things/advice to help with or after C-sec

Brilliant Nixie!

I agree with regards to visitors. I had male visitors that hovered around while I breastfed and I had to be covered etc!

Rescue remedy is a must after birth I still take mine every now and then.

RM - You are hilarious! But I will take your advice next time.

Vix - Thats horrible to hear that from someone that should have helped you. In hospital, I had one nurse that was awful to me. I still dont know whether she joked when she said the following to me but judging by her stinky attitude, I think she meant it.

She came into my room to give me meds and before she left, she said the following to me: "there are all sorts of mothers; some are good, some are bad and others are psychotic!" I dont know where you fit!"

I just burst into tears when I told DH what she said to me. I was too shocked and too worried about K not feeding that I never even took her name down to report her. She really got me worked up!

Of course, now its hilarious when I think of it but I still feel hurt by that comment.

Little known fact - you are in hospital for three nights - use the nights to also get some sleep.

Feed the baby, then push the buzzer and ask the nurses to take baby back to the nursery so you can get some sleep.

They will sit and rock baby so you can get some sleep. Instinctively you keep baby with you and if baby is not sleeping then neither are you.

You will have more than enough sleepless nights when you get home from hospital, push the buzzer ask the nurses to look after baby.

You are meant to be using hospital time to rest and recoup - use the "free" babysitter you have there for the first three nights.

Photo - as the photographer who is usually the paed to take a photograph of the clock on the wall as your baby comes in to the world, cool photo!!

Bassinet - I liked adding a pink or blue polar fleece blanket into the bassinet and a small stuffed toy. Mainly so I could easily recognise which was mine when I walked into the nursery in my drug induced and very confused looking haze!

Bath Trial - they always do a bath demonstration - get them to use your baby, so you can just sit there on the chair and stare at them. That way you get a nice clean baby to take home without you having to stand and cry while you attempt to wash your baby and the baby blues are kicking in.

Try not to take too much stuff with you - there is not much in the way of packing space, and it is really a pain trying to get it all home. Try to take only what you actually need. Have a "nice to have" bag at home, and if on day 2 you feel you need it as DH to bring it through - else you sit with stuff you never use and it just takes up space.

Breastfeeding - go with the flow - accept that it is not as easy as some moms make it look. It takes a while to get it right, so do not work your self into a froth about getting it just right. Find out if the hospital has a breast feeding consultant available and make contact with her. BF is far easier if you have someone to assist you - and often the nurses can be a bit rough.

sister lilian rescue tablets in hospital bag
jungle juice
please buy woolies meals that just needs warming up for 1-2 weeks you dont want to cook with a new baby.

get a sister or helper to come every 2nd day to do house chores... please take time and rest and spend time with baby.

Please stipulate visiting hours for friends and family...

we had visitors non stop for the first 2 weeks , please tell them before hand you will let them know when they can come visit.

Please try and rest when baby rests...

Try not to stress - everyone knows what they need to do. You just need to sort of flop along like a low budget actor in a sitcom - really you have very little to do other than lie there and look bewildered and confused.

Nayeela- most of the problems with BF start from stress caused by the nurses in the hospital! My hospital was fab, they never ever told me my boy was loosing weight or i wasn't feeding properly nothing, they just left me to be and if i needed help i must ask, it was a really smooth transition for me.

But you did really well to give K BM for 12w, i exclusively BF to 9w but i stopped when the PND kicked in and i just couldn't cope anymore. The lady i phoned on the BF helpline from sister lilians book was awful. C was feeding every hour for 20min at a time and crying when not drinking so i phoned for advice and she told me " if he wants feeding then feed him what's your problem, that's all you have to do is feed"

don't say things like that to a mum suffering PND!!!!

anyways, i am also determined not to stop BF this time but i will do it my way and not touch a single help book!

Vix - That was my fault! I gave into the bottle way too quickly. I think at 3 days post birth I was not thinking straight and the nurses really scared me when they said K is losing more weight than what she should. I actually burst into tears when they told me that. She was born at 3.26 and 3 days later she merely weighed 2.9 kgs. So I gave her top-up Nan and tried to latch her on everyday but it was just Mission Impossible. We were both stressing because of it. I was not a happy mommy nor did I have a happy baby. Eventually for the first 12 weeks, I expressed and fed her breast milk through the bottle. At 12 weeks, my milk dried up completely and she was exclusively on Nan then.

I am adamant to get that right next time though as although K has been healthy and done well on Nan, I think Breast Milk would have even been better.