Early days writing

One of the special things after having a baby was sharing the news with friends and family.  We were inundated with messages and although most people said 'no need to reply' I still wanted to be in touch at some point but just struggled to find the time to write.  I ended up writing a long generic story of the early days to share with those that expressed an interest - usually recent mums.  I thought I would record the message here:

Just found some time to message so here are a few updates on life so far since delivery.
Labour itself was ok - at least I’m not thinking too detaily about it now! 36 hours since start of contractions but alright. She weighed 3.23kg when born at 8am on Friday.
I lost 1.5 litres of blood after birth. A really horrible time for John as I was fairly out of it but we were really impressed with care at the hospital. Baby was fine which was so wonderful and I was on observation ward till sat morning. My heart rate remained high but came down to an acceptable level. Moved to regular post-delivery room Saturday. Fainted once on Saturday (when I was about to change my first nappy 😉) and so had an iron iv infusion. Came home Sunday afternoon with antibiotics and blood thinning injections.
Baby girl has been really good, just kept an eye on a little jaundice but that is going with more regular feeding. My state and her sleepy jaundice made breast feeding tricky but we are trying and it’s improving. John and I were both wonderfully impressed with the staff and the care we were given, felt thoroughly well looked after and reassured.
So that’s the medical side... otherwise we are all happy and loving life with her. Totally in love and so excited to have her here. Loads to learn, but excited to be trying and getting used to being tired! 
Grandparents and lizzie (first visitors) stopped by on Monday and looked after us well. Had a gentle day at home Tuesday and Wednesday.
Well thats the detailed update. Sorry if you got more than you bargained for!!

Thank you for your messages, love and support; it means heaps. Have you enjoyed your easter weekend? Hope you’re well. Love from us 3, xxxx


Having sent that to lots of people, a GP friend then asked more questions so I wrote some further details which I shared with a few other medical friends:

Thanks I. for your super message and also the note about not needing to reply soon! It is funny isn’t it how such lovely messages and replying becomes like a chore on the to do list. Sorry that my replying time is at night when she is sleeping on me in the sofa. Although miraculously she did do two one hour stints in her cot today so I’m going to try her there again shortly when I hope she’s sound asleep!
I love that you asked all the medical questions. I will try my best to answer them. Yes I think they think fainting was low haemoglobin. It was 129 at last antenatal check, 100 when checked after blood loss on Friday and then they found out on Saturday after I fainted that it was 79. On Friday I’d made it to the chair at the end of the bed and felt dizzy so didn’t venture further. I also felt dizzy the one time I sat up on side of bed. Doctor asked if I had a sore throat and I said oh yes a bit but I actually think that was more the after effects of all the entonox - loved that stuff! Dr then came back and said he’d checked my white cells and they were a little high so that’s when started me on antibiotics as they were looking for ways to get my heart rate down - think it peaked at 140 and was usually 114. But only once while I was in hospital was my temp slightly raised so my non-medical opinion was that I probably didn’t have an infection at all but was very happy that dr was being cautious and giving me them. Oh a funny thing to me, on Friday night I woke and was leaning over comforting baby in cot and thought my hand was a little sore and looked at canula and realised there was now something attached to it (the antiobiotics) that hadn’t been there when I went to sleep and also now had a pulse monitor on my finger - made me think I must have been so tired not to wake to any of those goings on! They talked on Friday about possibility of iron or blood transfusion and were monitoring to see if needed. After faint on sat they decided on ferinject with the possibility of blood transfusion later. Not sure what caused them to stop there and discharge me in the end, guess because I was no longer symptomatic? I had had some iron tablets at hospital which there was talk of me carrying on at home but in the end no, think because I’d then had ferinject? I’m medicating myself having a green smoothie a day though now at home! Hope that makes some sense - I may well have got a lot confused!!

John broke up for easter on Thursday. He went in in the morning and I called him home at 10am so he almost made it to the end of term. Wonderfully he now has two weeks Easter holiday and then gets to take his two weeks paternity leave so we will have a month together trying to figure this baby thing out!

Right, time to see if baby fancies continuing to sleep in her cot!

