Hmmm…… Can’t believe it’s been a week since my little princess was born. I woke up in the middle of the night having contractions, the next thing I know was that my water broke. It felt like a warm gush of fluid coming from down below, kind of like I have wet myself. I woke my husband up, rang maternity assessment and told them the situation.
They advised me to go in for a check-up and said I just need to bring my notes with me. Contractions were every 5 minutes lasting about 30 seconds to start with, by the time I got to the hospital and had my checkup, contractions were more frequent and painful. Throughout the contractions, I had my husband apply counter pressure on my lower back which helped a lot. I was told by the midwife to go for a walk around for two hours because I wasn’t ready and to let gravity do its job. I managed to get out of the ward and headed for the lift but contractions and pain were too intense I couldn’t make it downstairs so we returned to the ward and I laid down on the bed to rest. Not long after I laid down, I had the urge to push, so I got him to let the midwives know. The next thing I know is that I was ready to give birth and there wasn’t enough time to get me to the delivery suite nor have gas and air, so I have given birth to my little princess having only had 3 tablets of pain killers. The overall labour was quick for me, from when my water broke to delivering the baby took me once my little one was born we were both in tears, I had her skin to skin and my husband cut the cord. It was very emotional and surreal. I was then transferred to the delivery suite to get stitched up as I had a second-degree tear. After that I had a quick shower to freshen up and had a bite to eat, I was transferred to postnatal ward.
Several checks need to be done in the postnatal ward before we can get discharged to go home. Unfortunately, the baby was too sleepy to feed so I had to hand express colostrum and fed her through a syringe. By the time she was up and feeding on me, the midwife who does the postnatal checks had gone home so we (including my husband) had to stay overnight. I must say it wasn’t the comfiest stay ever but we managed! We did our first diaper change together, trying to figure out which is the best way to do it. I never thought that the meconium was that hard to wipe, it was greenish and very sticky. We had some cotton balls but the fluffs were stuck on her bum ?. Anyway, we managed to get her clean up, it might have taken us a while to do. We got discharged the next morning once all checks were completed. It was the most amazing feeling when our little one was born, the feeling was hard to describe but that nine months of alcohol-free, back pains, mood swings etc were worth it when you have your baby in your arms. ?
