally forgotten but that happened and I mentioned to my best friend who's a midwife the next day....

...When they broke my waters with that hook thing, I suddenly saw everything as though I was looking through a green glass bottle. I even said to DH "why is everything green?" To which he just looked at me like I was borderline psychotic. Then as the water began to gush out of me, I found that I was weeping, my eyes were absolutely crying but I didn't feel sad at all. It was as if all my water had been released (and everything still looked green).

Then just as suddenly as it had begun, it all went back to normal and I stopped crying.

I hoped midwife friend would assure me that this was text book, but when I told her she looked at me in the same way husband had and said "I've never heard that before".

I've just read some more - was convinced baby had extra fingers and toes, and kept referring to him as 'she', even though I knew he was a boy from 20weeks.

A woman I know had just returned from hospital with her new baby (following a very long delivery experience) and her phone rang in the middle of the first night with a family member telling her that her lovely Mum had died. She was so tired and disorientated that she just said 'ok' and put the phone down. She had no memory of it in the morning.

Just read the whole thread. I'm crying, some of these are so funny. The gnu in particular had me

To any expectant mothers reading this, try not to worry! Some of these stories sound scary, but most of the time it's over in a flash and you laugh about it the utter absurdity of it all. Childbirth, the shock of suddenly being responsible for a new life, extreme fatigue can do funny things to a person, ride with it and try to remember this thread and all will be ok.

Oh and if you're really scared/worried, talk to your midwife, they should be able to reassure you.

Brilliant thread - I really genuinely didn't realise that other people had this too!
A couple of hours after having dd1 by ecms, I was lying in my bed in a private room when an nurse came in and cheerfully announced that Rob was here to see us. I vaguely remembered Rob, having worked with him seven years previously - different departments though, so I couldn't recall even having spoken to him at all. I felt slightly panicked, thinking how utterly weird and inappropriate it was that he would think to visit me in hospital the day I'd given birth, and wondered how the hell he'd even known I was pregnant. Just at that, my brother Rob - whom I'm very close to - came into the room, and I said "Oh, that Rob?"

Also, when dd2 was about a week old, I was obviously sleep deprived, and I remember looking at her in her Moses basket and suddenly panicking because I couldn't remember what we'd called her. The name Paul kept springing to mind, but didn't quite ring true. My blind confusion and panic went on for what felt like ages, and it really felt like I was losing my mind.

I woke on the first night home with DD after a very brief snooze wondering how I would take care of a baby engine. For some reason it seemed totally logical that I had a baby chuggington train rather than a baby person. It took me a good minute or two to work it out.

After having DS the midwife came in to check on me and as I'd been alarmed at the blood clots coming out of me I thought I'd better mention it.

So I told her very seriously that I'd obviously given birth to a baby giraffe, because there was so much blood

I gave birth via c-section early Boxing Day morning, as in 9am, so the morning straight after Christmas Day.

I swear as I was lying on the table I heard one of the theatre guys say 'I wasn't actually that drunk last night' - meaning a mere 8 hours before!

Oof.

'very surreal for me, because when I got home, my in laws had totally changed my house around, threw loads of stuff away, I couldnt find anything, etc. it was awful.'

Had they actually done this, HoHo?

If so, blood should have been spilt!

I remember years before having my first daughter I had this dream where I had a baby and I could hear it crying but couldn't find it and was frantically searching everywhere. When my daughter was born it became a very vivid and recurring dream. It was horrible!
And hearing babies cry ALL THE TIME! Like my ears were ringing with it.