After

Surprisingly, I felt pretty damn good immediately after the birth.  I wasn't sore, I could walk without any problems, I wasn't horrendously tired.  I was really floating on cloud nine.

The maternity wing was seriously over-stretched at that moment.  I had waited two hours for the delivery room, and typically there weren't any post-delivery rooms available. 

So, for the next 12 hours, Sophie and I hung out in the delivery room.  She pretty much breastfed continuously for the first three to four hours after birth, and then slept for nine hours straight.

I really liked the midwife unit (as much as you can like a hospital). It was relatively quiet, the midwives were all wonderful, there wasn't a plethora of noisy, beepy equipment in the rooms or being trundled around the corridors.

However, the beds were dire. They are made for labouring women, not resting ones. As much as I wanted to sleep, I just couldn't on that bed. It was in two pieces, it was covered in a thick rubber top sheet, it was way short.  So we waited and waited and waited until we finally got the all clear to go home at about 6pm.

Some random birthing bits:

Sophie was born to the sweet sounds of Ludovico Einaudi's I Giorni album, which was playing on my iPhone throughout the labour.  Random midwives were coming into the room just to ask about the music.  Now, I can't hear any of his songs without welling up.  It's lovely that Sophie has such a beautiful soundtrack.

I thought that being in the midwife-led unit meant that there wouldn't be any monitoring.  For the birth of Isabella, I was in the doctor unit and strapped to a baby heart monitor the entire time.  However, the midwife frequently used a doppler to find the fetal heartbeat and make sure all was ok.   I really have to feel for her, because she manouvered herself into all sorts of positions to get that reading, coz even if I wanted to move, half the time I couldn't (plus, I wasn't straying far from the gas and air mask!).

Hopefully this won't sound weird, but I was really alert after the birth this time, so had a look at the placenta when it came out. That is some alien shiz. And surprisingly quite large.

Birthing balls, for me, were a complete waste of time. However, it was quite good for the husband to sit on every now and then.

The husband also tried the gas and air, but woe, it made him feel really sick and he had to sit down. I had no sympathy whatsoever.

Comments

[Kym]

I like the new page layout, it's pretty. And again it's nice to hear about my nieces birth. Great to keep it for future now too. You will have to try and remember for Bella now too.