The days after having Charles.

After I wrote my birth story which you can read here, I realised I should really also talk about the days after having Charlie. In total I was in the hospital for a whole week having my baby boy five days of which he was here. When I was nearing the end of my pregnancy I was glued to reading other peoples birth stories and finding out what other people experienced and how they felt about it. As it was something that had never happened to me before it was a massive unknown territory and that scared me.
Even though I had Charlie nearly 7 months ago I still wanted to write this down and share it with you, and because of how much I enjoyed reading other peoples stories I thought sharing my own would only be fair. The experience of having Charlie was the best experience of my life no matter how traumatic it was, it brought me my baby boy. There is something so magical about pregnancy and birth and it was incredible to experience. So after telling you all about how Charlie came to get here, here is the story of the days afterwards.

After having Charlie I was given antibiotics as they believed I had an infection, I had swollen up like a balloon and my face was massive! I remember them saying you don't look very well but just thinking I am fine I just want to cuddle my new baby. I was so high on drugs I remember not being able to see properly everything was blury.
After having a C-section you have to stay in hospital for a minimum of 48 hours, 24 of which you have to stay in bed and not move. This I didn't mind so much as I was really sore and scared of injuring myself but I hated the dirty feeling I felt. All I wanted was a shower but obviously had to wait until I was able to leave my bed.
Charles was beautiful and Ben was with me all day. That first night on my own with him was one I will never forget. Throughout the day I didn't get an opportunity to really bond with Charlie but I did that night when it was just the two of us. I struggled a lot with him being in his cot as I could hardly move to reach him in and out and felt like I couldn't ask the midwives to pass him to me, only because he was my baby and was right next to me whilst they weren't, just me being me. There is a photo that marks the moment I fell in love with Charlie. It was just after he had fed and he was on my shoulder as I was burping him. After a little while we were just cuddling and his big dark eyes were fixed on mine. It was an incredible feeling and it was at that moment I was completely overwhelmed with love for my little baby.

The next day started off really well, I was allowed out of bed and got to have a shower and it felt amazing. I got dressed and couldn't wait to get home to start being a proper little family. We had our family visiting in the evening so had the whole day to spend together. It was after lunch that things went a bit awry. As we were leaving the canteen we bumped into one of the midwives who had spent a lot of time with me whilst I was in labour so we stopped to talk to her so she could meet Charlie. It was then that we noticed he had turned blue. She said it didn't look right and picked him up and he went back to normal. He was just asleep in his cot when it happened so it wasn't as if he was crying hard. With the advice from another midwife Charlie was taken downstairs to the Special Care Baby Unit, SCBU. It was there that they decided to put him on to antibiotics in case he had an infection and took some blood to be sent to be tested to see if it was or not.

When inserting the cannula the women somehow managed to get it at a 45 degree angle so it was sticking out the side of his hand which meant his baby grow wouldn't go over his hand. Bless him as it was so big and heavy for him. We were told we had to stay in until the results came back which would take a couple of days but that Charlie could come back up to the ward with us.

We got to have our own room and Ben got to stay over with us. It was such a relief as I think I was in autopilot after the experience of the birth and then of Charlie being poorly. That night Ben took over Charlie duties and I managed to actually get some sleep. Ben said he realised how hard it must of been for me on my own as Charlie was definitely a shock to the system when you were left in sole responsibility for him. Ben put a picture on facebook that night of Charlie captioned 'late night cuddles and chats with my boy' which made me melt when I saw it the next day. I think it was a nice time for them to bond without me there as such. And I actually got some sleep! I woke up to see this.

I was still really sore but was able to walk around, I think I pushed myself a little too hard in those first few days to do more than I should of, but then I think that if I had of come home I would of been doing more so swings and roundabouts really. That Sunday morning I got Charlie changed and ready for the day. We had family coming to visit again throughout the day and apart from that just wanted to spend time as a family, we went and had breakfast and then went back to our room, went and had lunch and then went back to our room. In some way it was like a little hotel and we felt really sad to leave. Charlie had to go for his antiboitics every 12 hours so at 2pm he went down to get his dose and came back up to us again. We spent time just bonding with him taking photos.

Things were fine, we were having a nice day and in my heart of hearts I knew nothing was wrong with Charlie, I just felt it. So we were getting him changed at around 10pm and he decided to wee everywhere it went all over Ben and the bed so whilst I went to ask for some new sheets Ben carried on changing Charlie, I arrived back to one very blue looking baby. Ben had picked him up and he was returning to his normal colour but it still isn't something a baby should be doing. After much conversation and a little disagreement with one of the specialists Charlie was taken down to the SCBU unit to stay in for observation. I was already really teary as I had just given birth so with this on top I just couldnt stop crying. I hated leaving him down there I was his Mum and he should of been with me at all times. It didn't feel right and I hated that first night without him. He stayed there for the whole of monday and on tuesday his tests came back clear. I was so relieved. 

His cannula was taken out and we got to take him back upstairs, we gave him a bath and were able to put him in what we wanted to. We had to wait 24 hours to make sure he was ok coming off his antiboitics so we weren't allowed out until wednesday but that tuesday night was really nice. 

Wednesday morning came and we were told we were able to finally go home. I got scared about the prospect of going home especially as I had been there for over a week. But after all of the paperwork we were on our way home. We were sad to leave Charlies first ever little home, the staff were amazing and it was nice to stay somewhere where I didn't need to worry about cooking or housework. The days after having Charlie were such a whirlwind, there is no other way to describe it. 

Love Ellie, 

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