So Zac is sleeping, or laying around or whatever, either way the labor is over and I don't remember what was going on now but things were peaceful. I had a banana around 9 am. and some water throughout the day. I didn't get any ice cream when the nurses did. So this is where I go through some nausea and get some dinner in me. I slept well that night. Nurses were in and out, Tiffany is talking to them, can't hold my eyes open. She's nursed Zac once I think. I was there for that. My eyes open, they're helping her back from the bathroom. Then it's morning. Monday morning... we're probably going home this afternoon. Nausea again, real bad, for me. Lack of food I think. The nurses won't check me out, I'll have to go to the ER for that, I'm not doing that, I manage to get some food in me and things are ok again. Monday is spent watching TV, having nurses do check ups (we've met 10 of them now probably). They're all pretty nice, of course we have our favorites. Nursing isn't going so well. That junk is hard! And you have to be committed if you're going to make it. (I'm talking 3-4 weeks, 6-8 weeks after birth nursing was HARD!). They have a specialist who helps. She's a little pushy. From my perspective she's slamming Zac's head into his 'plate', I couldn't eat that way. Another lady was much more gentle and Zac appeared to like her better as well. His temp was up and down on Monday and something else wasn't so great, I forget what. So we have to hang around until that stabilizes. We are one checkup away from him being put in the incubator and taken from us. If this checkup isn't normal temp and consistent with the last we'll be alone in our room and he'll be alone in some crib somewhere. It was consistent! Another hurdle cleared. It's too late to come home though. We're staying another night.
That second night wasn't bad either. I had nausea again Tuesday morning until I managed to get some food down... I don't know what the deal was. No we're hanging around and they won't let us go because Zac hasn't pooped yet. Um... that's because he got all of it out in the womb. He also hadn't peed yet, which was a little worrisome. Just let us go home, he'll pee eventually! I think around 12 he finally peed and I don't think we've ever been so relieved in our lives! Another 2 or 3 hours went by before they checked us out. (The nursing was a bigger ordeal than it reads, so was this whole not peeing thing and his temperature fluctuating, I could write a book if I went into all the details). It was just one thing after another and it felt soooooo good to get in the car around 5 pm on Tuesday to go home.
Every nurse we had, 3 or 4 during delivery, complemented Tiffany and I on the labor process. They had never seen a couple handle things so well. (I'm not exaggerating, or trying to brag). But it was nice to have that recognition. After all, we put a lot of prep into this with a 12 week class and all the other prep the class had us do on our own time. Having that class was great! Have I mentioned that already? :) And apparently it showed with how we carried ourselves in the hospital. I know it did with Tiffany because I was watching her.
She made it without an epidural or any pain killers... nothing! We did do some pitocin to increase contractions, but that lasted about 45 minutes compared to many hours for a typical hospital birth. Even through 3.5 hours of pushing Tiffany was able to handle the pain. Looking back, neither of us would change a thing about how it went down. It was such a growing experience and brought us so much closer together having to get through the adversity we went through. I know many labor and birth stories are more trying than ours, but this was by far the most difficult, scariest thing I've ever been through and I'm glad we were in it together. Tiffany was amazing, and I find it hard to believe that anybody, anywhere has labored better than she did that day.
(Hang in there, you're doing great. Only 1 more post!)
No comments:
Post a Comment