At the Hospital

I thought the hospital we delivered Isabel at was top notch. I loved that it was smaller than the other two hospitals that I've delivered at. Things were much more intimate, I had several of the same nurses as I stayed there, and they were really concerned about making sure my experience there was their priority.

Recovery was a little difficult for me. As I mentioned in my previous post, I experienced quite a bit of bleeding after I delivered. Around midnight on the day that I delivered, I tried to use the restroom for the first time. My legs felt like they could support me and that the epidural had worn off. I called the nurse and two of them came in to help me. I stood up, took a couple of steps and one leg slightly gave out. I was so relieved I had asked for help before trying to do it myself! I got to the bathroom ok, it was literally like 5 steps away but it was quite the ordeal with my baby steps, hauling the IV machine behind me, etc. As I was sitting, I felt myself go sick to my stomach and super light headed and dizzy. I was blacking out. I quickly called the nurses over, and one supported me to make sure I didn't fall and hit my head. She then let me just lean my head against her until I could come to. It was scary. I've never had anything like that before. It took 3 nurses to get me from the toilet to a wheel chair just outside the bathroom door. They wheeled me to my new recovery room. It was a huge room with a king-sized bed.    I made it to the new bed ok, completely wiped out from all the effort! The nurses took baby to the nursery to have all her tests done and let me get some rest.

It was a restless night. Marc was planning on coming back at 6:30 am to see me before they took me back for surgery at 7:00 (I had a tubal ligation, or in other words, had my tubes tied). They came to get me about 6:15, so I totally missed him. He stayed in my room to take care of Isabel. I had requested several times for someone to communicate with him about how things were going and was reassured that they would. I learned after the fact that nobody talked with Marc. He didn't even know I was done with surgery until they wheeled me back into my room more than 2 hours later (the surgery itself took like 15-30 min). That was the most frustrating part of the whole stay. I don't remember much about the surgery except for being wheeled in the OR, instantly being put out, and being woken up when I really didn't want to be. The pain was intense at first, but they monitored me pretty closely and dosed me up with some morphine. I was really groggy for quite a while. It took quite a bit of time before I could be moved from the transportation bed to my "recovery bed". We finally called my mom to bring the kids over when I could sit up and eat some breakfast. (The kids had stayed the night at Gina's, my mom went and picked them up early and took them to our house to play until they got the call from us saying come over). 

The best part of the day was introducing Isabel to her Brothers and Sister.

 I love the smile on Lexi's face. She's finally a big sister :)

 Adoring baby:

 Bryce looks so grown up in this picture. I love how he's just quietly enjoying her.

4 kids! How on earth do I have 4 kids?!?

 Little snuggler:

 Quality time with Dad:

 I told her over and over she'd be so much happier when she came out of my belly and could stretch out. She seems pretty content!

Get a look at those chubby thighs and cheeks! I just can't get over how big this baby is!

The family stayed for awhile and then left so I could get some rest. The kids spent the rest of the day with my mom. We had a couple of visitors that day. Gina and Aly stopped by for a few minutes, and my Aunt Kathy stayed for a little while. Marc went home when the kids left and came back that night so we could have a special "celebration dinner" together. The hospital does a special dinner where you get to pick your meal with your spouse/partner. We had steak, potatoes and steamed vegetables, sparkling cider in champagne glasses, and cheesecake and cookies for dessert. It was pretty impressive for hospital food! 

Marc returned home to be with the kids that night and get the boys on the bus the next day. I got about 4 hours of sleep while Isabel was in the nursery and we napped together off and on until the doctors started making their rounds to discharge us. 

We were cleared to go home Friday morning at our leisure. Marc and Lexi came over and hung out until we were ready to go. I think we left about 10:00 in the morning. Here's baby all ready to go home:

 Off to life in the real world! Here goes nothing!