When you walked out of the hospital for the first time ...

[Megan]

DH made a couple of trips to the car with our bits and pieces and then he carried DS out in the sling. I was never offered a wheelchair (5 days post c/s, so I wasn't feeling too bad). Car was just across the road so not far to walk.
After waiting for what seemed like forever for DH to get DS strapped into the carseat, I sat in the back next to him. It felt wrong to leave him in the back by himself! He slept the entire way home, I got to baby gaze for the 30min trip and DH was a very nervous driver!

[*TripleJ*]

lol i sat in the back 2 coz MIL drove us i was just surprised he slept the whole way home lol but he slept a lot in the first few days

[tk1999]

I also remember being really surprised driving home that the world was just going along like normal, like nothing momentous had happened. I actually said to DH "Doesn't anyone know I've just had a baby?!" LOL

I was the same - when I was driving out to the golf course where DP was I was beeped by another driver for being really slow... well der... didn't he know I was driving my sweet gorgeous DD for the FIRST TIME EVER... it was only when DP said to me that the driver wouldn't have known that did I realise that oops yeah he wouldn't have LOL

[mzcatieboo]

I walked out holding DS

[JCE0810]

DF drove home, MIL was in the front and i was in the back sitting next to DD. He drove a good 10 to even 20kms under the speed limit the whole way home and we lived about 30mins from the hospital (we went to a hospital out of the area we were living in at the time). i've never seen DF drive so slow, we got a few honks but mostly people were patient. I told DF DD wasnt going to break if he did the speed limit

[AwesomeFoursome]

DS - I left first hospital to be transferred back to local hospital the day after he was born, I walked carrying DS. I wasn't offered a wheelchair. Left local hospital to go home, I walked out, Dh's ex-wife carried DS. Don't ask . Not offered wheelchair.

DD - I left hospital to go home 6 hours after DD was born. I walked out carrying DD. Not offered wheelchair.

[Jellyfish]

I walked out carrying DD. I remember thinking "are they seriously letting me leave with her?" and tried to blend into the walls so nobody noticed I was escaping with a baby...

[~Saram~]

hehe - I sat in the back too, just couldn't bear for them to be alone! Then had to drive up a mountain (don't ask) and the bumping around I reckon I must have pulled my stiches - hurt so much!

[sazzafrazz]

I was up and walking (shakily) 9.5hours after my C/S and walked out of hospital carrying DD on day 6. I felt so good we went for a 2km walk with the pram that evening!!! I was pretty sore later that night though!

I'd been kept in as we had long labour, traumatic emergency, dd was small and having feeding dificulties and they were worried about PND so had to see the mental health nurse. I told her I'd be fine if they would let me out of that place!!! and I was. I'd been there for a whole week.

I was soooo glad to be going home + so proud of my gorgeous miracle. We were in a small country hospital so the car was only about 200m from my room. We could have walked all the way home as we live less than a km away It would proabaly have been quicker than fluffing around with the car seat getting her in and out etc.

It really did feel unreal. All around us people were doing ordinary things, going to work, the shops, school pickups and we were taking home OUR VERY OWN BABY for the first time! I was so excited and nervous. I sat in the front but the whole trip I wished I was in the back seat with her.

[murraysmum]

i was allowed to carry ds out of the ward not around the hospital tho lame lol i road in the back with him as i felt more comfy in the back

this bub ill walk out again too

[Traveller]

With DS1 and DS2 I walked to the car carrying my new baby. With the twins my DH and I intended to carry one each but we were told we were not allowed incase we dropped them as we would not be covered by hospital insurance, and an orderly had to push them to the door in their crib

It turned out it was merely hospital policy that a member of staff accompanied us to the door so if tiny newborns were seen leaving without a member of staff the alarm could be raised that a baby was being abducted. Still I let the orderly push them to the door as we had a lot of bags and it was easier. It was a bit annoying though as she stopped every time someone cooed at my babies and I just wanted to get home to my boys.

