L was born on the Saturday 23rd of July at 16.22, after irregular contractions and ever increasing amount of show since previous Tuesday. Surviving with paracetamol, then TENS machine over the contractions that varied between 5 and 30 minutes between them, after several phone calls to the Labour ward over the previous days, we drove in early hours of Saturday after the show turned very fresh and plenty. At arrival I was checked and found to be 4cm dilated, that my blood pressure was a bit high and I was taken in after being given a paracetamol, beta blockers to curb the blood pressure and some Gaviscon (as the reflux I had been suffering for a month was really in overcharge at that point).
The hospital was very very busy at the time and they had called some of the community midwives to help with the influx; my birth preferences mentioned that we wanted a delayed cord clamping which the first midwife did say she didn't see anything stopping us from having. Things went ahead, shifts changed and another midwife took over, I kept on huffing and puffing my gas and air, waiting for the pain to get worse. Around two o'clock the doctor had made the decision that things weren't getting along fast enough on their own even though I was about 7cm dilated and the midwife broke my waters. That certainly got things going, after that I had to fight against the urge of pushing really hard. Once I got the permission to push, things went quite fast and she was born at 16.22. Apparently we didn't take too long from the crowning; she was fully out on the next push, being a rather small baby (3.24kg or 7lb 1 ½oz). Despite our request, apparently my beta blockers and blood clotting disorder meant that we couldn't have delayed cord clamping after all, which came as a surprise to both of us but especially the Bear rather late in the process before she was born and didn't really have time to contest the issue. However, she was lifted on my chest straight after being born, and eventually we nursed for an hour before she was weighed. She scored full 10's on both Apgar checks.
We got transferred to the postnatal ward around nine o'clock. The Bear stayed in until around one and went home then. His brother and mother came over from LN the following day, thinking we'd be discharged on Sunday they left early in the morning. However, at some point we realised she hadn't peed, so we were forced to stay in another night, and so the guests just popped in the hospital during the visiting hours. Sunday evening was consumed by a cluster feeding session that lasted five hours until one o'clock. Around two o'clock the midwives decided that I needed a break and took the baby into their care for a while, and as I was in the loo taking care of my own bodily functions, the midwives changed L's nappy to find a soaking wet diaper. We got great breastfeeding advice in the hospital, including how to safely co-sleep in the bed if the baby is going through a clusterfeeding night, and after an excellent nights sleep (after all, I had been sleeping poorly for nearly a year with our shoddy bed and then pregnancy) we got discharged the following morning. C had her baby on Sunday morning and D was induced around noonish, so we were all in the antenatal/postnatal ward at the same time.
L's umbilical cord stump came off on the following Friday night, and her sleeping improved greatly after that. We've been using our cloth nappies ever since and that seems to be going well too. While baby and daddy seem to be sleeping quite well, I've had a few nights when my sleep has been lacking due to them both snoring quite loudly when I've wanted to sleep myself. Nosefrida is a gift from heaven! Also, the freezer burritos for lunches and readymade freezed dinners have been heavensent. L was registered on the Wednesday following week, after nearly two weeks of staring at her face and wondering what name would suit her. Eventually her first name came almost as a revelation as it wasn't in the original list at all.
All in all, L's been a relatively easy baby. She doesn't really cry for no good reasons, so far the only reasons have been wind or poop, or hunger, all of which we've been able to solve. She's slept through a few shopping trips to nearby shops we've been to and didn't seem to mind being breastfed at Tesco's Harris and Hoole either. I've been quite happy with my post pregnancy body, having actually lost about five kilos from when I got pregnant. I'm also extremely happy that L was born exactly on the due date, as now I've got something positive in my life on that date too, not just the anniversary of my mother's funeral.
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