I said I would write about the last couple of days in the hospital and the first few days at home. Well, now I'm finally getting to it. I've been busy!
After the delivery I was seeing double of EVERYTHING. It hurt to open my eyes. The first thing I remember is hearing Chuck talking to his mom on the phone, telling her that everything went fine and we were back in the room (I think this is what he was telling her). And then she asked what took him so long to call her (it was about an hour and half after the whole surgery started happening). I also remember realizing I was in a different bed, and in my state, it felt really weird to notice something so mundane. Who would remember the bed they were in before delivery and then afterwards?!?! I remember Chuck telling my mom and sister to get me to open my eyes. Then my family asked me if I wanted to hold him, so I did, and I was complaining a lot that I was thirsty. I'm sure the people that were in the room could tell you a whole lot more because things are still a little sketchy for me during this time. I wasn't really with it.
So for the next couple of hours I ate a lot of ice chips and held Aaron. And I remember feeling really happy about being able to feel my legs again...I hadn't felt them in about 24 hours at that point.
Then the doctor tells me that my protein levels were a little high (pre-eclamptic) and they wanted me to stay in the labor and delivery room and I would be on IV Magnesium, which is the thing my friend Christie warned me about. It makes you feel queasy and yucky. But the good thing for me was they didn't give it to me until about midnight so I only had to endure it for about 6 hours (12 hours after delivery) and it was during the night so I got to sleep through most of it. The nurse came in every few hours or so and checked up on me, my incision and the like, and we were up every couple hours to try and feed Aaron. Chuck was so great during this time, he got up and changed Aaron and gave him to me so I could try to feed him and then Chuck would put him back to bed.
By morning they stopped the Magnesium and around 9am they moved me to the room I would be in until I went home. I was supposed to be in the labor and delivery room for a couple hours post-pardum but had to stay there until Friday morning. The room was SO tiny! There was only one chair and I was thinking to myself, how are we going to fit even one more chair in here, let alone enough chairs for all of my family members who were there and even more coming! Then Chuck went down to the radiology department to read a few films so he could have the whole next week off. He has such a great boss!! So I was alone with Aaron...that was nerve racking! Then the nurse comes in, a male nurse, who proceeds to tell me he is going to take my catheter out because they "should have" taken it out while I was still in L & D. I'm thinking to myself how am I going to get out of bed to go to the bathroom?! He tells me that I need to pee 'so much' before 4 hours is up or he will have to put it back in and, again, I think to myself, when pigs fly you'll put that thing back in!
So, I have to drink enough so I can pee enough by a certain time so I don't have to have a drain stick out of me for who knows how long. I was told to call the nurse to help me out of bed, not to attempt it on my own. But I wasn't going to have Dillweed (that was his designated name) come and help me to the bathroom. I'd already asked him for pain meds and he dropped the ball on that one (turns out for 6 hours!!!), so why would I trust him to keep me off the floor without pulling an appendage off my body?! So I attempt to get to the edge of the bed, not even UP, by myself. Yeah...right...that didn't go as planned. I scootched a bit and then scootched back. That was about it. Chuck finally came back and I had to make it to the bathroom. After a long trial of scootching and pulling, I got to the edge of the bed and on my feet. Holy crap! I had no idea how much you really use your abs to even stand up. That was it for me at that point. I could hold it! I'm a pro at that! Got back into bed.
An hour later or so I attempted it again with no intention of not being successful. It took a while to actually make it to the bathroom (a whole 10 feet) but I did it. Oh, and the process of sitting on the toilet was absolutely painful. I wasn't expecting any of this!!! But I did it, made my quota, had tons of help from Chuck through all of this which is really embarrassing because you don't think that at 28 you'll have to have so much help from your husband to go to the bathroom and see all of the gross stuff that happens after childbirth, even if he IS a doctor. And back into bed it was for me!
