Homecoming

It’s a Saturday evening and this afternoon T and I finally brought Spud home.

Due to complications which arose during labour we were both kept in hospital for monitoring and antibiotics all week. It’s been an emotional roller-coaster as Spud has had to be tested for lots of things and at one point had an infection marker in her bloodwork of 32 (normal levels are apparently between 1-8!)

The doctors don’t really know what it was, or what caused it. It’s suspected that perhaps my waters had broken sooner than I realised and introduced bacteria to the waters, and words like ‘sepsis’, and even ‘meningitis’ were whispered at various points during the week.

We've all been going a little stir-crazy in one room together (I’m so, so lucky and grateful that we had a private room – I’d have had a breakdown on the communal ward), and not really knowing what’s been going on. I mean, God Bless the NHS, but the handovers were a little haphazard as some of our liaisons had some information, some had other updates, and we had different people caring for us at each point of the week!

BUT, finally, after a week of tests, (including a lumbar puncture at three days old!) Spud was finally declared all-clear and T and I sobbed as we walked through the door of the flat together. It was weird seeing the pillows still piled up on the sofa where I had stacked them to lean into as I contracted over a week ago.

I’ve been cocooned all week in a haze of sleep deprivation and midwife care, and I’m petrified of this first night at home with a baby.

How did you cope with your first night home?