Post Partum

So I'll pick up where I left off with Charlotte's birth story...

So she was delivered. I saw her for a few seconds and then she was whisked away to get cleaned up and have a few tests run. I know they did several blood sugar tests on her while we were there- not sure if that is standard for all babies or just the gigantic ones. Anyways. They sent Jacob to my recovery room while they sewed me up. For some reason he wasn't allowed to be in there when they first started (I was already open when he got into the OR) or when they finished and closed me up. Anywho I had to go to my recovery room before going to my regular room to see Charlotte. I was in recovery for like an hour. They hooked me up to a pain medicine pump that I clicked whenever I had pain and that stayed with me til the morning. I was reluctant to use it at first but then I warmed up and clicked it all the time;) Before they got that going, Jacob said they had to give me 4 shots for pain. I think he said I got morphine and versed? maybe. I remember they kept pressing on my stomach to make me pass all my clots. That was not fun.

All our family came to see us in the recovery room for a little while. They got to see Charlotte in the nursery and they got to see her get all cleaned up. She was apparently not only the biggest baby there but also the most beautiful;) Our family left before I got put in my room because it was late and it was snowing and the roads were getting bad.

I got to the our regular room and they brought Charlotte in and I learned how to breastfeed. Then she went to the nursery. Then I had the longest night ever, I'm not sure I slept at all. Several nurses came in to check my incision. It was bleeding some so they kept tracing around the bleeding on my bandage so they could keep track with how much the bleeding was changing. And they pressed on my stomach again to push out any clots. Finally they called the doctor about my bleeding and he ordered some medicine to stop it. The medicine didn't go in my mouth or via my IV or shot so I'll let you use your imagination on that one. ha

The next night I had a fever so they next day when the doctor came around she massaged my uterus and I screamed/cried. She said I had endometritis. It's a uterine infection women get who push for extended periods of time and then end up getting a c-section. That's all I really know about it. They put me on 3 antibiotics via IV. They rotated them every hour or so. Then I would get a break from them and then they would start them up again. My IV from the Labor and Delivery room finally gave out after a couple days and I had to get a new one. I hate hate hate blood, needles and IVs. So I got the new one early one morning and then later that night they had to take it out and start a new one. BOO. I think I messed up the 2nd one while trying to get Charlotte positioned for breastfeeding. Did I mention that I hate IVs? I really just hate the idea of any kind of needles.

Me and Jacob got though a lot of tough stuff in the hospital. I remember crying a lot and not really knowing why. Well I'm sure alot of it was just being in the hospital sucked. We had several milestones besides the drama of the IVs and meds. For one, I had trouble peeing. It is really hard to remember how to pee after having the catheter in. The nurse had to threaten me with another catheter if I didn't pee. So I ran some water in the sink and pushed on my stomach/bladder until it happened. I have never been so happy to pee:) Then I wouldn't get the urge to pee so I would be reminded to go to the bathroom and I couldn't hardly stand up I had to pee so bad. One time I peed 24oz! They had this thing in the toilet that measure my pee- 24 oz! I know its gross to talk about but oh well. I made Jacob wittiness the large amount of pee whether he wanted to or not. ha
Then I had to shower (on a shower chair) and removed the dressing on my incision. That was tough. Jacob actually had to do it for me. It felt good to be clean but it wasn't the best shower I ever had.
Then I had to ban everyone from making jokes around me because it hurt so much to laugh. One time I laughed while eating and nearly choked. That was fun.

All in all a pretty miserable hospital stay for me and Jacob. Jacob had to take care of me and Charlotte, plus the little sleep he got was on the oh so comfy couch in my room. But we finally got to leave 1/24/2011. We were soo excited all morning about leaving. We really could not have gotten out of there any faster.

That week our mom's took turns staying with us. They cooked, cleaned, watched Charlotte so we could sleep. Those were good times:)

I feel like I didn't do this entry justice... I wanted to convey that I hated staying in the hospital. Did that come across? ;)