She weighed in at 7 pounds 11 & was 51 cm tall, she was absolutely beautiful!
My parents turned up not long after that & so did my sister. We also had other visitors in the next few days.
I wasn't feeling too bad, although the drugs were masking my pain. Everything seemed to be in healing process and it looked as if I would stay in hospital a day or so (it was Wed morn she was born) and that we could most likely transfer back to Kaitaia hospital on Thurs or Friday. On Thursday morning my midwife was wanting to get me up & showered so I could get my catheter out & ready to move on out. As I went to sit up, the whole world started spinning -- a shower was looking out of the question. My head started to pound & we realised that all was not well. Jon instead gave me a sponge bath (poor boy!) and the doctors came to assess me. They reported that while the anesthetist was trying to get the spinal block in that he withdrew some blood on one of the attempts & realsied that my spinal fluid area had been pierced (whether then, or previously we don't know) and that with this tiny hole my pressure was all upset & that I was experiencing "spinal headaches"! The only cure for it was another procedure or to wait it out lying flat on my back. Drinking lots of caffeine would also help. So we opted for buying a big bottle of coke (I hadn't drunk it for about 2 years & didn't say I enjoyed it!) and me lying flat on my back. Feeding baby was proving difficult from this position, but she was a very good sleeper & the midwives & lactation consultants were very helpful. At 7pm each night though they would go home & we would have a nurse come on shift, some of these were great -- others were not that helpful. I found the nights very frightening & didn't sleep much at all.
Thursday night Jon had to leave to go back to Kaitaia & we had arranged for his sister (Geordie) to come down to be with me. We were hoping that maybe she would be able to drive me back to Kaitaia on Friday. But on Friday morn we attempted the shower again -- this time I pushed through & enjoyed the shower until near the end when I nearly fainted & the midwife had to help me. I realised that the headaches were getting worse & I wouldn't be going home! :-(
The anesthetist came back to explain to me the procedure they could do which was called a spinal block. They would insert a needle again into the spinal fluid area & then get some blood from my arm & put that into the area. It would hopefully clot over the hole & fix my problem. As you can imagine I was very hesitant to go through with this & definitely didn't want to make the decision without Jon. Geordie was amazing during this time, very supportive and helpful. Saturday came & went, still feeling no better (although it was great to have my friend & also bridesmaid --Vanessa Hughey -- make a surprise visit to see me!) in fact I was feeling very anxious and worried and really needed some spiritual breakthrough & prayer. Geordie stayed on into Saturday night (even though she wasn't really allowed to) and we prayed & cried and committed all to God. It had been really hard to enjoy Gabriella and being a new Mum with all that had been & was continuing to happen.
Sunday morning arrived & so did Jon -- after talking with the anesthetist again we decided to go with this procedure (asking for the most experienced anesthetist & loads of other questions). At 10:30 they wheeled me back down to theatre -- me praying all the way! The anesthetist was an older German man who immediately put my mind at ease & they did the procedure quickly with no hiccups. All the time I was praying & bearing the pain (I had to sit up for the procedure!) -- the nurse commented on how well I did (she was the same nurse who held me down for the first epidural!) and I said I was praying the whole time.
As they lay me down to recover the headache was still there (in fact it was worse lying down -- the opposite to what it had been) but i could feel it gradually wearing off. By the time they had wheeled me back to the ward I was feeling heaps better all though I still wasn't sure about it. Gradually over the next 1-2 hours I started to feel that it was clearing & I attempted a shower successfully. We then asked to be discharged and by about 3pm that day I was so happy to be driving out of the hospital with our new baby in the car on our way back home. Burger King was a nice thought after the yucky hospital food, but even that wasn't very nice. It was such a relief to get back home -- nothing felt better. And although it took a good 2 weeks or so to feel kind of back to normal the worst was over. The C Section scar healed very quickly, what took the longest to heal was the feeling in my hips & top of my thighs -- it took a very long time for that to return.
Never again an epidural & never again an induction!
In spite it all though -- thankyou Lord for my health & my healthy baby :-)
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