Every morning Tim & I just laughed because from about 7:30am until noon there would be a constant flow of hospital "people" coming into our room for things. The nurse to get my vitals/assessment, then to check the baby out, then the doctor to come check me out, then the pediatrician to check Livi out, lactation consultant, clinical educator, photography lady, etc. I would have plans to take a shower every morning and usually I wouldn't get in the shower until after noon. It was crazy!
Another thing I was surprised by was how sore I was after surgery. I know, I know - I had major abdominal surgery. But do you know how many times you use those abdominal muscles for the smallest things. I was supposed to get up and walk in the halls at least 4 times a day and when we walked in the halls we could take Livi with us in the bassinet. Just pushing the bassinet hurt. Getting in and out of bed was not fun! I was taking Motrin every 6 hours around the clock and then Percocet every 4 hours as needed. Every time the nurses would bring in my pain meds they were pretty good about bringing in some crackers to eat too to help protect my stomach.
Breastfeeding was a big task for me while at the hospital. I felt like I wanted to have this breastfeeding thing down to the point I felt comfortable with it before discharge because I wouldn't have a nurse available 24/7 to help. Breastfeeding was & is stressful. I don't like that I don't know how much she eats at each feeding - is Olivia getting 1/2oz or 2oz or 4oz??? I have no idea. One of the nurses told me I should have Livi nurse for 15-30 minutes at a time. Livi would eat really well for about 5-10min and then putz out. How in the world was I supposed to keep her awake for 30 min. to eat!?!?!? I was baffled! My last evening in the hospital I was getting very frustrated with breastfeeding and my nurse that evening offered to get my a hospital breast pump to see if I could pump some milk out to supplement Livi if needed. The nurse really didn't think I would pump that much but I ended up pumping about 1.5oz! She was shocked and so was I. She showed me how to supplement Livi with breast milk with a dropper.
Livi was born at 7lbs 3.6oz and by day 2 she was 6lbs, 9oz which was a 7% weight loss. I know all babies loose weight right after birth and as long as they don't drop below 10% of their birth weight then everything is fine. Well of course I was freaking out that she was already down to 7% and that's why I kept freaking out about breastfeeding. By Friday (day of discharge) she was back up to 6lbs, 13oz. Whew!
The other thing we were were dealing with while in the hospital was when Olivia was born her labias were very red/swollen/firm and had some extra "tissue" in between her labias. The first couple days the doctors thought it was just some swelling from birth. On Friday though, the pediatrician that saw her (Dr. Casemore) thought that maybe something else was going on and wanted to look a little more into it. She called her colleague, Dr. Bedford (who we ended up choosing for Livi's pediatrician) and Dr. Bedford contacted a pediatric endocrinologist at Children's (St. Paul). He wanted Livi to have some more labs drawn and an ultrasound of her "girly parts" before we were discharged. This was a little stressful for us since this could mean something is "wrong" with our perfect baby. The ultrasound went well - and we got a phone call on Sat. from Dr. Casemore saying that everything was normal - she has all her "girly" parts...so that was a huge relief.
So finally - a little before 3pm we were officially discharged from United Hospital! YEA!
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| Mommy seems extra excited to go home and Olivia looks like she's scared for her life! |
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| Daddy calmed Livi down by swinging the car seat |
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| Ready to Go! |
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| Last look at our hospital room |
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| Our first reaction to the carseat |
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| Much better after daddy's help |
On our drive home I got a phone call from my brother and surprise surprise - they were 30 min. south of St. Paul and heading up to see us and meet his new niece! It was a nice surprise and I couldn't wait to show off Olivia, but on the flip side, I was so tired and just wanted to go to bed! When we finally got to our house (we had to stop by Tim's parents to get Rylie) Alex & Mary were already there. Tim was great and after an hour or so, he took Alex & Mary out to get dinner and was gone for about 1 1/2 hours and I was able to take a nap. Then that night Alex and Mary said they were staying at some friend's house in downtown Minneapolis - that was great! They would come back on Sat. to visit but it was nice to know that we had our first night to ourselves.
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