Hospital Stay

10/10/13  Day One

Well...the hard part was over :).  Now it was time to recover.  Early Thursday morning they had me sit up on the side of the bed.  I don't know if anyone else out there has had major abdominal surgery but sitting up a day after surgery is NOT a pain free experience.  I had a tumor/cist removed from my Fallopian tubes when I was 15 and they did the same thing.  I remember clearly that the pain was so bad that I passed out. My mom had to grab my hair as my head rolled back just to stabilize me.  That experience was fresh in my mind as they we going to re create it.

My stomach incision was super sore so they put me on pain meds to manage the pain.  The nurses wanted me to stand/walk as much as possible to help restart the digestive system.  My stomach hurt so bad that I couldn't stand completely straight.  I felt like an old man walking around.  Slow and steady.  I think the gas bubbles hurt worse than the incision though.

Despite the pain, I was able to breast feed both girls at once every 1-2 hours.  It was a very cool experience to have that skin on skin connection with my girls.  They both seemed to latch on easily and I was very hopeful that breast feeding was going to be a positive bonding experience.  I believe in breast feeding and I know how many nutrients and benefits come from breast milk.  It was very important to me that it was a success.

The day after they were born, the girls are SUPER alert.  Both Adelyn and Clara were looking around and

staring at everything around them.  Their eyes were soo big and they seemed to just be soaking in all the stimulants that encompassed their small little bodies.  My girls were perfect.  I am sure all new mothers say that, but mine are.  They are perfect.  They are beautiful and they are perfect.

I just couldn't stop staring at them and kissing them.  They have that "newborn smell" and it is so intoxicating.

 10/11/13  Day Two

Day two after birth.  Breast feeding is going well and I have started walking the halls.  I am trying to get at least five laps a day.  We had a little stress today.  The nurse came in and said that Clara had to do a "car seat test."  Since she was born underweight she had to be in a car seat and monitored for 90 minutes.  I think it stressed me out more than Clara.  She hadn't been alone since birth and she was usually hungry every 20 minutes or so, so I figured she would stress herself out and fail the test.  The nurse was great and got Clara a binki.  It was the first time Clara had ever had a binki and THANK GOD, she took it and liked it.
      The nurse took Clara away from me to a secluded room and stuck monitors on her.  Apparently they were monitoring her heart rate, oxygen level and some other thing.  I was able to visit her as much as I wanted (I'm sure they couldn't have stopped me) so I checked in every 30 minutes or so.  I got two thumbs up each time from the nurse.  My daughter was such a trooper! At this early stage, I was proud of her. I knew too that if she failed the test, she would have to stay at the hospital until she passed. We were all ready to go home, None of us wanted to stay another day.  Lucky me, Clara passed with flying colors (oh I knew she would!).  Glad to get the okay to check out soon!!!    
 I was pretty loopy when it was actually time to check out.  Since my pain tolerance seemed pretty high,
they gave me a strong pain med and I fell into a deep sleep.  Someone woke me up so we could leave but I felt pretty groggy.  I barely remember all the information being thrown at me and I just remember the nurses telling me that I HAD to make an appointment for a lactation specialist.  I tried explaining that the hospital breast feeding went well and yes I had an appointment on Monday and would get a referral then.  That didn't satisfy whichever nurse was there and she continued to press.  I finally made the point that I wasn't going to make any appointments and we moved on to checking out.  Why was it important to that lady for me to call for that appointment? Maybe she gets referral points for every appointment she makes.  Regardless, I left without making an appointment and did end up scheduling one with my doctor that Monday.
     On a side note, my daughters (I just love saying that..."my daughters") have very strong necks and limbs.  They are holding their heads up on their own and I practically arm wrestled each one about 20 minutes ago.  My daughters (:)) are brilliant :). Am I still on pain meds? (Ha)
      The girls lost weight after they were born.  Apparently that is normal.  Adelyn went from 6.2 down to 5.13 and bottomed at 5.10.  Clara went from 5.7 down to 5.1 and eventually 4.15.  The girls were too small for preemie diapers and the diapers kept comically falling off.  We were told there is a NICU size but the girls might have been too big for those.  So for the time being...we use the preemie size and fold down the front panel at the naval. Works fine.
     While at the hospital the girls had a series of other tests done to them.  There always seemed to be someone new in my room wanting to do some test on the girls.  They passed all the tests with flying colors however the blood tests were tough on the girls (& Grandma and me).  The nurse pricked a heel on each girl and had to fill a vial with blood.  Seemed to take forever. After the vial was full, they had to use a straw like tool to suck up the blood and dot circles on a test sheet.  Took forever and the girls were SCREAMING through the whole test.  It broke my heart to hear them screaming but I knew it had to be done.  I was so glad, as the girls were I am sure, when the test was done.  Their poor little feet :(

     I got to go home around 3 pm on Saturday.  The nurse wheeled me out and Lloyd and Mom carried my stuff and my two bundles of joy.  Since I had a C section I couldn't lift more than 10 pounds for at least the first 2 weeks.  I was sooo exhausted that I welcomed the chauffeured ride.  Mom got me home and we got the girls settled.  I was so tired and overwhelmed that I really don't remember too much about Saturday night.  I don't remember getting quality sleep because the girls were ALWAYS hungry.  Having a "schedule" was not in the cards for the first week of life.




Hospital Visitors

Cousin Jen Veeder Scott

Through out my stay at the hospital, I had a stream of wonderful people come to visit.  I put some of heir pictures in here to help me remember who came :). Sorry Cousin Mat, didn't get a good picture.

Tina Kinnard and Becca

Grandpa John

Kelly Ricketts and Cecilie Cappel

Rhonda Martin

Grandpa Lloyd

Auntie Alli and Cousin Mckenna

Jill Iversen and Shannon Luby

                                                  








10/12/13 Savior Mom


   I am so lucky to have my mom because she moved into my house for the first three weeks.  She packed a

suitcase and was going to sleep in my guest bedroom.  The first night home, I think we finally were able to get some sleep around 2 am or so.  Mom went into her room to get sleep.  I had a baby monitor next to the girls and Mom took the reciever so that she could hear when the girls were crying.  Shortly after we thought we were going to get some sleep, the girls started crying.  I called Mom's name several times and no answer.  I called "Sharon" a couple times, no answer.  I turned and repeated her name several times into the baby monitor and still no answer.  Finally I screamed her name and she came into my room.  She was so tired that she hadn't hear a thing.  After that experience, she started sleeping in my room with the girl's and me.  If we haven't learned anything from this experience, we learned that you have to have a sense of humor.  Mom and I laughed over that calling name experience for days.  In fact, I still get a chuckle when I remember it.