Even into the evening the doctors were saying that I would go home Saturday. However, that was put to a halt when they got my labs back and didn't like them. My kidney wasn't functioning at the level they wanted it to so they had to put my IV back in. Mind you, my legs were the size of sausages before I even went into the hospital, then IVs for 36 hours made them like, I don't know, something bigger than sausages. Now they had to put the IV back in. Let's just say it was scary!!! As my mom tells me, I never have had small legs. They were about 3 times the size they normally are! Scary! The worse part of it, I wasn't going home by Saturday, it would be Sunday before I could break free. But the good part was I didn't have to be on my own with Aaron (not that I was going to be with all our family around) before I could be walking effectively. By Friday evening I was standing for a couple hours a time and walking. Sitting down and standing up was still a huge chore but getting much better. Friday night Chuck still helped me quite a bit with the baby, feeding him (or bringing him to me) and changing him.
Saturday morning Dana had to leave which was painful. Let's just say she cried quite a bit, that wasn't seen coming. She was so sad to leave and I was sad to see her go. Then Chuck's parents came and they had a ball seeing Aaron for the first time. Then they all left that afternoon to go home for a bit. It was SO nice to have some one on one time with Aaron. We slept together.
Saturday evening, more greatness, I got to take a shower. I had to have Chuck help me with it, but I was clean! After, let's see, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, four days of stinkiness and grease, it was wonderful, even if Chuck had to help. Oh, and all this time with the IV, I have to measure my pee, did I mention that? That was wonderful, too! When the nurse came in around 4am Sunday morning, after I had been drinking pitchers of water, I asked her when she could pull my labs. She said any time to I made her take them so the results would be in as soon as the doc looked at them so she could see I was fine and send me home. We got the go-ahead around 9am. I was so happy!
Around noon we were finally packing up and getting the car seat checked out by the nurse (whatever) and we were out the door. But first we grabbed all the available diapers. Don't worry, they told us to, so we weren't stealing. We got an entire package of Swaddlers! It was great! But I walked out of that place as fast as I could. Actually getting into the Jeep was fun and then driving was great! We go over four sets of railroad tracks on the way to our house. But the thing that made it all better was we got to drive through our brand spankin' new Starbucks!!! Yeah COFFEE!!!!! It was so nice!
I think this is long enough, so I'll wrap it up. Over the next couple of days I felt immensely better and better. I went up the stairs first thing when I got home to take another shower, we left to go to a bridal shower for our friends at church (I had to get out already), and had a nice afternoon and evening. Walking slowly, sitting slowly, bending slowly, everything slowly. But it got better by the minute over the next couple of days. And the best part of the next week and a half?...Starbucks was brought to me almost EVERYDAY by my father-in-law. It was always a special trip because he goes to McDonald's for his coffee. MMMMMM, it couldn't have gotten any better!
And now it's all history!
3 comments:
Loved reading your epic tale and remembering the parts that we were apart of....what a fun week we had! Even the cleaning, cooking, scrubbing, washing, planting, running errands, painting, and HOLDING AARON -- it was all GOOD. :) More pics! More pics! More pics! Videos, too! Love ya. Mom
I still cry when I think about you guys because I think about how much I miss you. I think that will probably always happen now... I'm such a baby. Andy says it's not a bad thing though! I miss you, and I love you!!!! I can't wait to see you in a couple of month!!!
I don't think I told you the horrible details of my delivery because I didn't want to scare you, but I couldn't go to the bathroom or take a shower by myself for 2 weeks! I was 30 years old and my husband had to help me pee for a full 2 weeks. And the first week I stayed upstairs all day every day. Then the second week someone helped me down the stairs once a day, then back up the stairs in the evening. It was horrible and humiliating. And the worst part was that it wasn't at all how I had pictured my first couple weeks of motherhood would be. I couldn't even take care of my baby. But of course, it all turned out just fine. But I totally know how you feel, sister!! It's easy to feel like another woman who seemed to handle it better is just stronger than you, but really - every delivery is different, just like every pregnancy is different. I think you did great!
Post a Comment