How long was hospital stay after epidural?

[cervixissues]

I'm hoping to be out of hospital after birth as soon as possible! Of course depending on how straight forward the birth is and baby being all well etc.

I have quite an open idea of how I'd like birth to go and open to progressing through to an epidural if I feel I want it.

With covid going on and partners not able to be around as much/at all postnatally, I would like to go home asap! I've been told they try to discharge by 6 hours post birth, but wanted to know if you have had an epidural, how long did it take before you were ready and allowed to go home? (Putting aside time taken to get discharge papers ready).

I was up for a wee and a shower 30 mins after baby was born - I would have been fine to go home that evening but baby needed phototherapy. I don’t think hoping for a 6 hr discharge is unreasonable.

DD was born at 3am on Tuesday and we left Wednesday lunchtime. That wasn’t the epidural though, as she was in NICU for the day.

I don’t remember having much trouble walking and was up and about quickly afterwards. You can choose not to press the top up button when you push which helps (still no pain but you can feel things more).

We fell asleep afterwards and got our tea/ toast. I love being home but to be honest a day in hospital did us all good. We left feeling rested, and DD was feeding well. We did have a private room though otherwise I probably would have wanted out ASAP!

Thank you for all your helpful replies! :)

Hopefully it will be a straightforward birth and we will be out asap, especially with Covid at the moment.