Within a few hours after Emma was born, she got her first bath. I was able to watch from my bed, while I waited for my right leg to get feeling in it again. Sadly, it took many more hours for that to happen. In fact, I had to be pushed in a wheelchair from the delivery room to the recovery room this time (granted, this hospitals delivery and recovery wings are pretty far apart, so I may have opted for the wheelchair regardless, whereas with Evan it was the room right next door so I walked myself). Before leaving the delivery room, though, they needed to make sure I could pee. Seems like such a basic bodily function that we all take for granted (and while pregnant I did my best to not do it in my pants when she kicked my bladder!), but yet this time it wasn't happening. Either from possible numbness from the epidural that still hadn't worn off on my right side or due to inflammation, it wasn't happening. And it wasn't easy not being able to stand and use my right leg to get to and from the potty! It is amazing how helpless you can feel when you can't stand up or walk, and when you can't pee! :O
Anyway, so as we made our way to the recovery room John pushed Emma in her hospital crib while I was pushed in the wheelchair by our nurse. As we went down the hall toward the Mom and Baby recovery wing, they played a lullaby song on the hospital speakers (that plays all throughout the hospital too!) to honor our newborn baby girl.
Our new nurse in the recovery room was ready to start taking vitals on me and Emma, and it seemed like the night that wouldn't end with them constantly checking on us and again trying to get me to pee. For Emma, they had to check her blood sugar three times within so many hours of being born, right before feedings, since she was an LGA (Large for Gestational Age) baby. She passed each one with flying colors, and by the third one pretty much slept through the heel poke and squeeze without a wince or whimper. Sadly, for me, they ended up giving me a catheter since after scanning my bladder I was very full (I had such a dry mouth during labor that I had chugged a lot of water and juice after delivery!) and still unable to pee on my own. At least then, around 4am or so, we got a few minutes to sleep until Emma needed feeding next. And then maybe we got another 45 minutes or so until it was morning time and nurse shift change at 7am.
Saturday
Luckily I was able to stand on my own by morning, and so I took a much needed shower to start to feel a bit more human again. Soon thereafter John left to go home and bring Evan to the hospital to meet his baby sister. I tried to get a little extra sleep during this time, and it was well needed for sure!
Evan was so excited to meet his baby sister...he had the most beautiful sparkle in his eyes and his grin was ear to ear when he first saw her. It was so precious to witness. It took him a little while to be able to properly pronounce her name, as it started out sounding more like "Memma", but he quickly started to get it right. We let Evan open one of his new big brother gifts, which this one happened to be a book about being a big brother! The other was a travel magna doodle so he could "color" anytime without us worrying about him marking up everything other than the paper! Evan also was pretty cute when he helped "hold her" for the first time. He gave her sweet gentle kisses on her head, hugged her (by putting his head on her), and also tried to tickle her! I don't know where he got that idea, but it was pretty adorable to see him wiggle his fingers over her, as if he was casting a magic spell, while saying "tickle tickle".
First glimpse at his baby sister, and helping hold her!
Hugs!
Tickles!
Presents for big brother!
Emma's first visitors...
By Saturday evening Emma needed her newborn screen. I pushed her into the nursery in her crib and watched the nurse put little electrodes on her head and ear muffs on her ears to do her hearing test. Then she got a heel poke and blood drawn for several other genetic screenings. And she slept through it all. In fact, she nearly slept through the whole night. We had to set alarms to wake us up to wake her up to feed her. And even then, waking her was not always easy.
Sunday
On Sunday morning John went back to the house to relieve Brenda and bring Evan back to the hospital to visit me and Emma again. We had more visitors too: Brenda and Jessica came by in the afternoon to meet Emma and keep me company.
More visitors!
