Camp out at the hospital

We camped out at the hospital in the week following the birth of Sprog so that the two of us could be monitored by hospital staff.  We were fortunate enough to be able to rent a private room and so my partner stayed with us during the first week of his paternity leave.  I cannot say enough times how valuable his round-the-clock care was, as were the daily visits by Mum to bring us clean clothes and other creature comforts.  The hospital staff were very helpful but there was only so much they could do with the hospital being so busy and short-staffed at times.  For one, my bed was a bit too high for me even on its lowest settings and getting on and off it was difficult.  I also couldn't bend or carry anything so he had to help me and baby with just about everything.  This meant he didn't really sleep for a week and he never lost his temper at us; he did get angry at the hospital staff on a few occasions when things didn't get done on time- e.g. the time when I was left in tears from pain when my medication was delivered over an hour late.

It was a strange existence.  There were regular visits by hospital staff to check on me and Baby for various things at regular intervals, or administer medication, throughout the day.  These worked out such that there were gaps of about an hour or two between visits to me or Baby.  At night these turned out to be very disruptive as we were struggling with the breast feeding and nappy changing routine, meaning that Baby was up a lot and it took quite a lot of time to settle him and us after every visit/feed/nappy change.  I have not been as physically tired in my life.  I can only guess at my partner's level of fatigue; it must have been worse than mine.  Don't get me wrong- I am not complaining about our treatment- it was all necessary and I was happy with the care we received from the NHS.  It was just something we had to live through at the time.  However, I wouldn't wish it on any new mum/parent.  It is good to be home.

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