First thing we learned, was that when you're in the hospital after having a c-section, it was preferable to let the baby sleep in the nursery instead of in your room. The first night, DH slept at the hospital and the baby was in the room, too. We got pretty much no sleep at all. Matthew cried a lot, and as new parents, we had no idea what was going on. I was not allowed to get out of bed (not that I wanted to), so DH did the vast majority of the care at this point. So we decided it was in everyone's best interest to let the nurses take care of Matthew at night. That way we could get some rest, and if he needed to feed, they'd bring him in to me. The next few nights were a lot more restful with him in the nursery. And the hospital states that they encourage rooming-in, but the nurses kinda think that's a bunch of non-sense. They know that moms want/need their rest while they can get it, and having a newborn in the room will guarantee that they won't get it. They even told us, "that's what we're here for!" Okay, have at it!
I also learned pretty quickly that the instant I started feeling pain, I needed to call the nurse for more meds. If I waited too long and let the pain get too strong, it was harder to get it back under control. The percocet I got also made me tired, so I got lots of sleep with its help.
The compression socks they made me wear for almost the entire 3 day stay were a pain in the butt. I get the point of them, but after 2 days, your legs just want to be left alone. Due to the swelling I got towards the end of pregnancy, my lower legs looked pretty freaky whenever they'd take the socks off. My feet were still hugely puffy, while my ankles were making their reappearance. Then I'd have another area of puffiness and then another of normalcy. Picture is below.
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| Results of 3 days of compression socks |
The surgeon wanted my to keep my catheter in almost the whole time, too, which was nice, but also a huge pain in the butt. It was nice because if I needed to go to the bathroom after drinking tons of water, I didn't even have to think about getting up. But it was a pain in the butt because once I started walking around, the tubing served as a convenient path for the blood that was pouring out of me (sorry). There were a few times I had to turn around and go back to my room to clean up because I was leaving paths in the halls.
Speaking of walking, they had me up on the second day. I just walked around my room a bit, and I was exhausted. But the worst part was the act of getting out of bed. That alone took a good 5 minutes the first few times since it was very painful as well as awkward with all the tubing to negotiate. I got the hang of it towards the end, but it wasn't any less painful. Walking sucked, but was necessary. They gave me a small pillow to hold against my incision and that helped, though it was awkward.
My nurses, for the most part, were awesome. Out of the half a dozen or so that I had, only 1 was questionable... she tried to give me "more" medicine for my Group B Strep. Only I wasn't Group B Strep positive. I managed to catch that in time, as she was just about ready to insert the meds into the IV. Her overall bedside manner was a little brusque, but not horrible. For the other nurses, my only complaint was when one of them came in in the middle of the night to inform me that my baby was "starving" and could they give him some formula. I wasn't intending for him to have formula, but since she worded it like that, it set off my new mom panic alarm. YES! GIVE MY POOR STARVING BABY FORMULA!!!! I was a little annoyed afterward, because one should never use the word "starve" on a brand new mom. They also gave him a paci, which I also didn't intend for him to have, but honestly, I saw that it was either using ME as a paci or an actual paci. I had no intentions of the former, so paci it was. That was a good decision.
The food was alright. Breakfasts were awesome, but lunch and dinner were subpar. I would have asked DH to bring me Taco Bell, but never really had the thought until my food had actually arrived. Oh well.
Nursing was interesting. They put him on a boob as soon as I was out of recovery, and since I couldn't sit up, the lactation consultant just laid him face down on my boob. Not my favorite position, but it's all I could do at that point. Later on, I was able to nurse in the normal position, as well as a modified football hold. He latched really well on one side, but had difficulties on the other. My milk came in on the 3rd day, and one boob produced more than the other. Yes, the one with more milk is the one he latches well on. To this day, I have the same "good" boob and "bad" boob.
I had plenty of distractions for when the baby was sleeping or in the nursery, but I didn't partake in many of them. DH & I watched a movie or two, watched a few episodes on HGTV, or played on the internet. But on the whole, I just wanted to sleep. And sleep I did. It was lovely.
The day of discharge was a bit rushed though... apparently 3 women had called in and were on their way in to have their babies, so the nurses were all busy getting ready for the rush (in my hospital, it's rare to have more than 2 in labor at the same time, so they staff accordingly). So we got signed out quickly and the LC came down with us to make sure our carseat was installed correctly. It was. Then we got in the van and drove home. Oh, and it was also hot as blazes out.
The swag we got from the hospital was: a basket of food stuffs from the cafeteria; the pillow I used to walk around with; the paci they gave him while in the nursery; a flannel burp cloth; a package of Pampers diapers; a package of wipes; a gift set of formula; rectal thermometer; nose sucker; baby wash; baby lotion; small wash bowl; gauze; anti-bacterial ointment; a silver spoon and a Halo swaddle sleep sack. Oh, and they let me take home a few gauze undies, ultra huge pads and some of those waterproof sheet things they put on the beds.
Sorry for the way I wrote this. I mainly wrote this late at night over many days, so it doesn't flow at all. Also not helped that I had a hard time remembering what actually happened. But whatever. I got it done, and that's all that matters. :)
Recovery is not fun or easy. I think my friend Jared put it best after his wife had a c-section.
ReplyDelete"She just had major surgery. She's going to need some time."