We're surviving over here, but barely. Flynn Donald Lernout was born March 29th, at exactly 7:00 in the evening.
Long story short - labour/delivery was ridiculous. Was contracting mildly every five minutes, but was induced [not chemically] and instant went in to full labour/dilation. If this kid didn't have the shoulders of a line-backer, I'm sure he would have been out in an hour. But still, under three hours to deliver a 9 pound, 11 ounce baby. Did I mention I'm barely over five feet, and a hundred pounds soaking wet? On call doctor did a catheter AND episiotomy, which I was basically screaming for him NOT to. [I wish I was joking, but I did really nothing but scream the whole way through the pain was so intense.] Apparently I'm pretty ravaged down there, hardy har har. And it only gets worse!
Related to that - shitty hospital [St. B], rude, overworked nurses*, and cramped, stressful maternity ward. Oh, sorry, it's actually the SENIORS ward that Maternity took over while they're renovating the third floor. Four post-natal women in ONE room is just fucking ridiculous, St. B. What, you just think "Oh don't worry, no one will be sleeping anyway, it doesn't matter if we shove you in an area no bigger than your dining room table"?
Didn't feel too bad afterward, although I've been having issues on and off with engorgement and over-production of milk. Then on Thursday/Friday I just started feeling SICK. Like, feverish, muscle pain, dying of the flu sick. Even had the Public Health Nurse over here extra times, and she's concerned because my stitches aren't healing. Apparently something ripped open, but hey, NO ONE will see me at a doctor's office despite the whole "possibly dying of bacterial infection" thing. My OB's office won't book me until mid-May, and the doctor I've seen all of once before never answers their phone. Had to go to a walk-in yesterday because I was running a 38.4 fever and was about to pass out. Thanks to some high-dose antibiotics I am feeling less like death, but still very weak and there are weird pains that come and go.
So yeah, I'm not particularly happy with a lot of things that happened. I'll be talking to my regular OB if they ever call me back, and I'm definitely letting the PHN know how bad it got.
*The delivery nurses weren't too bad, but were kind of stupid at times. I told them the Fetal Assessment was indicating the baby was going to be BIG and that my OB was concerned, and their response? "Oh, those things are always wrong! Don't worry about that!" One of the nurses who does the prelim exams at the OB practice even said "Oh you just LOOK like you're carrying a big baby because you're such a stick". HAR HAR YOUR JOKES ARE FUNNY, THANKS.