Just to get things started..

So just to finally get things going I am going to post a number of pictures. Hopefully I'll actually put up a blog entry once I feel a bit better!

(btw always talking about the picture below here)

Our precious baby just 1 or 2 hours after the birth. She was in the Intesive Care unit after having her lungs flushed, chest x-rays taken, and an IV put in feeding her fluids and antiobiotics. Does she look pissed or what?  If you look closely you can see that she is in an incubator. 

She was in Intesive Care for one day and then got shipped over to the Special Care unit.  I had to go down every 3-4 hours to feed her as she needed to be watched over 24-7.  She was on a special breathing pad that would ding if she stopped breathing.  Pretty nifty.  She also was hooked up still to the feed drips until she settled into the feeding routine.

This picture was taken on Day 3 or 4.  She had moved up to my room as she was deemed healthy enough to do so.  Which basically meant that she was feeding enough to not need a feed drip anymore and she was recovered enough from the birth to not need watching after 24-7. 

This was taken from home! We didn't get back from the hospital until November 23rd, 5 days after she was born.  We were actually all feeling worse this day then we had the previous two days, which sucked!  Ella had been jaundiced enough that she required a days worth of phototherapy.  She had spiked at a level of 29.5.  (30 is when they start treatment with therapy, but they did it anyway since she was so close).  The day we left the hospital she had been first at 22 and then at 24.5, but since my milk had come in it was deemed safe to send her home.  She was feeding happily and regularly and seemed lively enough.

On my part, my darn Episiotomy stitches had gotten infected and I was barely able to wobble around.  I went from (day 1) taking pain meds every 3 hours --> (day 3) taking pain meds once or twice a day --> (day 5) taking pain meds every 3 hours and being a bit unhappy that I had to wait.  Oh, and I am also heavily anemic which is lame :P My levels were apparently at 9.3 and I should be between 12 and 15.  Mom was pondering how much blood I lost during the labor.

But now we are home.  We have a doctor or mid-wife stopping past almost every single day to check on the baby and me.  On Sunday we have a hospital check up where I presume they will check Ella's jaundice level if she is still showing yellow, weigh and measure her to make sure she's feeding enough and check my stitches to make sure they are healing.

As of monday we also start receiving visits from our "health visitor".  Apparently she makes sure that we are both doing ok non medically.  I.e. mentally stable and all that stuff.  She will also be the one who gives Ella her immunizations once that time comes around. In the U.K. I think she gets the first ones at 8 weeks (but don't quote me on that, I'm too lazy to go check the book we were given which says the exact dates).

I must say though, overall my experience with the U.K. health system has been really positive.  They are really into one on one care for you.  During labour I had two midwives assigned only to me and three doctors who were only in charge of me and what appeared to be 2 other ladies.   We were constantly taken care of and watched over for any developments in the hospital.  Granted it made my room have a bit of a swinging door, but none-the-less made me feel better about everything knowing that they were doing their best to make sure Ella was safe and healthy and that I was taken care of.