New Baby Anoushka Update
Discussion
Thanks to everyone for your support. Here's what happened: we had a planned day and date for an induction as my wife was full term plus 12 (T+12 in med speak). At 8 p.m. on Thursday night my wife Jasmine had some kind of strange gel inserted somewhere uncomfortable. I was asked to leave at 11.15pm which is pretty good considering the official end of leaving time is 9 p.m. and they do not let you stay unless your wife is in full Labour. Than at 1 a.m. she went into labour, contractions beginning, but as all 14 delivery suites were full she had to wait until 10 a.m. to get into one of them and have an epidural. So she had about nine hours of pain followed by immense relief once the epidural kicked in. The paperwork she had to read through and sign before having the pain relief was actually more difficult to put up with than having a small pipe inserted in her back. The staff at Frimley Park have been fantastic throughout and its amusing how to avoid future litigation, they need to read through and ask you to accept the risks before they carry out any kind of procedure. I almost expected them to point out that the cup of tea they gave her this morning may contain traces of nuts, tea, milk, water, sugar. Anyway, I am getting sidetracked. So she had a wonderful few pain free hours until late yesterday afternoon, we just watched the baby monitor to make sure that the heartbeat was okay. Well at about 5 p.m. it started to drop with contractions, the normal heart rate was around 130 bpm and it started to drop for 10 or 20 seconds to around 80 or 90. The staff tried not to look worried but they clearly were concerned, the muffled conversations they were having outside of the room gave it away! It was all medical gobbledygook so we weren't concerned that we weren't involved in the discussions, I think if they'd come in and said that it was 'serious' it would have definitely become so as Jas would have panicked, heart rate increased etc. So at about 6 p.m. there was a 'we need to do this right now' moment, I was chucked out of the room to put on medical gear, hilariously they gave me two pairs of trousers (no shirt) and a kind of bib thing so when I came out with an exposed back they realised they had given me the wrong kit, there was much giggling amongst the nurses, light relief amidst the general panic to get mother down to the operating theatre. Where we had to go seemed to be on the other side of the hospital so doctors and nurses and everyone else trouped behind the bed over to theatre. Once we were there everyone was incredibly efficient even though they like to conduct surgery with music and someone had forgotten the iPod, 'Uri' one of the other doctors had taken it home. I offered my Blackberry but the music was a bit inappropriate (Foo Fighters, JK, Scouting for Girls) so it all kicked off in silence apart from the general'' pass me a 35mm spanner'' chatter. Myself and jas had a makeshift curtain between us and the events so the first we knew of her arrival was when she was held up to us. I was so relieved to see that she was pink and healthy and moving around considering she had been losing oxygen (they said she'd half strangled herself with the umbilical cord wrapped twice around her neck which was responsible for the pulse rate dropping at each contraction). As anyone will know who has had a child it is an indescribable feeling and almost surreal, my wife was far too tired to hold the child so I had her for the first half hour of her life while they stitched back Jasmine's midriff. Everything after that has been excellent, huge relief of course, not much sleep for my wife, I got about five hours last night. I was there from 9 a.m. this morning until 1 p.m. kick out time and apart from the little monster making a lot more noise than the other five newborn girls in the ward of six girls - what are the chances? everything has gone well, baby 'latching on as it' were (most of the other mothers are bottle feeding), Mum content and happy, on our third nappy change when I left. Much to look forward to but just happy for now that we are through the risky bit and into the happy but tired bit 
Off back to Frimley P, will suggest a time and place in the next 2 weeks for a meet up for anyone who's local enough. Thanks again for the messages.
Off back to Frimley P, will suggest a time and place in the next 2 weeks for a meet up for anyone who's local enough. Thanks again for the messages.
Fantastic news and glad all are well - actually sounds eerily similar to what happened with our boy, we were in the labour ward for hours and had been pretty much left alone while wif'es body resolutely refused all attempts at being induced - she was zoned out on drugs and I sat watching this monitor drop off the scale every few minutes and thinking that really doesn't look right (although being very british, trying desperately not to be a nuisance to anyone) - finally fetched a midwifey type and pointed out what was happening which was followed by about the most bizarre and hazy rollercoaster 20-25 mins of my life. All the same with with umbilical cord wrapped around neck and the enforced contractions causing the problems ... oh and even similar with the comedy clothing (cept for me it was all way too small, rather than duplicates).
You'll get all the advice of course before they are discharged but just make sure the missus takes it easy for a few weeks; despite what is usually a smallish scar the surgery is still pretty invasive and needs to time to heal. Mrs Cloth was pretty keen to "crack on" but think she overdid on a couple of occasions and it set her back a bit.
Anyyhoo, above all enjoy and once again congrats
You'll get all the advice of course before they are discharged but just make sure the missus takes it easy for a few weeks; despite what is usually a smallish scar the surgery is still pretty invasive and needs to time to heal. Mrs Cloth was pretty keen to "crack on" but think she overdid on a couple of occasions and it set her back a bit.
Anyyhoo, above all enjoy and once again congrats
Edited by touching cloth on Saturday 7th February 16:13
Revs_Addiction said:
Congratulations!!
Glad to hear everything's okay! Also glad Frimley was good, as we're 4 months behind you and are going there as well!
We should have a July weekend to celebrate all the new SAS'rs this year?! Oxford or Bath anyone?Glad to hear everything's okay! Also glad Frimley was good, as we're 4 months behind you and are going there as well!
(and it'll give the new dads a weekend off...
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