The aftermath of delivery!

I feel like the next few posts are going to be a bit of a long ramble, for a number of reasons.

Partly because it’s really difficult to put in to words how it actually was, and so much was going on to then write that down in some sort of order isn’t easy. So if it all turns out a bit random, apologies!!

I was transferred to a ward the day after I’d had our daughter, which on a normal day is probably about a two minute walk away from the Special Care Baby Unit. But after major abdominal surgery, it felt a million miles away. I was going back and forward in a wheelchair to begin with, and then once I had my catheter out could think about walking. But I couldn’t do it unaided and normally by boyfriend would come and get me before going down to SCBU together.

It’s definitely not the start we planned, and with me on one ward, her on another and my boyfriend going home at night time, family time hadn’t quite kicked in.

We didn’t have any of the classes you have while I was pregnant because of how early she was, and there were some things I did not know happened after having a baby!! 

The labour after pains were horrendous, I didn’t even know they were a thing. I had no idea what was happening and they were worse than any stage I’d got too in normal labour, and there was no gas and air to ease the pain. I couldn’t even be in the unit with our daughter I had to go on the ward to my bed and knock back what ever pain relief they’d give me. After pains are basically the uterus contracting back to normal after you’ve delivered.

And then there’s the wind. Bloody hell. I’m a really private person when it comes to bodily functions, so actually saying all this is massive for me. Guess it shows how much of my dignity I did lose during proceedings, and now I just tell it like it is! You’ll probably cringe!

I didn’t really know, but I guess it’s obvious, but those performing the c section have to get really stuck in and move about your organs to get the baby out. And as your basically cut open, air is getting in to your body, and then they stitch you up. 

But it means you’re full of air and your organs are maybe a bit bruised and the pain that was causing me was awful. I didn’t know what it was, until one midwife explained to me and then said, and these were her words: ‘you probably just need a really good fart to pass the air.’

I mean it doesn’t sound like ground breaking medicine, but she was right, it was exactly what I needed. 

It was trapped wind causing me no end of discomfort. 

The only thing was, one wasn’t enough and it took a long time to get rid of that excess gas, with the help of gallons peppermint tea and a Buscopan prescription!! 

I was on some sort of pain relief or medication every two hours, I was almost rattling. 

Every couple of hours I’d leave her bedside and go in to a separate room and take my tablets. 

There was pain relief, Blood Pressure tablets, iron tablets because I was anaemic after the op and a few other tablets too.

And anyone who’s had to have iron tablets before will know what the side effects are. It’s like shitting tar! 

So I felt like crap, and I felt like left her bedside a lot, which I didn’t like. 

Whether it was to get myself checked as part of my recovery, take my medication, try and express, or just to get some food, I was in and out of the ward and didn’t like having to keep leaving her. 

And if I was ever on my own for these appointments, I’d just fall asleep. I fell asleep in a waiting room when going to get my BP checked. I also fell asleep in the little room I was put in too to express. 

I went in full of optimism but woke up about 25 minutes later with the breast pump resting on my belly and my boob hanging out. There was very little milk there (that’s another blog post) so not much mess, which I suppose was a blessing! 

I guess the reason I’m writing about this is because you think when you’ve had preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome that once the placenta is out, you’ll be better, but the recovery can be epic. 

A midwife told me this week that a c section recovery for someone in my condition would take about four times as long to recover than someone who’d had a c section without any health problems. 

It’s important to know that actually it doesn’t just end when you have the baby. My boyfriend had to give me an injection every night for weeks as part of my medication. So while I wasn’t seriously ill any more, it was a long process to get my body back to some sort of normality, added to the fact, I’d just had a baby.