Elyse Ann's Arrival~Our Stay at the Hospital

I decided that Elyse's birth story wouldn't be complete without the details from the rest of my hospital stay. Someday I'll have Elyse read this to know exactly how hard it was for us...but for now this is for my own memory...which is even more important since I honestly don't remember much of it anyway! This will be long and detailed, so feel free to skip ahead to the end where there's some precious pictures of our baby girl!

Let's go back to the beginning...if you want to read Elyse's birth story you can check those posts out here, here, and here.

With my exhausting, stressful, and long delivery process my recovery was definitely not the best time of my life. Just to put it bluntly, Tuesday night and Wednesday are pretty much a complete blur. There are certainly details and visitors that I remember, but I was definitely not in a good place. Because of Elyse's evening arrival on Tuesday and the unplanned c-section, no one came by on Tuesday evening as we settled in and enjoyed our new bundle of joy. Hubby's sister & our nephews did stop by for a brief time, and apparently they were quite hilarious as they examined Baby Elyse! Of course the only thing I remember about their visit is why they left...yup, I became nauseous & sick so they promptly headed out. Definitely not a pretty picture!

I had heard from multiple people that if possible we should send Elyse to the nursery overnight during our hospital stays so that Hubby & I could at least catch some sleep in between feedings. And because of my exhaustion this didn't even become a question. We sent Elyse to the nursery that first night and the nurses brought her in so I could nurse her at the proper times. In addition to these wakings, my own nurse came in every 2 hours to check my vitals. Ughh...sleep was just not to be had that night!

Wednesday was not a good day as I had various family members come by to visit around lunchtime and during the afternoon and I honestly barely remember them even coming to visit. It's one of those things that I feel a little bit bad about now, but I was definitely not in a good place that day. I remember telling my mom that I thought I was going to be in the hospital forever. This simply came from the fact that I felt so horrible that I didn't know if they would ever release me to go home. I also know that I was feeling depressed because I wasn't even feeling well enough to ENJOY Elyse. Everyone was so happy that she was here and talking about how beautiful she was, but at that point I couldn't see any of that.

Our hospital has what's called "naptime" for the maternity ward each day from 1:30-3:30. If you choose to participate, all visitors (both hospital & family) are kept from coming into your room so you can simply rest & enjoy your baby. We chose to take advantage of this time each day & I'm so glad we did....Hubby took care of Elyse while I tried to catch up on some sleep. After naptime on Wednesday I woke up in a horrible sweat. Elyse was laying on my chest and honestly I'm surprised she didn't slide right off of me. I realized that part of the reason I was feeling so horrible is that I was running a fever...once the fever broke after my nap I felt like a completely different person.

I finally got my IV removed on Wednesday afternoon and Hubby promptly helped me take a shower...since I hadn't showered in almost 36 hours. Thank goodness Hubby & I decided to take quick showers before we ever headed to the hospital!

Due to how horrible I was feeling on Wednesday, Hubby & my precious family sent word that we would prefer no visitors on Wednesday night. I just wasn't in a place where I was ready to see anyone and the exhaustion was just now starting to go away. My parents did come visit and it was a nice break to see them...but otherwise it was a pretty quiet night with just our family of three.

Thursday was a much better day & we had several visitors come to see our precious baby girl. Nursing was going well except for Elyse's initial aversion to the right side. (we're still not sure what that's about, because she still nurses better on the left compared to the right!) We had several people come by to visit on Thursday evening and it was so nice to see my family & friends.

Friday was come-home day & my doctor acted as if she would be their early Friday morning to release me. Well, the hours came and went and finally after lunch I made a quick phone call to find out when she might be arriving. My blood pressure was a little higher than what they prefer, but she sent me home with instruction to take it easy & stay hydrated so I could start to get some of this crazy fluid off my body. We loaded everything up, taking everything but the hospital's bassinet with us and headed home as a family of 3. What a strange feeling that was for them to just ship us out with a brand new baby! I definitely felt like that episode of "Up All Night"...shouldn't there be an instruction manual for this?!?

I think we finally made it home sometime around 4ish on Friday afternoon. The first night was honestly a TON better than I ever expected it to be. Elyse woke up several times, but Hubby & I alternated and I actually got more sleep than I expected. It's definitely a good thing since we had our first Christmas of several on the Saturday after we were released from the hospital!