Part II of birth story here
We'll see how long this takes to type and post (starting it at 12pm ET on 1/20/16! lol) as Daddy is back to work full time, and it's just me and baby at home!
We left off with Mommy and Baby in recovery, catching our breaths after a somewhat rocky start (Apgar of 5?!)
We got to do skin-to-skin (less than an hour after birth! yay for that, after a C/S!) and tried nursing (she latched! DAMN GIRL already a head start on your brother with nursing!) and poor E ran around trying to find cell-phone signal (it was like we were in some stone basement!) to text family and let them know we were all healthy and happy! (He eventually had to nearly leave the entire L&D floor to get signal...)
We heard a couple come into the bed next to us in recovery - a 10lb baby!!! Dad walked by the foot of my bed to use the bathroom, and I saw him through a break in the curtain - holy linebacker, no wonder the kid was so big!
After the requisite 2 hours in recovery, we were wheeled off (nurse needed some help steering my bed lol) to our MotherBaby room, aka home-away-from-home for the next three nights... the feeling in my legs had begun to come back (by the time we left recovery, I could wiggle both sets of toes!) and the legs were starting to fiercely itch - unsure if it was from any meds, but it was DEFINITELY due to those blood-pressure cuff thingies they put around your legs from knee to ankle... SO EFFING ITCHY!!!
We had a myriad of visitors over the next few days (fBFF came, and announced she was pregnant! *by shoving her phone in my face with a picture of her u/s pulled up...* (lol) she was just 6.5 weeks or so at the time, and so is kind of nearing the end of first trimester now - her EDD is a week after my bday in August, and given a (most probable) ERCS a week early, she'll deliver almost exactly on my birthday! not sure how I feel about that... lol )
The first night I got hit with horrible HORRIBLE HORRIBLE pain at the incision site - it increased over a span of 20-30 minutes until I couldn't concentrate, couldn't do anything except clutch the bedrails with white knuckles, breathe through it, and just wait for the new IV pain med to kick in (took over 30 minutes...) I totally had an out-of-body moment because of that pain... some of the worst, if not the worst, I've ever experienced...
Aside from that - I managed pain meds much better than with Button's recovery, and felt pretty good the whole time in the hospital (and at home later - filled the percocet Rx and took them every now and then for the first 36 hours or so, and then was able to stop them and the Motrin...)
The catheter came out the next day (Tuesday) midday, and then the IV came out - I was able to get up (verrrry slowly) and shower (verrrry slowly) but MAN - nothing felt better than sitting there under the hot water... I didn't want to get out! But I got on my new comfy (button-top for nursing!) PJ's and felt so much better climbing (or, slowly scooting) back into a clean and fresh-made bed!
Ms. Mack also had her first bath around midnight the first night (and weighed in at 7lbs6oz) but couldn't complete her hearing screening because she kept crying...
Once I was camera ready, baby girl and I got our first selfie (lmao - I am SO not the vain type that needs to be "Camera ready" first...)
And then we went crazy with taking pictures:
(obviously this is just a very small selection of the MANY MANY paparazzi shots... lol)
The second night (Tuesday) they finally were able to finish her newborn screening (PulseOx was perfect - 95 and 96 I think - her hearing was perfect, her bilirubin levels were so good they skipped the blood test for that!) and she weighed in around 7lbs4oz (I think... lol)
Overall - the staff were great, and the hospital was fabulous as always providing plates for E at each and every meal... and now - I don't know if my chart somewhere said, SECOND KID! but I did notice that I never got a visit from a lactation consultant or the on-staff newborn photographer! I guess they were like, "man she totally got this!" (which, ironically - I did kind of have it! She was latching great - ok, still issues in the hospital with the left nipple (which I've diagnosed as flat) but by the time we left, she was latching on it! without a nipple shield, which is good because the dietary staff did accidentally take it with a food tray one day, lol)
We were ready to go on Christmas Eve (Thursday) and once the OB and pediatrician discharged us both (her discharge weight was 7lbs1oz)**, we got my happy-meds Rx and paperwork, showed the nurses the car seat and that we knew how to strap her in, and we were off to go pick up big brother from MIL's house - and then to finally head home as our new family of four!
**Noting weights because, come the first two pediatrician appointments (and weight-checks) we feared we were on track for a repeat of Button's (poor) weight gain...
(we caught the elevator down with 10-LB-Baby and parents from recovery! and man, that kid was BIG! and to be honest (and mean?) momma still looked 8 months pregnant and a little worse-for-the-wear... she also didn't speak any English, which was kind of weird considering baby-daddy was Caucasian...)
Ms. Mack -
on the day you came home, the weather was so DREARY! Gray, overcast and rainy - this Christmas Eve was not a white one, but a warm one at about 60 degrees!
(don't worry, you'll grow into that crib! before we know it, you'll be sitting up - and then pulling to stand - and we'll be lowering it again!)
***look at that - Ms. Mack fussed just once and went back to sleep while I typed, and she's just starting to wake 50 minutes after the start of the post!***
Next up - the fun 10 days Grandma and Grandpa were here, and the two CRAZY days we added your aunt, uncle and two cousins (don't forget their dog!) to the mix!
Welcome home little one!
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