stoof! How lovely to hear from you again! Although it sounds like you've had a nightmare with your LO's health and those work hours sound horrendous. Good to hear your news though and have you back on the thread!
So....here we are, back home again - we were discharged yesterday afternoon, almost exactly 24 hours after the operation.
DS is so far proving to be an extremely chilled out little chap. Although he does like to be on the boob as much as possible and last night I got almost no sleep because of his fidgeting and slightly comical froglike gulping he does when he wants to be plugged in. I was trying to get him to sleep in his Cocoonababy beside me, but like many newborns, he prefers to be even closer so I'm going to have to sort out proper co-sleeping arrangements for tonight. It didn't help that DD was awake and calling out for an hour - I went into her about five times, DH twice. I think she needed to prove that mummy would still come and comfort her if she needed it after being unsettled by my absence and subsequent reappearance with DS!
The ELCS was actually rather fun - the all-female operating team were great, very lovely and very funny. We put a CD of our music on during, so the whole thing was punctuated with comments like "Ooh, what's this? I like this one!"
My fears about no skin-to-skin in the theatre were groundless - the anaesthetist asked me beforehand if that was what I wanted and made sure the various traces and my gown etc. were positioned to allow for it. And sure enough, as soon as DS was out and had been dried off, he was tucked under my chin.
Shortly after we had been wheeled into Recovery, he did a breast crawl, then latched on as soon as the breast was offered and chugged away. I think that was my best moment because it was such a wonderful contrast from the way it happened with DD - everything I would have wished for.
DS is latching okay, but my nips are getting a bit sore anyway just because they need to toughen up again. No major damage to them so far. And I'm just so chuffed he's gone for it so easily after all the nightmares I had trying to breastfeed DD.
The hospital team on the ward were also lovely - all the nurses and midwives were friendly and helpful, I was so impressed. The only drawback was being in a ward of six, which didn't exactly make for a restful environment, especially overnight with one baby after another starting to howl, or various mums snoring and snorting....! Once I'd got DS settled (on a pillow beside me on the bed - he rejected his cot, there's a surprise!!) I put on an eye mask and stuck in ear plugs and actually managed a few hours kip, which I wouldn't have done otherwise. Ironically, more than I managed last night!
I was pretty pleased when the midwife said I was looking good to go yesterday morning - I had to pass at least 600mls of urine once the catheter was out and show no signs of raised temperature or blood pressure and DS needed to be feeding well (no problems there, hoorah!) and pass his health check, which he did with flying colours. One of his ears isn't working yet, but I'm not too concerned about that - DD was exactly the same and hers sorted itself out by the time she was a couple of months old.
DH brought us both back at 14.00 so sleeping DS could be cuddled and cooed over by PIL, SIL, BIL.
DD is vaguely pleased that DS is now out, but has mainly lost interest because of his sleepiness. We'll see how she goes in the days that follow!
As for me, apart from being a bit tired and a bit tender, I'm fine!