Love and thanks again xxx

Wittertainment Baby

Another Witter-fail:

Dear Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham,

As an LTL and MTECNYRO (many time emailer; correspondence not yet read out) I have a similar story to many wittertainees. I was inducted into the siblings' side-chapel of the church by my sister, Catherine, more than 10 years ago and since then we have played the all too common andrenaline-filled wittertainment game of 'will they/won't they read out my email'. Since joining the church, we have emailed about foolish long distance sporting events, far flung podcast-listening, wittertainment related real-life instances (WRRLIs) and even occasionally about films; so far with no success. On writing this email on Thursday evening Catherine has just headed off to hospital to give birth to her first child- a task for which she feels wildly underprepared as even reading the chapter titles of the childbirth book made her feel nauseous. Although hopefully the worst will be over when the show airs, in case it's not, her only 'birth plan' involved listening to the podcast so I know she would very much appreciate some encouraging words on how you give birth to a baby and how to be a parent from the only doctors she has faith in.

Love the show Steve

Lizzie from Bristol
MSc Global Health
BSc Occupational Therapy
Blue Peter Badge Holder

Baby is here!

Two weeks ago I was in labour and now I am propped up in bed with little Bonnie Anne Grace lying on my chest sleeping away.  She had been a bit fussy this morning so I tried feeding her (and was successful!) and then she fell asleep.  I popped her back to bed in the pram but she started fussing again so I brought her back to the spare bed and decided to relish in the time of her sleeping on me.  Happy days.

I have been watching the commonwealth games, but it is now the men's volleyball final between Australia and Canada which is not interesting me oh so much, so I am working through my list of jobs.

On Monday we went back to the hospital for an appointment with the infant feeding team.  While there we went back to the wards we had spent time on to drop off some cards and chocolates.  Having written the cards, I decided to photograph them and put them on here for a record. The care we received was phenomenal and we were keen to recognise it.

For the midwives on the Spires where we had our little girl:

For Dr Pedro who sewed me up after birth:

 For the midwives who looked after me on the observation ward:

 For the midwives who looked after us on the post-delivery ward:

And here is what I wrote on the online feedback:

Maternity Labour Ward

I had been unsure about using the Spires Unit, but am so pleased I did as I was so impressed with the staff the whole time who made it a great experience.  From ringing MAU during the early stages of labour, I was impressed with the care they took on the phone to listen to me and give me detailed advice.  At the Spires, our midwife Sandra, took the time to make us feel comfortable and gave us reassurance when needed and gave us time to ourselves when needed.  Immediately after the birth, I lost a lot of blood, but throughout that traumatic time, the staff (there were somehow suddenly about 5 of them in the room) remained calm and professional and explained what was happening to me.  I was taken quickly and calmly down to Level 2 to be stitched up, where I continued to receive excellent care. There seemed to be so many people in the room, but everyone communicated calmly and efficiently with each other and talked to me when needed.  Dr Pedro sewed me up and I was ever so impressed with his bedside manner throughout. 

Maternity Postnatal Ward 

Having given birth on the Spires, I was brought down to Level 2 for stitches and then spent 24 hours on the Observation Ward on Level 2.  Ceri was the midwifery student who helped look after us immediately after being stitched.  It was wonderful that she took the time to be with us and reassure us and helped us with our first breast feeding attempt.  We loved her demeanour and presence in the room with us.  It felt a very special time. In the observation ward we were looked after by midwife Chloe.  We were impressed and felt confident in her medical care, but it was her personal care and friendly nature which meant the world to us.  She took the time to be with us and was always smiley and calm which really helped us during this overwhelming time.   We were also grateful for the visits of Dr Pedro to explain my continuing care.

Maternity Postnatal Community  

I have been fortunate not to have to use the NHS very much and I had no idea of the postnatal community midwife service available till I gave birth to my daughter on 30th March.  I was amazed and delighted by the high number of visits and the phone calls I received during these two weeks.  Most of the midwives were so warm and encouraging and it was a wonderful experience to have them visit our home.  Being a new parent, everything seemed turned upside down and was so new with lots to get used to, that I really valued the midwives' visits as something to aim towards each day and to live off their encouragement.  I was particularly impressed with Alice who visited and called more than once, and also with Miriam who visited and with the students who came.  I was very impressed that there was a session in Florence Park on a Sunday where we were able to go to be discharged. 

I was very grateful to have the support with breast feeding my baby.  It was not a straight forward start and Miriam and Alice really encouraged me through this time.  I was very grateful to be provided with the breast pump and shown how to use it.  I was well prepared by Alice for my daughter to have lost more than 10% of her birth weight by day 5 and the feeding plan was already in place.  There were occasional differences in advice over feeding technique but generally the advice was the same.  I was really pleased with the referral to the Infant Feeding Team at the JR which was very useful to go to.

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