The biggest thing I remember from Sunday was preparing for discharge. The nurse practitioner (NP) had been seeing me to check me out and the one new "complication" that I was having since my shower Saturday morning was this heavy chest discomfort, just below my sternum, mostly when I was standing. At first I thought it could be bruising or something from having Emma pushing up on me while I was pregnant all that time, or maybe even some fatigue or bruising from pushing during labor, but the NP checked me and said it was also possibly epigastral issues since my stomach was right where the discomfort was too. So they had the OB come look at me. He said it could just be bruising/fatigue of my connective tissues there, as my abdominal muscles had completely separated this pregnancy (he showed me exactly where they were and it was freaky by the way), and that the connective tissues at the top of my abs are right there below my sternum, so they may be a bit strained. For good measure, though, they took me off ibuprofen (which can aggravate your stomach more), put me on a stomach acid reducer, drew blood and ran some other tests to rule out things like gall bladder issues/stones. One such test was an ultrasound of my gall bladder, in which I had to be pushed in the wheelchair again to another floor of the hospital. I've never been pushed in a wheelchair so much in my life! Luckily, no signs of gall bladder issues, and so they stuck to the stomach and/or bruising/fatigue diagnosis. Nonetheless, they suggested that maybe instead of being discharged Sunday night, they should keep me overnight one more night to monitor me more.
In the end it was my decision and I'm glad I decided to stay. For one, we wouldn't have gotten discharged until 8pm anyway since the pediatrician was adamant they kept Emma for observation for a full 48-hour period due to the possible infection issue (recall the elevated temperature I had near the end of my labor). As anxious as I was to get home and be with Evan, I also was glad to have some more peace of mind when it came to my recovery and also to Emma's nursing schedule. At this point I was a bit nervous about how I would handle making sure she was getting enough to eat if she was always this sleepy! As it was, we had to set alarms to wake us up to wake her up, since she wasn't waking up and crying on her own for feedings at regular enough intervals.
Our friend Jessica watched Evan overnight for us tonight, on this last night in the hospital.
Monday
The discharge process today took longer than I planned. I thought we'd be out of the hospital by mid-day for sure, but as many things as we had to do before being discharged, I'm even more glad we did it during day and not late at night last night! And we knew Evan was in good hands at daycare today, so John was able to stay with me for the day. If we'd have tried to leave last night and had Evan with us as we had originally planned and it took so long to get discharged, it would have been a nightmare I'm afraid!
First, we had a nice consultation with the lactation specialist who weighed Emma before, during and after a nursing session. She helped me get over my worries that Emma wasn't getting enough milk (Emma drank 1.5 oz in just 15 minutes of nursing...0.5 oz of that was just in 5 minutes on the 2nd side!). She also helped me work out a plan for how to try to get Emma to cluster feed during the day and then told me it was okay she went up to 4 hours or so at night now, given she was gaining her weight back well and being so efficient at nursing.
Then I had to get my discharge exam, and Emma had to get hers. Everything was looking great today. While I was still having the chest discomfort, I was more comforted in knowing that it wasn't anything serious and would probably resolve itself in a few days of rest (which it did).
John and I were both able to get showers and cleaned up and then we got Emma dressed up in a cute knit dress and booties, and my friend Jessica took some awesome going home photos for us. I'm going to treasure these photos for a long time!
We got the discharge run down from our nurse, got our take home meal, and then finally were out the door...around 3pm!
Overall, there were definitely some upsides and downsides to our hospital care this time compared to when we had Evan. While our current health insurance plan is *much* more affordable (so a MAJOR upside), and the hospital we delivered Emma at had many good amenities and perks similar to the hospital we had Evan in (like my postpartum massage and the take home meal) there were some things about this stay that I didn't like as much as when we had Evan. Things like slower nurse response (or sometimes no response when I called for them) and they didn't stay as on top of mine or baby's care (i.e. they made us set our own alarms to wake up for nursings, whereas at the other hospital with Evan they were on top of helping wake us up for us, they forgot to give me my flu shot before discharge, etc). Granted, they were really busy that weekend...I think I heard someone say there were at least 6 babies delivered on Friday (recall the OB who was balancing my delivery with other deliveries and c-sections) and I did notice when we arrived Friday morning most all of the labor and delivery room doors were closed, and when we left the labor and delivery wing that night most all of them were open...so maybe that was part of the nurse response issue. One bonus from this plan, though, besides being much more affordable, was an in-home visit by a NP 2 days after discharge so me and baby didn't have to venture out anywhere for Emma's 5-day old check up. More on our first days at home with Emma to come soon...
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