There's one thing they never told us in our childbirth class. They never told us exactly how many times we would be woken up/interrupted in the next 48 hours! I had Bryson at 1:23am and we were in our new recovery room in the Mother/Baby Unit by 4:00ish. Right away, people started coming in every 2 hours to check on one of us, so there was no rest for the weary!
I was exhausted and sore, but I was also on some kind of adrenaline high and had a hard time sleeping. Which was kind of a bummer, because Bryson was sleeping like a champ after all he'd been through. However, the poor little guy kept being woken up for all kinds of things. He had blood tests to make sure my gestational diabetes hadn't transferred to him (it hadn't), he had a hearing screening, several checkups, they taught us how to give him a bath, and other stuff too. We also took that time to figure out breastfeeding, diaper changes, and putting clothes on him, which wasn't easy because he was so small and wiggly!
We also had some special visitors, which was fun.
Mostly, I was just ready to get home and start figuring out our new life. My blood pressure was still higher than it should've been, so they kept us an extra day longer than I'd have liked, and I was not pleased. But ultimately, it gave me some extra time to recover, and allowed the doctor's to figure out that Bryson had jaundice. Since we were there longer, I think it gave them extra time to figure out how severe the jaundice was so that we could take the correct measures to get it under control (see my next post.) What I saw as a complete inconvenience turned out to be a huge blessing in that regard.
After losing a lot of blood due to my uterine atony, I was extremely weak. I didn't want to admit it to anyone, but it was extremely difficult to get up out of the bed and just walk to the bathroom. I was terrified of taking a shower because I wasn't sure if I could stand that long. But I used that extra time in the hospital to work on getting some strength back. I was encouraged to walk the halls of the Mother/Baby floor, which wasn't easy, but necessary.
I was exhausted and sore, but I was also on some kind of adrenaline high and had a hard time sleeping. Which was kind of a bummer, because Bryson was sleeping like a champ after all he'd been through. However, the poor little guy kept being woken up for all kinds of things. He had blood tests to make sure my gestational diabetes hadn't transferred to him (it hadn't), he had a hearing screening, several checkups, they taught us how to give him a bath, and other stuff too. We also took that time to figure out breastfeeding, diaper changes, and putting clothes on him, which wasn't easy because he was so small and wiggly!
My heart breaks because the seams would bust on this outfit if I tried to squeeze him in it now!
The plan was for him to be born BEFORE the Notre Dame game the previous night, and he was going to wear this. He had his own plans though, and came well after the game was over!
We also had some special visitors, which was fun.
Mostly, I was just ready to get home and start figuring out our new life. My blood pressure was still higher than it should've been, so they kept us an extra day longer than I'd have liked, and I was not pleased. But ultimately, it gave me some extra time to recover, and allowed the doctor's to figure out that Bryson had jaundice. Since we were there longer, I think it gave them extra time to figure out how severe the jaundice was so that we could take the correct measures to get it under control (see my next post.) What I saw as a complete inconvenience turned out to be a huge blessing in that regard.
After losing a lot of blood due to my uterine atony, I was extremely weak. I didn't want to admit it to anyone, but it was extremely difficult to get up out of the bed and just walk to the bathroom. I was terrified of taking a shower because I wasn't sure if I could stand that long. But I used that extra time in the hospital to work on getting some strength back. I was encouraged to walk the halls of the Mother/Baby floor, which wasn't easy, but necessary.
We were finally discharged on Thursday at noon, after checking in the previous Sunday night. I was MORE than ready to get home. (Hospital beds and pillows are just NOT comfortable.)
First time in his car seat. Not a huge fan.
I think Ty was terrified of driving with Bryson in the car that first time, but we made it home totally safe. My parents were there to greet us and recorded us coming home and bringing Bryson into his first home. We showed the baby to Abby and Bubba, who were both a bit leery, but did a great job.
I'm so thankful for my experience at our hospital. If I had to do it all over again, I would choose the same hospital and all the same staff members. They took excellent care of us, and we couldn't be more pleased.
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