[Gigi]

i was at the stage of shuffling, a few steps at a time, and needing to be close to walls, to hang onto for support. so i got wheeled to the car.

i'd spent five days in hospital for an emergency c-section, and when they opened me up, there were complications (bilby wasn't breathing when she was wrenched out of me by the leg). ANyone else have "bandl's ring" happen to them during labour? your baby gets strangled by your uterine muscles, literally.

it would have been nice to have had a straightforward/healthy labour/birth, so that i could walk to the car, and hold my baby.

i remember being scared, and in so much pain, i felt EVERY bump in the road (on a ten minute journey home) and i was so upset i coudln't twist around to see how bilby was in her carseat. i was worried she wasn't strapped in safely enough.

Getting in and out of the car was so ouch.

DH half carried me inside once we got home.

really hard to look after a nb when you're feeling that poorly.

so all these people that are up and about three days after their c-section, good on them, but it sure wasn't like that for me. (took months to recover).

i think it's like bad period pain, if you've never experienced it, it's easy to think "oh they must be putting it on". As soon as you experience it yourself, it's like "whoa, it IS bad".
I felt so brainwashed that "everyone was fine after c-sections", that when i wasn't, i was too embarrassed to admit it, at the time, in case i was accused of malingering. Just knew how i felt, and felt like a failure (about taking so long to heal, walk normally again, being in pain etc.)

Often the times i have mentioned it, subsequent posters put comments about "pain threshold tolerance", i actually know i have a high pain threshold, because i've been told so by medical staff.

[nic]

with DD, DH did a couple of trips to the car, then we all walked downstairs and waited for him to bring the car to the front doors of the hospital. Grannie In-Law had to crash the moment, telling me to give my baby to her, so i stood, in pain waiting for DH to adjust the car seat for this little creature that we obviously had no idea on how tiny she would be.

With DS, the hospital had a baggage trolley, so DH filled it up and did one trip to the car. DH carried DS downstairs, ( we were suppose to take him to the front door in his crib, due to hospital policy) and DD and I sat in a chair and held DS until DH bought the car around to the front.

[Indadhanu]

LOL, yes I sat in the back with Jazz and Shel drove at about 60kph on the 110kph highway. Good thing though, going over potholes at 60kpm was torture after a c/s. 110 would have been certain death (for Shel )!

[Pooley]

I left the hospital keeled over in pain and with a sick bag in one hand a bunch of flowers and my bag in the other. Little did I know at that point that I was suffering from a postpartum puncture headache because of the epidural my c/s wound was not even registering in my mind at that point. My husband carried DS.

Readmitted the next morning after a night of pure hell dealing with my new baby and my illness. 3 days later my second exit from the hospital was solo, my husband came to get me while my Mum looked after DS. Not the nicest introduction to motherhood.

[*Beema*]

I walked out alone, to get clothes and supplies for a few days, the second time was to get the car seat fitted and pick up my pram, finally the last time I got to carry my daughter out, 11 days after her birth.

I hope that next time I get to take my new baby home with me the first time I walk out the doors of the hospital

[Murph01]

You asked a popular question and I just stumbled across it, which coincidentally is how I left the hospital

I was conditionally released 5 days after my caesarian to a hospital closer to my home which was a 2 hour drive on a windy coastal road between Cairns and Mossman and I anticipated a very uncomfortable trip home. I hit the doctors up for one last dose of pain killers (the stuff that always made me spin) so that was in full swing by the time we walked out in my slippers. My husband carried the baby and my Mum practically had to carry me or at least hold me up. I had asked for a wheel chair but these things are so routine, no one thought I would need one. Wrong! they hadn't seen me on drugs. I was giggly and slurring my words but I was in the back with my tiny bub and soon at the next hospital for the rest of our stay. By the way, our little girl in that car seat was so cruel, I remember thinking..."is this legal?" she weighed 2.3 kilos and sitting slumped seemed so wrong.

[julie_ann_jules]

I was wheeled to the car (which was waiting in the 3min zone) with my first two babys. They were both c/s and I was still in AGONY!!! Looking back I shouldn't have been going home With DS #3 I walked out (down 2 flights of stairs ) with him in my arms..... He was a VBA2C and I only had minimal pain (3rd degree tear)