Moving to Recovery & Going Home

I'm a bit overwhelmed in making this post because there is so much to say and that's why I've been putting it off for so long, but that would mean there's even more to say...bah, it's a vicious cycle!

So after the last post we hung out in the birthing room for about 3 hours before we were moved to the recovery room. During that time, Maryann took out my epidural catheter which was taped to my back...it would have been fine but apparently my back is covered with a layer of blonde hair and man, was that shocking to have ripped off! I think I told her that it hurt more than the whole labor and delivery :) While we were in the birthing room, Maryann gave Embry her first bath and washed her hair and spiked it up in a little mowhawk...so cute! I also got to try breastfeeding for the first time which went extremely well. Embry latched on really well and ate for about a half hour, so that was a huge blessing. So after sitting for 2 hours and eating a meal in a box (sandwich, applesauce, etc) and drinking about 12 glasses of various beverages (water, milk, juice) [side note: you would not believe how incredibly thirsty you get while pushing out a kid, never thought I'd be that thirsty in my life] it was time to stand up and see if I could go potty. So Maryann came over to help me stand up and walk to the bathroom, which was fine, just felt like my legs were numb. It was ok to stand, but when you take steps you can't really bend your legs because it's hard to put them back straight, it was weird. So get to the toilet, sit down, then feel the overwhelming need to throw up. I thought 'goodness gracious, are you serious, this is ridiculous.' If you know me, you know I hate throwing up more than almost anything. So I was like, 'Maryann, can you hand me the garbage can?' and she was really confused but then it clicked and she gave it me to me and bam, there went my big meal and 12 glasses of liquid. I still think eating and drinking was worth it though, so oh well...maybe next time I will just try to eat and drink in moderation instead of going to town like I did. Then I got in a wheelchair and she took us up to the third floor to our recovery room. We ended up getting up there at about 4:30 am on Friday the 14th. Needless to say, I was a little tired. I got to sleep until about 7am when Dr. Morris (our primary care physician and Embry's pediatrician) stopped by to check her out. I was very glad to see him since I had told him before I was going to TMC and he doesn't go to TMC to check his babies, only to St. Joes, so I was hoping the message would have been relayed that we were at St Joes. Anyhow, he was very nice and asked about me and how everything went etc and also said that Embry was completely adorable...naturally I think so, but it's nice to hear other people say it too! :) She checked out completely fine and Dr. Morris left about 20 minutes later. I think I fed Embry at that point, then went back to sleep until about 8:30 when my breakfast arrived. I was assuming the meals were standand nasty hospital food, but I lifted the lid on my meal and it was like heaven! It was a real meal, like yummy and delicious, sooo nice after giving birth to have a hot meal. Tony and I usually split whatever meal I had and this one happened to be a ham and cheese croissant sandwhich...mmm. So all in all, the first night I got about 3 hours of sleep and Tony got about 6 hours. That day we pretty much just hung out in our recovery room and learned all about our little girl. I kept saying (and still keep saying) to Tony how completely amazing it is that this real live person was actually inside of my body. I mean, it's really the most miraculous thing I can imagine happening and I am so incredibly greatful for this gift. I can't think of anything better in the whole world than becoming a mom...and of course, now I'm crying! I can't say enough to make anyone realize how amazingly wonderful it all is, it's beyond words, the only way to know is to actually experience it yourself. I'd highly recommend it :)

So enough of that mushy stuff! I got to take a shower, which was refreshing yet odd. Not exactly painful, but a bit difficult to stand up that long and not a good experience to sit on the hard shower seat...sooo it was interesting. Apparently while I was in the bathroom my OB (Dr Sherman) stopped by to check on me, I was a little disappointed that I missed her. Not only did I want to see her and ask her some questions, but I really wanted to rub it in once again that I was right and she was wrong, I WIN! Both Tony and I got to take a nap that day which was much needed. At 11am Missy stopped by and brought me a present which was a hello kitty kite (perfect, seriously, I've been wanting a kite so bad), a hello kitty coin bank where when you stick a coin in it makes a magic wand noise, a Cranium game called 'Creative Cat' (it's a running joke between us after a HILARIOUS new years eve game of Cranium about 5 years ago...Kristy you might remember what I'm talking about), and a Hello Kitty magnet frame. I was glad that she got to visit for a little while so we could chat and catch up. Then the rest of the visitors started showing up around 4:30. The first were David and Sarah, then Jason and EvaMarie, then Scott and Janell, and then Mark and Rachael who brought us some delic frozen yogurt (thanks guys!). Then around 11pm Dorothea and Allison arrived in Tucson and luckily the nurse let them come up to our room for a quick visit before they headed to our house for the night. Embry got to meet her grandma and auntie and we got to take some cute pics. I was saddened when it got to 12:19am and Embry's first day of life was officially over. It's killing me that every moment that passes is another one I will never get back because I just want it all to last forever! Anyhow, it was really great to see everyone and it made me feel really special that so many people cared about seeing my little girl :) Another thing that literally makes me tear up is the massive response I got while I was in the hospital and now that we're home in emails and on facebook from people who want to either tell me how cute Embry is or just check to see how we're doing...it really means so much to me, thank you all for being such good friends.

