The hospital blogger returns.........

Well can you believe it?  Here I am again.  As I write this on the 21st January I will try to backdate from memory ( and my memory is not great - full of baby stuff and foggy from sleepless nights) I have been fighting the urge to blog but its beaten me. I cannot promise the emotional ride of the Hospital Stay http://www.cheekyboycausestrouble.blogspot.com/ but this will be my ramblings of everyday life from me and my little family. And of course now the milk muncher is here, time is in short supply so I will try to update weekly if I can. Life is just too interesting not to write about. I feel very flattered by friends and family saying how much they loved reading my hospital blog so here goes.....this is for you with love xxxxx

Christmas week.......

It is a pleasure to wake up in my own bed on Boxing day morning. Well I had the pleasure about 4 times as Alex is of course feeding through the night so I was out of bed about 3 times in the night I think. DH was also out of bed with us as still topping him up with formula due to lack of boob milk coming in so it was his job to get the milk ready.  Getting out of bed is still painful too as I can't sit up yet so its the sideways shuffle to the edge of the mattress for me. And of course there is no metal rail to grab like there was on my bed in hospital so its a slow process. By mid-morning though, I notice a change in the bra department......eat your heart out Katie Price, the milk lorry has arrived......and by the evening I am able to abandon the formula and switch to breastfeeding alone. And the clever little boy just gets on with it.  Its quite bizarre from where I am sitting that my boobs are actually bigger than his head.

Over the course of the first week at home I have a visit everyday from a midwife to check my blood pressure. This was a condition of being discharged from hospital on Christmas Day aswell as being back on the BP tablets. This is quite stressful as I have the classic white coat syndrome and the readings are always high to the point where my midwife actually rings my GP and sends me off to the docs on the 29th. It is of course through the roof when its read again and the Doc isnt my ususal one and is a bit useless, so I actually suggest to her increasing the tablets from 2 a day to 3 instead. An appointment is made to go back a couple of days later.  We meet a neighbour in the docs and she didnt realise I had been in hospital for so long. When she asked why I told her about the placenta previa and she goes quiet and looks at Alex and tells me I am very blessed.  She reluctantly tells me that her sister in law almost died from a bad bleed with the same condition and lost the baby she was carrying. Its a sobering thought, but by now having heard other sad stories while in hosiptal I know how lucky I was and feel glad that I was made to stay there.

Its just lovely to be at home with DD bouncing around and me being able to choose what I eat and when!  We have classic boxing day lunch of cold turkey and salad but its strange to not have actually eaten the turkey as a hot dinner the day before.  Alex mainly sleeps and drinks milk all day.  He doesnt cry much so can't be bad.  DH doesnt let me lift a finger and thats a good thing because I am knackered. Walking up the stairs is a major effort and my legs actually ache from the effort of it. Its easy to underestimate how little I have moved around the last few weeks and I havent actually even seen any stairs let alone climbed them.

On day 5 I am due to have the C-Section stitch removed and Alex is to be weighed so a midwife arrives at home and its a pleasure to see my old midwife from 5 years ago on the doorstep. And she remembers me which is lovely. She is on call that day and has been out in the snow doing her rounds. Alex has only lost a couple more ounces so all that milk munching has paid off.  I brace myself for the moment the beaded stitch thing comes out but Sarah is very good at it so apart from one brief teeth gnashing moment as the thread is pulled out it isnt too bad.  Its healing well she says and I am having lovely soaks in the bath each morning to keep it clean but due to serious wobbly belly overhang I can't actually see the scar yet.

Over the week I gradually open presents which is lovely, and see DD playing with her things but its a bit odd that I didnt see her open any on Christmas Day so I have no clue who bought her what.  I open my secret santa pressie from work amongst others and I have to admit that I am still clueless as to who bought me the 'Philadelphia Cheese cookbook' as it had no label on it. If anyone can help me identify the giver of this gift please let me know......

Dad and WSM come on the 30th and we 'do' Christmas day then with pressies etc. They get to meet Alex at last and have lots of cuddles with him.  Apart from Mum and Mike popping in, these are pretty much the only visitors we have - which is what we want, I am not strong enough to have too much going on and my midwife actually advises a bit of bed rest due to the high BP and my ankles are swollen.  I am on strict orders to have my feet up at all times so I do as I am told within reason.

DD is lovely with her little brother and she mainly calls him 'the baby brother' rather than by his name.  The house is pretty chaotic, with pressies everywhere, piles of bags in the hall and in the office/spare room there are bags and little piles of post all over the place.  Its the result of nearly 6 weeks of post/my stuff that I sent home with DH from hospital/unidentifiable boxes of christmas receipts, wrapping paper etc. It'll take some serious sorting out but it'll get sorted eventually.  And DH is still finishing the bathroom so we have paintbrushes, tiles, grout, screwdrivers sat on random surfaces everywhere.  I finally to get to read all of DD's birthday cards too which are still up from the 14th but I dont get to read the Christmas cards that are just on every surface I can see.  Theres just not enough hours in the day. Baby Boy cards start to arrive so I take the birthday cards down and put the babys cards up instead.  There must be a few quids worth of cards in this house, I think Clintons must be coining it in.

New Years Eve is a non-event but I do have a very exciting wine glass full of pear cider which is lovely and DH and I share a chinese takeaway. We are in bed by 10pm but I do actually see in the New Year with the milk muncher who woke up at 11.35pm so he is clamped to my boob as midnight strikes and I hear the fireworks going off in the village. DH is snoring away and misses it all and DD was in bed hours earlier.

Anyway I say goodbye to the year that was 2010 and look forward to 2011, whatever it might have in store for us. Happy New Year xxx