How It All Went Down: The story of my pregnancy and childbirth - Part 4

March 2, 2008

(I don't think this shirt could stretch anymore and these were Jonathan's pants)

Monday, March 3, 2008, we went to the hospital bright and early.  After a long wait, I was prepped for surgery and then taken to the OR.  The anasthesiologist had a hard time with my epidural because I have slight scoliosis, but managed to get it in on the second try.  He apologized for the pain, and I joked that since I had prepared for a vaginal delivery, this was nothing.  They laid me down and I looked up into the light where I could see the reflection of what the doctors were doing.  Jonathan was holding my hand and when I saw them start to pull Amelia out, I made him watch.

The nurses took the girls to cleaned up and Jonathan followed them out.  I listened to my OB and the assisting OB chit chat about their families while stitching me up.  Several minutes later a nurse and Jonathan brought the girls in for me to see.  The first time I saw them they were all wrapped up in blankets with hats on and my arms were numb from the epidural so I couldn't touch them.

I was wheeled into the recovery room where a lactation consultant and Jonathan helped the babies nurse.  They had to position my arms to hold them because I still couldn't really move them on my own.  After just a few more minutes I was wheeled into my hospital room.  The girls were given just one bassinet which they refused to lay in.  So the entire time I was in the hospital the babies slept on either me or Jonathan.

I was hooked up to a catheter and inflatable balloons were on my ankles to keep me from getting blood clots.  I was not allowed to eat anything all day.  I wasn't detached from all this until about 11:00pm.  Then I had a nurse coming in to make sure I was able to pee again.  There were also nurses that came in every hour to check if the babies were eating and having dirty diapers.  We were exhausted and unable to keep track of everything, and the nurses started lecturing us about the importance of tracking all this.  I was so tired that I nearly fell off the bed a couple of times because I was falling asleep while I was trying to nurse.  In addition to all this we had visitors almost all the time.  We were thrilled to be released from the hospital Wednesday evening.

We just had one glitch before heading home.  The only clothes that would fit were my nursing pajamas.  I was so swollen that I couldn't even wear my own socks.  Jonathan loaned me a pair of his and I wore my houseshoes home.  I looked and felt terrible.