After Claire's Birth (Part 2): The Hospital Stay

Despite having an elevated AFP during pregnancy that could result in an open tube defect, a closed tube defect, a placenta that stops delivering nutrients, a baby born early, or growth issues… Claire was actually born HEALTHIER than Annie was!  My prayers of desperation, my prayer warriors, my recommended changes in my diet, staying on top of my prenatals, etc all paid off.  God answered some of my biggest prayers to date and it is so humbling and rewarding to now have Claire here in perfect health.  She actually weighed slightly more than Annie (no growth issue here!), our Pediatrician was able to confirm that she doesn’t have a closed tube defect (the one thing they couldn’t tell in ultrasounds).  And although she had jaundice, it was a lower level of jaundice than what Annie had so really all in all, this baby surpassed even Annie’s health at birth!  It’s amazing and humbling.  I really can say that over the past few years I have been mindful not to take my family’s health for granted but Claire’s pregnancy and birth has really just amplified that even more.

 

The afternoon after she was born, was actually a pretty tiring day.  My blood pressure was fine all day long, I was allowed to have some ice chips mid-afternoon and the nurse kept telling me to slow down on them or I’d make myself sick.  Ice chips never tasted so good and all I wanted to do was eat them by the handfuls.

We had lots of feedings with a little trouble getting the right latch.  I didn’t breast feed Annie skin to skin for very long for similar reasons.  It’s not that either babies had troubles eventually latching, but getting that perfect latch was incredibly painful and I had blisters on the first day.   I also feel like getting the baby into position is really awkward for me, I needed practically 6 hands every time to help get it right.  I breastfed the entire hospital stay but we did have to supplement with formula a few times as she went back to the nursery and acted hungry again right away.

The lactation consultants are incredibly helpful but a little too passionate about breastfeeding.  One was going on a rant about how breast milk provides so many healing benefits.  She went as far as saying that if my baby develops pink eye that I should squirt breast milk into her eye to help heal it and if my husband gets a cut working around the house, forget Neosporin, put breast milk on it.  I’m all about organic natural solutions but I’m not going to chase my family around trying to throw my breast milk on their every wound.  I think I’ll stick to Neosporin thank you.

  

Later in the afternoon, my Mom and Annie came to visit.  Annie right away was very intrigued by her new baby sister.  Staring at her and wanting to reach in and touch her.  It was really sweet to see her soaking Claire in.  Surprisingly, Annie really didn’t want much to do with me, which was fine by me as I was still pretty numb and sore from surgery but she sat on Aaron’s lap and got to hold Claire.   It was a very precious moment that I’ll remember forever.  About the time they left is about the time my blood pressure started creeping back up again.  I found this very frustrating and it was starting to get late in the day and I was also really getting tired but every time I’d try to rest, a nurse would come in to check my vitals or Claire would need fed.  It just was never ended!  With both pregnancies, I found the hospital stays to be extremely tiring and finding the time to rest is nearly impossible. 

First moment watching my family together for the first time

We had a plan with the nurses that I would try to get up and walk to the bathroom late that evening.  By 8 pm I was still so numb that I couldn’t lift my legs.  We rescheduled for 11 pm.  11 pm rolls around and I’m just now starting to get the feeling back.  The nurse commented that I must have gotten a really good spinal because I should have had full feeling back hours ago so we delayed getting me out of bed until the next morning which was a bummer to me because it’s highly recommended to get out of bed as soon as possible after a c-section as it speeds up the recovery.  4 am rolled around and I finally got out of bed.  This time around, the terrible feeling of surgery was not too foreign to me, I remembered how it felt and I was able to cope with it better, last time I was completely shocked at how hard it was to move after a c-section and really struggled with the pain.

We never watched Annie get her first bath, it actually was cool to see Claire's first bath

The next day my blood pressure yo-yo’ed. I tried to walk the hall and got a little too ambitious and ended up in a lot of pain trying to walk too far.  We also had the hospital photographer stop in.  With Annie we declined having her picture taken at the hospital, we already had newborn pictures on the calendar scheduled and didn’t feel the need to pay for a hospital one.  With Claire, I thought sure let’s get a picture.  Well… things certainly have changed from what I perceived as a hospital picture!  The photographer came in and got pretty professional on us.  She started taking pics of Claire and then started to pose Aaron and I and I was like whoa… I didn’t realize we were all taking pictures?  She goes oh ya these are lifestyle photos I’m taking.  Whatever happen to just snapping one picture at the hospital?  I guess it’s very nice for people who want the convenience of pictures without having to schedule a photographer but since we had newborn pictures already scheduled, we didn’t order any of these but I will say the photos weren’t bad, but not nearly as good as my photographer’s.  If I would have known in advance how involved they would have been, I would have declined taking them but it is a nice service for those who don’t have a photographer already. 

Great Grandparent visit

The following day my blood pressure remained mostly high and it sent me into an emotional roller coaster where poor Aaron had to handle me in tears and I was feeling completely helpless as to why my blood pressure was so high. 

  

My sweet little Annie brought me flowers in the hospital

Sunday was finally going home day.  The Pediatrician came in told me that Claire’s bilirubin levels jumped quite a bit over night but luckily she said she could release her as long as we went home with a bilirubin blanket.  Her levels still were not as high as Annie’s were so it really was nothing I was too worried about.  My doctor came in and suggested I stay in the hospital until my blood pressure came down.  I was not on board, I honestly thought being in the hospital was what was driving my blood pressure higher so we agreed that I would be sent home on blood pressure medication and would come in for an office recheck in the following days.  Whew, homebound we were!

Grandparent visit 

As it did last time, it took forever to get us formally discharged.  I knew Annie would be napping and I told my nurse it was important that I get home during my 2 year old’s napping window so we could get settled before I got bombarded by her neediness.  We finally got released and got home and I was very relieved to find that my parents had everything under control and settled for us.  My mom had washed up all our sheets, made the beds, the house was just as clean as we left it and I actually felt like I could relax and finally get some rest.  Claire slept like an angel all the way home, we got her set up on the bilirubin blanket and was a perfect baby the rest of the day.  And even Annie took an extra-long nap that day, both kiddos must have known Mama needed a little rest!  

Annie's second hospital visit to Claire.  Love my girls!