Hospital stay

As rough as my labor and delivery was, the hospital stay was equally as unpleasant. After surgery I felt horrible from being awake for two days, no food, lots of drugs, the shock to my system of having Emmeline out of me, hormones, adrenaline. I was shaky and couldn't focus and having panic attacks. It was pretty much awful. (Sorry baby, but it was) I can hardly remember that day. I just remember being in a complete panicky daze of trying to feed her, see visitors, and sleep. (Which I still couldn't do on Tuesday night after delivering her) I had an overwhelming feeling that I was literally going to die right there.

One of the only things that kept Rob and I sane was lots and lots of basketball. He always said the NBA playoffs would be a good time to have a baby because there were games on every night. It at least gave me/us something to focus on. I couldn't eat until Wednesday, which meant I hadn't had a meal since lunch on Monday. They did let me do a "clear liquid" diet which consisted of some jellos, soups, ensure drinks, etc. I preferred the jello and soup. The soup was just broth but it was so salty, I actually thought it was pretty awesome at the time.

We stayed in the hospital Tuesday and Wednesday night and I finally started getting some rest. Of course, the nurses were in and out all the time giving meds, checking vitals, helping me to the bathroom after removing my cath and other fun things. The nursery staff would bring me Emmeline to feed her. Some of these ladies were better than others. I particularly enjoyed an older African American lady named Barbara. She was great and LOVED baby "Emma" as she called her. The feeding thing was not fun at first, but we got the hang of it and I am so glad Emmeline figured it all out because her mom is not so smart!

By Wednesday, I didn't have a catheter OR an IV. I felt like a new person. I could get up (with help) and move around. Rob and my Mom took me on a few walks around the Labor and Delivery floor. This really helped to get me back feeling normal. We would take a loop by the nursery to see the babies and by the Childbirth Suite which we ended up giving a really bad nickname to.

On Thursday, the doctors came by and asked when I wanted to go home and wanted to see how I was doing. Dr. White said we could go home that day or stay another night all depending on how I felt, obviously. The room we were in was TINY and I just wanted to be home with our things in our house. We decided since my Mom would be there to take care of us too, that going home would be okay. I definitely wished we could take Barbara with us too to take care of Emmeline at home :)