Rosemary's Baby

Yes, I did it. I designed this shirt for my little angel.....go ahead and laugh- you know you wanna!

The Aftermath

OK, so as I'm getting discharged from the hospital I'm told that I cannot drive (ok, not so bad) & cannot go up or down ANY stairs. Um, not an option. We live in a quad level home. You walk in and you are in the living room, walk through that and you are in the kitchen and dining room. To get to the downstairs (which has a family room, bathroom, office and laundry room) and the basement you have to-- yes, go downSTAIRS. Or, alternatively, if I wanted to go up to the bathroom and bedrooms, I had to go upSTAIRS. I did opt to sleep on the couch so I would be more comfortable (it was easier to get up and down from the couch than the bed), BUT I had to make several trips a day up the stairs or down the stairs to one of the bathrooms. It was a slow and painful process, I can assure you. I would place one hand on my incision site as if to protect anything from falling out and then use my other hand and arm to try and pull myself slowly up or down the stairs. Then, when I actually made it to the bathroom, I had to carefully undo my girdle thing, then SLOWLY lower myself onto the toilet. Probably TMI, but I'm just being honest here and want ya'll to realize how painful it was!! After I was done peeing, I had to SLOWLY stand back up, very gently pull my drawers up and then put my girdle back on (OH! I LOVED my girdle!!! it made me feel more secure :-) then I'd shuffle my way slowly back to the couch. I repeated this process many times over the next 10 days or so. It took a good 2-3 weeks after the surgery for me to feel human again, but the bright spot is that I lost alot of my pregnancy weight very quickly! (Hey, gotta try and find a bright spot here).
Now, here I am 10 months post partum and I'm down to and stuck at 120. I want to be at, like 112-114. I guess if I actually worked out sometime I might get there. Bikini season is almost here, so I'm gonna do my best.....will update again tomorrow and let ya'll know some new things that have been going on. Ciao, mi bellas!

The LONG awaited ending to my birth story....

I figured I better get this done before the baby turns one, eh?
OK, so where were we? Oh, yea, in recovery after the c-section, shivering uncontrollably....

So, after shaking like an epileptic with no meds for an hour or so, I finally was able to regain a little bit of composure about myself. They piled on blankets and this really cool heat filled thing that resembled a pool raft and it helped to warm me up and was really cozy :-) Doug went on to the nursery with Jaxon while I slept.
Several family members were able to come back into the recovery area and visit with me, but I was pretty out of it and don't remember a lot...I know my mom was there and Doug's mom was there and I think Heather, Dad, Glenda & Greg all came back, too. Greg had taken some pictures of Jaxon getting his first bath on his digital camera and he showed them to me. I was getting REALLY anxious to see my little munchkin and was kind of jealous that everyone else was getting to see him EXCEPT me....Doug finally came back and then Jaxon was-- FINALLY-- wheeled in in his little hospital bassinet so I could see him!! I had them sit my bed up a bit so I could hold him and the first thing I did was take his knit cap off so I could see his head and ears and hair. I hadn't seen anything except his scrunched up little face when I was in the surgical suite and I needed to see him, all of him, all his parts. Unfortunately, since they swaddle the newborns up like little burritos, I was only able to see his head and his hands, but that was enough, for now. The nurses took him back to the transitional nursery and finally wheeled me up to my room around 5:30 or 6pm. Jaxon's blood sugar had dropped and he was having trouble maintaining his temperature so he had to stay upstairs in the transitional nursery for awhile longer. He was finally brought down to my room around 8pm and I was able to nurse him a little. I was still on IV fluids and I still had my urinary catheter in. I actually LIKED the catheter! It meant I didn't have to get up to pee!! Call me weird. I was given Pitocin and precautionary antibiotics, as well as duramorph for pain. We slept off and on Wednesday night and Jaxon spent part of the night with us, and part in the nursery which was right across from our room. I spent most of the evening having my vitals checked every couple hours and C-A-R-E-F-U-L-L-Y and VERY slowly changing positions. After my surgery, then had bound my abdomen with a girdle and I LOVED IT. I wore it faithfully, even long after I was home from the hospital. It REALLY helped with the pain and walking....and I felt like my insides were going to fall out if I didn't wear it, LOL.

