Parenting with the training wheels on

Because I had a c-section, we got to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time.  I won't write about all the bloody details, but I definitely wanted to take a minute to document what the hospital experience was like, in case any one is curious about the recovery process for a c-section instead of a natural delivery.

As I mentioned, Willa was born early in the morning.  Immediately after the procedure, she spent time in the nursery with Jeremy while I was stitched up.  Our hospital had the awesome policy that she would never be anywhere without us, so Jeremy spent most of the morning getting to know her there since I was a little indisposed.

After the doctor was done with me they wheeled me into the recovery room, which was a large room with lots of little curtain-lined nooks for people to recover from surgery.  It would have been awkward if there had been anyone else in there, but again, it was a slow morning and I was all alone.  The recovery nurse didn't have the warmest bedside manner, and I was impatient to get out of there, so she was impatient with me.  I think I was in there for about 20 minutes before Jeremy came in with Willa and I finally got to hear her stats.  The recovery nurse was a little rough-handed in teaching me to breastfeed, but to her credit, Willa latched right away and I was able to keep her there.  I learned the football and the cradle hold, which are still my two most used holds.  She told me that we could leave recovery once I could bend my legs on my own, which took a frustratingly long time.  It was definitely a weird feeling to not be able to get your legs to do what the brain is telling them to do.  After about an hour and a half I finally did it and they wheeled Willa back to the nursery while they wheeled me to my room (Jeremy stayed with her again).

I was only allowed to eat/drink clear liquids because of the surgery's potential effects on my digestive system, so I had a less than satisfying lunch of broth, juice, and jello (keep in mind I hadn't eaten since 10:30 the night before, which I remember because they must have asked me that 20 times before surgery).  My GI system played nice and I didn't throw up, so they released me to eat a regular dinner (thank goodness!).  I shudder to think of my reaction if it hadn't.  At this time I still had multiple attachments including an IV, pulse monitor on my toe, compression cuffs on my calves, and cathetar.  All while having to keep up with a hungry newborn.  Thank goodness for Jeremy, who did every part of the parenting, other than breastfeeding, for the first two days while I was hooked up like that.  What they also don't make public is the fact that the post-partum body has to flush out the heavy uterine lining that built up and sustained the pregnancy, so I was literally diapered for the whole time I was recovering.  Because I was less than agile, I had to be changed by the nurse, which was a little embarrassing, although necessary.  It's safe to say that I was pretty miserable for the first two days because of all of this.

Nights were odd because the night nurse insisted on having three lights in the ceiling on at all times, which made it hard to sleep.  There was also a parade of people coming in every two hours to check my pulse and BP, give me pain meds, get updates on Willa's meals and diapers, and just to clean the room, clear the food trays, or introduce any new nurse that would be taking our case over at shift change or when they reconfigured the staff to keep up with busy times.  Add to that the fact that Jeremy had to sleep on the world's least comfortable sleep surface, and neither of us had a good time those two nights we were in the hospital.  Suffice to say that I was eager to go home.

Luckily for me, both Willa and I did very well in the healing process.  After the morphine wore off from the original procedure, I only needed Motrin to keep the pain at bay.  The only exception was during the second night when I was trying to sit up, turn to the side, and lift Willa up and down.  I definitely pushed myself too far and I had to take a Percoset to sleep.  I also had an intense shoulder cramp (felt like a charlie horse) that I heard was common because of gas bubbles that get into the body during surgery.  Weird, but so painful I couldn't use my right arm to help myself up, and I decided to go for the heavy stuff to help myself function.  Willa passed all of her tests with flying colors and she stayed with us the whole time so we got lots of practice taking care of her.  All this meant that the doctors and nurses declared us ready to go home a day early if we wanted (which we so did!).

I feel that I should mention that the whole stay wasn't all bad.  We had a private room, which was lovely, and they continued to help me breastfeed so that we had a good start together.  We also had a few visitors, which was very much appreciated.  Audrey and Drew, being recent first time parents as well, brought a huge bag of supplies to help me in the first few days.  Everything from personal care products to tasty snacks to promote lactation, and even a thank you gift for the nurses.  Nikki and Curt brought Steak and Shake milkshakes (sooo delicious!) and spent lots of good time hanging out with us and reminding me of my existence outside of new motherhood.  So lucky are we to have such awesome friends :-).

So that was our hospital stay in a nutshell.  Overall I highly recommend Women's Hospital, but I definitely advocate being more vocal about turning the lights off, and maybe bringing a sleeping bag for the partner to sleep on!!