Gosh darn, let's see if I can write one paragraph without getting all mushified! The second night in the hospital went just fine. I tried to feed every 3-5 hours which worked out, but I mainly would just let Embry tell me when she was hungry again instead of waking her up on a schedule. The nurses didn't mind at all as long as she got fed before the 5 hour mark and she was producing enough wet and poopy diapers (which believe me, she was). So that night I got about 5 hours of sleep and at one point around 1:30 am Embry was fussing and didn't want to eat when a nurse from the nursery came in and said they were going to run some standard tests on her.
She saw that Embry was not happy and said, 'after we're done with the tests would you like us to just keep her over there for a little bit to make sure you get some sleep?' so I responded, 'umm, sure! Sounds great!' They returned her at about 3:30 and she was ready to eat. I was awoken at about 8:30 when a nurse wanted to check me and planned on going back to sleep, but when I got out of the bathroom Tony was awake and my breakfast had arrived, so the day had begun. A lactation consultant stopped by just to make sure everything was going ok. I did have a small amount of bruising and it turns out Embry wasn't opening her mouth quite as wide as she should have been, so the LC gave me tips on how to fix that and also showed me how to magically get colostrum to come out (which I'd tried a million times before, but she must have magic fingers or something cuz she definitely didn't have trouble finding any). Also a photographer for the online nursery pics came by and took some pics of Embry. This experience was quite horrible in my opinion. Basically Embry was not in the mood for pics (I think she wanted to eat right then) and so it was her either crying or having a pacifier in her mouth...neither of which are good for pics. It drove me NUTS that the photographer kept calling Embry 'mama' too. I seriously don't get that expression, like hello, she's not a mama. I kept wanting to yell 'I'm the mama, not her, she's the baby, I'm the mama!' but I refrained. If anyone can explain why you call a baby 'mama' please do, I would really like to understand. Then at the end of all the fuss, the pics pretty much were not any good anyhow and you can judge for yourself by going to this site and searching for me. Tony's mom and sister arrived around 11am (I think) and we waited around to be discharged. A sub for the pediatrician came to check Embry and thought she was a tinge yellow so ran a billirubin screen which came back at 7.5 and it's spos to be under 18, so that was good. Also a sub for Dr. Sherman stopped by (gotta say I'm glad he didn't deliver my baby, totally lacking in people skills) to check me out. He didn't actually do any checking, just asked how I was feeling and gave me the 2 scripts that Dr. Sherman had written out for me. I even asked him some questions to which he gave really lacking responses, so I'll be calling Dr Sherman tomorrow to get some answers. I think next time i have a baby I might stay for the whole 48 hours because I really wasn't having a good time walking around and esp going up the stairs at home, so I think the extra time to recover would have been nice. When we left the hospital, I was wheeled past the Physical therapy office and I wondered aloud if Diane (my PT) was there and then we look in the window and she's right there on the phone, so I start waving frantically and she does the same. Tony held up Embry for her to see, but we just kept walking out to the car. Then we get outside and she comes running out to see us. She asked how I was feeling etc and got to see little Embry up close, it was really nice to see her before we left. All the stuff was put into the car and I sat in back with Embry while Tony drove us home. She was such a good traveler and she slept the whole way. Hopefully this keeps up because it would be fantastic if she will travel in the same fashion on our trip to Maryland. Let's all pray about that one!