Thursday morning my catheter was removed and my IV fluids were stopped, though they kept my IV line in my arm to give me injectible torbuteline? torbitrol? something or other for pain. I refused any oral pain meds because I was afraid they would make me feel sick....I think I was the strangest OB patient they had ever seen. The nurses kept offering me Vicodin or Percoset or other narcotics for pain and I kept refusing. I guess most people ask for MORE and I was refusing to take any at all....after a c-section no less!...and they just didn't know what to make of me....I don't know if they thought I had some secret stash of something I was taking on the side or if they thought I was just crazy, but oh well...
Since my IV was out, I had to start taking things by mouth. I started out with sucking on ice chips and I ate a little jello and some saltines. My OB, Dr. Imbody came by to check on me and he explained that I had lost a lot more blood than usual during my surgery (damn that irritable uterus!) and that I was very anemic. My hemoglobin was only around 6.5 or so and if it dropped to 6 or below, then I would have to have a blood transfusion. Oh joy! Of course, all I could think about was that when we give dogs blood transfusions, they often vomit, so I was absolutely NOT going to let them put someone else's blood in me and take that chance. I begged them to let me take some vitamins and retest me in the morning, which they did. Friday morning (my birthday!!), my hemoglobin was up to 7.1 so I was saved from a transfusion and was very happy about that. Later in the morning, Dr Thesing stopped by to check on me and he explained that I had bled more because my uterus had been contracting so hard for so long (since 29 weeks, remember?!?) that it was just worn out and couldn't contract properly to stop the bleeding during the surgery. I'm so thankful that we went ahead and scheduled the c-section when we did or it could have been worse.
I continued nursing Jaxon Thursday and Friday. Thankfully, as with Gavin, he caught on easily and I didn't have any problems other than the HUGE bruise the nurse left on my boob when she was trying to show me how to get him to latch on properly. She squeezed my boob so hard, she left a bruise that lasted a week! I'm SO not kidding! Anyway.....Jaxon was circumcised by Dr Thesing on Friday and you could hear the poor thing crying all the way from the nursery into our hospital room :-(
The first time I got out of bed to pee was on Thursday after they removed my catheter. I waited as long as humanly possible before I did it, but finally my bladder was beyond full and I had to attempt the long walk to the john. It took several minutes to actually sit up, get my feet over the edge of the bed and then attempt to stand, but I managed to do it and it wasn't too bad because I had a lot of painkillers left in my system from the surgery. On Friday afternoon, everything started wearing off and I started getting really painful. It was very, very difficult and painful to get out of bed and walk a little in the halls, but I had to keep doing it. The nurses said it would make me recuperate faster, although after I was chatting a little with one of the nurses in the hall and she realized I was the anemic patient, her mouth literally dropped and she said she had NEVER seen anyone with a blood count as low as mine be able to get up and walk around. She was amazed and I just kept trucking along. I want to see if I can explain the pain I felt....There is, of course, the residual pain of having all those contractions for hours, days, weeks.....but, then there is the actual surgery pain. The only surgery I had had prior to this was to have my wisdom teeth removed when I was 25. I wasn't at all prepared for the pain. The incision was a horizontal incision very low on my bikini line, only about 6 inches across. For some reason, it hurt the worst on the right side of my body. Every single time I tried to get out of bed or change positions, it felt as if I were being stabbed and seared with a hot poker. I don't know how else to describe it. I now know what "searing pain" means. It's quite literal. On Friday, bless Doug's heart, he helped me to take a shower. This took quite a bit of planning and strategy. I managed to get up, shuffle into the bathroom, get undressed and s-l-o-w-l-y step into the shower (you'd be amazed at how much it hurts to step up 2 inches when your insides have just been dissected). Then I had to figure out whether I could stand for the shower or whether I was going to use one of those dorky looking "shower seats". Considering that the shower was only about as wide as my ass, I opted to stand so I could wash and get out quicker....I figured the seat thingy would just hamper things. Doug stood with me and helped me wash and he didn't even act grossed out when he saw me completely naked, jelly belly and all. He washed my hair and was just a wonderful husband. Then he helped me to get out and dry off and get my fishnet underwear and diapers back on. I don't know how on earth he could ever have wanted to have sex with me again after seeing all that, but bless him, he does :-) He also spent every single night at the hospital with me and only left to go home and feed the dogs. He had a little routine in the hospital where after I would nurse Jaxon, he would put him in his bassinet and take him for a ride around the hospital corridors....it was such a cute thing to see. I knew Doug would be a good dad, but I can tell you he is a GREAT dad......I was often heard exclaiming to anyone who would listen that if Doug had boobs, he wouldn't even need me because he does everything for Jax. OH, and to top everything off, he snuck off and told the nurses that it was my birthday on Friday and the cafeteria staff brought me a little birthday cake! My doctors wanted me to stay until Sunday, but I REALLY wanted to get home, so they released us on Saturday afternoon. It's amazing how quickly you are admitted to a hospital and how s-l-o-w-l-y they take to release you....guess they gotta milk the insurance companies for all they can, eh?

OK, here is a list of visitors we had while in the hospital:
I already mentioned who was there on Wednesday, but here is who came on Thursday:
Dad & Glenda (they brought Gavin who got to see Jaxon for the first time!! Gavin was SO excited-- he wanted to stay in the hospital with us!)
Gavin (obviously)
Helen & Sophia
Mom & Heather
Sara
Brandy, Jerry, Haylee & Ellie
Melanie
Friday visitors:
Dad, Glenda & Gavin
Donnie Rineer
Greg
Dorothy
Mom & Heather

So, that is the birth story of Jaxon Jett Ivey......and here is a picture of him today, at 9 months....