My birth story: Part three

Betsy was finally here. The midwife handed her to me, and I looked at this wriggling little thing and did not have a clue what to do. I think this was quickly noticed, as they whisked her from me and bundled her up in lots of towels and handed her to her Daddy. I don't remember much of this, I was still coming to terms with what had just happened, but I will always remember the look of pure joy and amazement on his face.
I had an injection to get the placenta out and it very soon after emerged. I will always remember the midwife asking me if I wanted to see it, and my reaction (recoiling in complete horror and giving him a firm NO!). Once that was dealt with, he informed me I would need stitches. I wont go into what this was like, I will just say it wasn't nice.

So all stitched up I was brought onto the ward and shown to my bed at about 6am. I was completely and utterly exhausted. I could not keep my eyes open. I was brought a cup of tea and some toast, which I was so grateful for I literally could have cried. No cup of tea or toast before or after this has ever come close to how great it was.

That day is a bit of a blur. I was so physically, mentally and emotionally drained that I had no energy to do anything. Luckily Betsy was pretty chilled in her little cot. The midwife came to do her checks on Betsy at around 1pm. I had noticed Betsy's feet were slightly turned inwards, and was worrying like mad about it. She reassured me that it was just where Betsy had been curled up inside of me, and that they would sort themselves out. Betsy started to cough a bit, and the midwife told us that she had a bit of mucus stuck that needed to come up, she turned Betsy over and began rubbing her back as Betsy continued to cough. This quickly turned into choking followed by Betsy turning blue. With that the midwife ran off with her, shouting for Ashley to follow as it was clear I would never be able to move quick enough to follow. I sat there, wondering what an earth was happening. The lady next to me's visitor's arrived, and she told them all about the baby next to her who had just been rushed off coz it couldn't breathe. I'm sure she didn't realise I could hear. Ashley returned within a few minutes, although it felt like hours, to say that she was fine and had brought it all up, and she was brought back soon after. I was shown how to get Betsy to latch on, which she did do for about a minute, before falling back to sleep. I spent most of the day asleep. I literally felt like there was nothing inside me, I felt so incredibly weak. I had to get Ashley to practically carry me to the toilet or anywhere else I needed to go because as soon as I stood up I felt faint.

It got to around 6pm and I was very anxious to go home. I desperately didn't want to stay overnight, mainly because I knew that would mean Ashley would have to leave me and I was petrified of being there without him. The midwife said I would need to be fully established with breast feeding before I left, so I began trying to get Betsy to feed. It took a lot of persuasion, and a nappy change to get her to wake up a bit, but finally she managed it. The midwife was totally happy with it and I felt confident that I knew what I was doing, so off she went to do the paperwork.

We were in the hospital till about 11pm when we were finally discharged. It was very surreal leaving with Betsy. We stopped on the way home for a McDonald's (as you do) and we sat and ate in silence in the car, on the edge of our seats waiting for something to happen. I don't know what. We got home and went straight to sleep. Betsy slept like a complete dream that first night.


And that's it really. That's my birth story. The longest two days and two nights of my entire life, that I am in no hurry whatsoever to repeat.

Find part one HERE

Find part two HERE.