Hospital experiences

Pictures:
First time in car seat.. The first sight I got of Sarah Avery... The family picture for the first time at home.. And last, look at that face, her little expressions started first thing...

My Dr. out did himself on my surgery:

He told Matt that I was one of the easiest patients and surgeries that he had in a long long time. He was getting ready to head out for vacation and he told me that everything went great and that I would be pleased with the incision. Well, based on many nurses and my Mom's responses, he was correct.. Thanks Dr. A!

Pain:

Aside from the two pricks in my back for the epidural, I have to say that I actually think the C-Section is the way to go. They told me in the O.R. that I would feel pressure and might even feel a little weird pain, but that it would be over soon.. I didn't feel a thing and didn't even know that they were already pulling Avery out until Dr. A told Matt to get his camera ready.. All that said, I was nervous just by instinct, but it was EASY.. Now the hard part was actually realizing that for the first day I couldn't even get out of bed to hold the baby or change her diaper or comfort her.. SO, Matt got a lot of experience in those first few hours. And when I did get up and had to walk to the bathroom, HOLY COW.. THE WORST PAIN I HAVE EVER FELT.. The good news is that the 2nd trip was easier and by the end of the 2nd day, I was doing pretty good.. The pain meds were great!

Good Advice:

Ok, so. One of the things that Matt and I were told was to put the baby in the nursery at night.. Rock on to Vic and Rebecca for that strong advice. The nurses were fantastic and because of my mobility limitations and lack of energy, it was great to be able to have them watch her for 3 hours at a time at night. They would bring her back to feed.

Funny Moments:

In the early morning we had different doctor's visits. This was entertaining for both of us in that at 5am was not our peak alert time and the lights were down and under the influence of pain meds. I won't mention any names but one doctor visited me several days in the early morning and I promise that this is how it went... "How you feeling? good. Any pain. ok.. Well, take care and we'll see ya again. bye". This is part of my $25,000 hospital stay. And for the funniest doctor moment: A man whom I have never met came in under the dim lights and walked over to Matt and introduced himself as the pediatrician and stuck his hand out to shake and it was in the way of showing off your new engagement ring.. His voice was really high pitched and I thought it was just me who noticed, but then Matt looked at me with a coy grin and when the doctor left the room, we busted out laughing... you had to be there.. hysterical.

WE HAD SOME AWESOME MOMENTS

with all of you who visited us and Avery. Thank you. Thank you for the gifts and for the little moments that you shared with us during such a special time. Matt's Aunt flew into town so that she could take Matt's grandparents to the hospital to be there for their first great grandchild's birth.. How incredibly thoughtful is that?
Matt says his greatest moments in the hospital was being able to hold Avery immediately after she was born and showing her off to the family for the very first time. He was very proud and loved that.

Scary Moment:

She had just nursed and we had her laying in her rolling cradle and Matt and I were eating.. I was staring at her and all of a sudden she started turning red and appeared as if she were choking on her milk.. I immediately leaped up and grabbed her and hit her back.. Her EYES got real big and she then swallowed and was fine.. I wasn't.. I was unnerved for a few hours after that. UGGGhhhh, welcome to motherhood.. Fear!

Billirubin and weight loss:

Baby girl got the jaundice and when we left the hospital her levels were at a 13.. They were not good with that so she had to go to the pediatrician 2 days after we were discharged. We found out that a great deal of factors go into all of this.. First, it took 5 days for my milk to come in, so she wasn't getting a lot of milk. She lost several ounces and more than they say is normal, so I had to start doing a special tripple feed thing to get her to eat more and to also help me.. By the time we left the hospital she was down to 6.12 from 7.7 birth weight. Those chubby cheeks up there weren't chubby anymore, seriously.. A few days later, her billirubin was at 15 and she wasn't pooping.. Mom and I started putting her in indirect sunlight during the day and I was feeding her all the time and finally she started pooping.. She then got the ok from the doc and her #'s were down and she started looking pale and the jaundice left.. I hear this is all pretty common and it wasn't anything to be concerned about.. They seemed to take it very serious at the hospital and I did too after seeing Avery have her foot pricked several times for testing..

LEAVING the Hospital:

This was an exciting time for all of us.. Avery was dressed in a lavender smocked dress with bonnett and looked sooo adorable.. Mom and Dad came to help get us out of there. I knew Matt was nervous about driving for the first time but I didn't realize how nervous until I saw the video of him filming and his hand was shaking so bad.. Poor guy. It was the greatest day coming back to our home with our little bundle of goodness. WOW.. We took her to her room and showed her around and then her MiMi came by and saw her too.