Okay, Katie is in her swing staring at the motor like it's from space. Hopefully she'll progress to sleeping, but for now, at least she is quiet & seems content.
So, me, table, doctor, scalpel. When they got ready to pull her out, someone starting pressing down on the upper part of my stomach really hard. To push her down, I guess? Bobby says the first thing he saw was a foot and part of a leg, but he wasn't supposed to be looking over the curtain and the next time he peeked, she was all out. All I knew was that I could take a deep breath all of a sudden and then I heard her cry. It wasn't as loud as I thought it'd be and she only gave a couple squawks before calming down. Bobby went to look at her while she was getting cleaned up. I was starting to lose focus, and I just barely remember them bringing her around so I could see her before taking her to the nursery.
I was apparently in surgery another 20 minutes while they sewed me up, but I really don't remember. It didn't seem that long. They wheeled me into recovery, and I think I dozed there, though I remember talking to the nurse about nursing. Bobby says I was there an hour, but, again, it didn't seem that long to me. He came to see me for a minute and showed me pictures he'd taken of the baby, but I wasn't very coherent. My mom saw Katie through the window in the nursery, but went home before I was out of recovery. They took me to a new wing for me to stay in for the rest of my hospital time, and I think I dozed in there too. Richard and Jessica came to visit, and they brought Katie to us a couple minutes after they arrived.
I do remember that part better. I was so tired (and still feeling the morphine), but holding her the first time still made an impression. I'm glad I didn't lose that. After Richard and Jessica left, Bobby and I tried to get her to nurse the first time without much success. (It didn't help that my mobility was severely limited and restricted to the bed.) The pediatrician took her away for a while for her examination, then brought her back and said she looked great. A little while later, a nurse came in and took her away to take her vitals. A little after that she came back and told me that Katie's temperature was a little low and she'd put her in the warmer for a while, but it hadn't come up. She said she was going to leave her in the warmer another hour and see if it would. (It was about 10 by then; we were both snoozing and I'm sorry now I didn't ask more questions.) After an hour, she came back and told me her temp had not come up and her blood sugar was really low, so they were going to put her in the NICU. Ugh. I'm tearing up thinking about it, so I'm not going to talk about how THAT made me feel.
I couldn't get out of bed yet, so Bobby went to see her by himself in the morning. I went with my nurse as soon as I was allowed to walk. It was so awful seeing her in the little box with her IV. They let me hold her for half an hour, then wanted her back in the incubator. The next time I came back, I fed her formula, which they'd started her on to get her blood sugar up. That was all the long trips down the hallway I could handle that day, but I did all her feedings the next day. In the afternoon, the lactation specialist and her NICU nurse supervised her first breastfeeding. Since I didn't have milk yet, it was more for her to get used to the idea. She got formula right after.
48 hours after her admittance to the NICU, her second blood test screening came back good and they released Katie to my care for the night. Bobby and I didn't get much sleep, but we were so happy she was okay. The next day was hectic getting everything ready to go. We were released from the hospital about 1:30 pm. (She's been fine since. Bobby and I suspect she was fine the whole time and that the nurse who said her temp was low was not taking it correctly. The thermometers they used were really crappy, and the nurse who came the next day said they were frequently incorrect. They had temporal thermometers that worked much better, but they didn't use them every time.)
So, that's Katie's birth story. At the same time, I was learning how to move around again. The first shower I had Bobby do most of it. (That's love, people.) And before they'd let me leave, they made me use a suppository to aid the first post-surgery bowel movement. Which I hope to never have to repeat. Ever. The IV wasn't as bad as I thought, though it was in my wrist and uncomfortable if I tried to move the joint. The catheter was convenient and didn't hurt to remove the way I thought it would. Ditto the staples. The only pain killers I got after the morphine wore off (which was fantastic, btw) were lortab 5 and 800 mg ibuprofen. They gave me a prescription for home, but I didn't need them. 1 week after, I was standing and sitting pretty easily. 2 weeks and I could dress myself, climb stairs, and drive (cautiously). 3 weeks, I can sneeze and laugh and cough. I still have a little soreness inside (my incision is healed) if I stretch or twist. Hopefully that will pass soon, and I can start getting some real exercise. I'm 20 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight, but none of my clothes fit yet. Bah.
Yesterday, my doctor told me I can start having sex again next week. And I discovered I'm really paranoid about getting pregnant again.
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