2 March 2007
Bless the midwife who sorted us our my own room in the maternity ward. Even now I could kiss her.
Last birth I remember being stuck in a ward with a new mum who needed a whole lot of methadone every 4 hours, and was grumpy without it! With the baby upstairs in intensive care and me on the maternity ward me and dp made frequent trips to see the baby and try and start breastfeeding. As well as the merconium his blood glucose levels were low, leaving him prone to jaundice and also the lung x-ray had thrown up a shadow the doctors didn't like the look of.
That said, at nearly 4kgs I bet he was the biggest baby in that unit, and the lovely nurses seemed to think this alone would stand him in good stead. In fact, a day later he was moved onto special care and out of the incubator, into a room with three other babies with blinkers on and UV lights shining on them.
Dp stayed as much at hospital as possible, with our other son staying at his grandparents. Three days later the new baby was cleared to come down to me in the ward, whilst observation continued and test results were churned through the system.
We took him for a second chest x-ray. Dp stood holding the baby, hoping the x-rays would act as a cheap, permanent contraceptive!
We had to wait another 36hrs for the results of this second x-ray, but it was great that everybody was being so thorough. Luckily I picked up loads of breastfeeding tips from the midwives meanwhile.
Lunchtime Wednesday we were free! It's the little things that make the difference about being at home - like not having to lock the toilet door and being able to watch Richard & Judy. Ds couldn't have been more pleased with his new baby brother, although I'm sure he expects him to be more of a playmate. He even picks out the cutest nappy for him to wear, and seems charmed when the baby does a poo whilst sitting on him! He's bored his teachers rigid telling them about his baby brother and luckily his baby brother brought him 100 episodes of Batfink which he is very pleased with... (Remember? "your bullets cannot harm me, my wings are like a shield of steel!" He loves it!)
The last two days have been mostly made up with trips to the supermarket for forgotten things, and ironically after spending five days in hospital, a trip to the doctors for me. I think I remember when they inserted a catheter at the last birth I got a bladder infection too... nasty things. Our friends have been whisking ds away for fun whilst we are still in survival mode. The telephone hasn't stopped ringing and boy, those breastfeeding nights are long... brain drain nearly complete but have to say we're just pleased we're all ok.
Roll on Saturday, which brings friends visiting from The Land of Normal People with champagne.