When we got home I set up the tripod outside to take pics of the 3 of us in front of the house since Tony's mom and sis had taken my prescriptions to Walgreens to get them filled. Then we went inside and we had balloons, flowers, a card, and a stuffed doggy waiting for us from Tony's mom and sis. It was so cute! I was pretty much exhausted, but we took some pics and I video taped Tony as he went around the entire house and explained everything to Embry, it was so cute, especially since she was completely asleep for the whole thing...he's a good daddy. Tony and I caught up on some TV while I held Embry and Tony massaged my legs/feet. On a side note, I wasn't aware that this happened, but I still have parts of my body that are numb from the epidural. It's not anything at all, but it's just a weird side effect and it's slowly getting better. Although I don't have good circulation anyway, so maybe it's just me. Moving along, Tony's mom went to the store to get supplies and she made us a wonderful steak dinner, it was delicious! Right before that, Tony and I got a little nap time in, also great. I fiddled around online for a while and then went to bed. Last night was a whole new experience for me. We put the playyard in our room for embry to sleep in and I was up with her from the time I went in there until about 3:30 am because she was just fussing up a storm! She didn't need changing, she didn't need feeding, she wasn't cold, nothing...just cranky. From talking with others it seems this first night at home thing goes bad more often than not because they aren't used to the different surroundings and feel the need to cry about it. So at about 3:30 I was like, well I really need to go to the bathroom, so I'm gonna and then Tony can get up and take care of Embry when she's crying. So I'm in there doing my thing and she is screaming and not stopping. Finally when I'm done I go out there and she's still in the playyard just wailing away and Tony is still in the bed sound asleep. Needless to say, I was a little upset. So I go over to Tony and shake him rather violently and he sits up and with really wide eyes goes, "Sir?! Sir?! Maam?!" and I go, "can't you hear that?!" and he responds with "sorry" and lays down and goes back to sleep. I was sooooooo mad, you have nooooo idea (but it is really quite funny looking back). I go check on Embry and she has a poopy diaper. Then I go to the other side of Tony and shake him, he looks at me, I say "who am I?" and he says, "you're Leatrice" and I say, "good. Go change Embry's diaper." He actually gets up this time (making progress is always a good thing) and then goes to Embry and stands there and looks at her. I say, 'you're changing her diaper' he responds 'right' and then proceeds to change the diaper. Then I nursed her and after that all was well again. It scares me to think that a) he sleeps so soundly that he can't hear his daughter screaming at the foot of the bed and b) that he can look right at me, talk to me, and have no idea what is going on because he's still asleep. Anyhow, we're gonna have to do something about this cuz if that happens again I might just fly off the handle...time to go see the doctor.

I woke up around 9 am, as did Tony, and I cuddled in bed with Embry for about a half hour which was incredibly fantastic. Tony and his mom then went to get some extra food for breakfast, came back, and Tony's mom made us eggs, bacon, and biscuits. Then we watched the video from my video camera of our hospital stay and everything afterwards. I'm really glad that I documented things while they were going on because looking back I can barely remember half of what happened, it's weird. Then I took a shower, did my hair and my makeup, and then my mom arrived. We took some pictures outside with Embry and then I showed her all the pics on my computer and then she and I went to Costco to drop off our 2 rolls of film. I'm a little worried about what is on those rolls because I'm thinking whoever develops them is going to get quite an eyefull when the pictures of the delivery come around. I believe I specifically said not to get my 'area' in the pics (or you know, do your best) but considering the placement of the baby and the cord etc, I'm pretty sure my stuff will be clearly visible...woops! Oh well, I'm sure the photo techs have seen worse than that before, it's not like it was done on purpose. Speaking of that, I have some pics (from my digi cam) that I want to post of cutting the cord and putting Embry on my chest etc but I need to do some serious photoshop editing before those are seen by the outside world! If you knew what they looked like, you would definitely thank me. Anyhow, it was nice to get out of the house with my mom and have time to chat with her. I'll be going back tomorrow to pick up the pictures and I seriously am afraid that they're going to say they had to confiscate some of the pics cuz of nudity or at least mention how inappropriate it was, but really that would be incredibly unlikely right? I also want to go to michael's to see if I can find a permanent ink pad that won't wash off of clothing to do prints of Embry's feet onto a pink shirt we bought Tony for him to wear back his first day of work. They would have stamped it at the hospital but their ink is washable so it would have just washed off. I also really need a pair of infant nail clippers cuz Embry's nails are super long and I'm extremely paranoid about her scratching her face...not good for pictures. So Tony's mom made us Spaghetti tonight for dinner and it was really yummy. Embry decided it would be a good time to go poo poo so I didn't exactly get to eat with everyone, but that was ok, she's cute so I forgive her.

Other interesting facts...the recovery is going really well. If I don't take the percocet then I have massive joint and muscle pain, but with the meds it's good, so no complaints there. Today my milk came in which makes me very happy because now I know Embry is actually getting food in her little tummy. I had my first post baby poo and it went surprisingly well, so yay for that fear not coming true! :) I could go on for hours about how amazing it is being a mother, but there are no words that would make anyone understand this overwhelming joy. Just know that it is the single greatest feeling I've ever had and I wouldn't trade it for the world.