Week 1 - Home with Alexandra
It's been a week since we arrived home with Alexandra. The stay at the hospital was uncomfortable with constant interruptions throughout the day and night. From the morning of the Friday Alexandra was born to the afternoon of Monday when we were released, there were numerous specialists, doctors, technicians, custodians, catering service workers, social workers, etc. coming in and out of our room. Everyone had something to do and express to me whether I was asleep (or trying to) any time of the day. It was nice to know that we had assistance during our entire stay but at one point it just became overwhelming to deal with the barrage of questions and instructions. The first two days I was high on anesthesia and further drugged on narcotics for pain control so it was easier to deal with all the "support". On day three and four, once the catheter was out and I was no longer on IV and was required to get out of bed and walk about to get my circulation going and the minor swelling down -- swelling resulted from the large amounts of liquids pumped into me via IV -- I became more alert and even reduced the amount of narcotics opting for ibuprofen for pain relief -- the "support" was a little harder to manage. Just when I was falling into that wonderful sleep i'd hear a knock at the door "excuse me, Ms. Rojas!" Ugh! My blood pressure needed to be checked every few hours; Alexandra's hearing test needed to be done; checking the cesarian incision; testing Alexandra for jaundice; how is mama's temperature; ah time to eat; Alexandra's blood needs to be drawn for genetic testing; can the cleaning crew come in to tidy up a bit; the lactation specialist provides instructions; the nurse comes in to bathe Alexandra; and it goes on and on and on....
Finally on Monday I heard those magic words "you will be discharged today." Yay! At 5:30 in the morning a doctor came in to remove the staples from my incision. It didn't hurt. The next requirement before we could fill out the paper work was that my blood pressure was reduced to a manageable number. The night before I had been required to watch a video on shaking baby syndrome. This video, combined with the narcotics and the anesthesia I was still trying to purge, took me emotionally to a very dark and scary place. I couldn't stop crying. The video was a heart wrenching sensationalist video meant to scare straight anyone who ever thought of shaking their baby. Once I came to the realization, or rather, once Curtis helped me manage my feelings, I realized that this video was a poor quality attempt to educate parents of this problem. And I let them know it. Again, under the influence of the drugs (maybe that's my excuse) I told them that judging from an educator's perspective, the quality of their video was not only sensationalist but insulting and I went ahead and told them how I could make it a real instructional/informative video that really served its purpose rather than traumatize. So on Monday, the trauma of this video didn't help in maintaining my blood pressure at that ideal number. And so I was prescribed blood pressure medication. Ugh! More drugs!
By noon I had done my best to relax, thinking happy thoughts and anticipating being home. My hair was tangled beyond recognition...i even thought some parts couldn't be salvaged and I may have to simply cut it off. I wanted to be home to shower for an hour and sleep on my own real mattress. I was very friendly with the blood pressure techs who would repeat the test if it resulted too high. I watched TV. But at the same time, I packed. Finally, around 4 we were given the green light and we headed home.
The past week has been a test in scheduling. We fell naturally into time sharing where I sleep through the night while Curt wakes twice (or more as needed) to care for Alexandra. Anytime between 6:30 and 8am I wake to take care of Alexandra until noon. We are then both up where we share Alexandra's needs until again about 11pm. And then we start again. During the sharing of time we may take naps, cook, do laundry, go shopping, etc.
It has been tough for me to do much more than take care of Alexandra and me. For now I take my pain medication (which now it's just ibuprofen -- the Oxycoden gave me hallucinations), iron (which I hate because it causes constipation), stool softener (because of the iron), blood pressure medication and multivitamins. None of the medications affect my breastfeeding so from day one I have made it a point to feed Alexandra this way. It serves both of us well. When I left the hospital my uterus was still swollen to the size of a six month pregnant woman and breastfeeding assists in the contraction of the uterus sooner than later. And I actually feel it. I feel internal pops as she breastfeeds. Weird.
Everyone talks about sleep deprivation. And it's true. Curtis is suffering...5 or 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep for him is not enough. Eventually, when I'm back to feeling normal, I may begin to suffer sleep deprivation the same. For now though, it is the least of my complaints. Constipation is number one, getting used to breastfeeding is number two (scheduling a lactation specialists sometime this week will hopefully help), and the incision from the cesarian is number 3 (with pain relief, I hurt very little). Whenever I feel sleepy I go take a nap and the night sleep is just fine for me as well - so far. I want to be back to normal as soon as possible...I would like to stop taking blood pressure medication and would like to walk at a normal pace, drive and run around as usual...but i understand, it's just been a week.
As we begin another week and Alexandra continues to grow I can only anticipate more and more what will come.
(FYI: after an hour in the shower with lots of conditioner I was able to detangle my birdnest ball of hair and it was all salvaged)
Finally on Monday I heard those magic words "you will be discharged today." Yay! At 5:30 in the morning a doctor came in to remove the staples from my incision. It didn't hurt. The next requirement before we could fill out the paper work was that my blood pressure was reduced to a manageable number. The night before I had been required to watch a video on shaking baby syndrome. This video, combined with the narcotics and the anesthesia I was still trying to purge, took me emotionally to a very dark and scary place. I couldn't stop crying. The video was a heart wrenching sensationalist video meant to scare straight anyone who ever thought of shaking their baby. Once I came to the realization, or rather, once Curtis helped me manage my feelings, I realized that this video was a poor quality attempt to educate parents of this problem. And I let them know it. Again, under the influence of the drugs (maybe that's my excuse) I told them that judging from an educator's perspective, the quality of their video was not only sensationalist but insulting and I went ahead and told them how I could make it a real instructional/informative video that really served its purpose rather than traumatize. So on Monday, the trauma of this video didn't help in maintaining my blood pressure at that ideal number. And so I was prescribed blood pressure medication. Ugh! More drugs!
By noon I had done my best to relax, thinking happy thoughts and anticipating being home. My hair was tangled beyond recognition...i even thought some parts couldn't be salvaged and I may have to simply cut it off. I wanted to be home to shower for an hour and sleep on my own real mattress. I was very friendly with the blood pressure techs who would repeat the test if it resulted too high. I watched TV. But at the same time, I packed. Finally, around 4 we were given the green light and we headed home.
The past week has been a test in scheduling. We fell naturally into time sharing where I sleep through the night while Curt wakes twice (or more as needed) to care for Alexandra. Anytime between 6:30 and 8am I wake to take care of Alexandra until noon. We are then both up where we share Alexandra's needs until again about 11pm. And then we start again. During the sharing of time we may take naps, cook, do laundry, go shopping, etc.
It has been tough for me to do much more than take care of Alexandra and me. For now I take my pain medication (which now it's just ibuprofen -- the Oxycoden gave me hallucinations), iron (which I hate because it causes constipation), stool softener (because of the iron), blood pressure medication and multivitamins. None of the medications affect my breastfeeding so from day one I have made it a point to feed Alexandra this way. It serves both of us well. When I left the hospital my uterus was still swollen to the size of a six month pregnant woman and breastfeeding assists in the contraction of the uterus sooner than later. And I actually feel it. I feel internal pops as she breastfeeds. Weird.
Everyone talks about sleep deprivation. And it's true. Curtis is suffering...5 or 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep for him is not enough. Eventually, when I'm back to feeling normal, I may begin to suffer sleep deprivation the same. For now though, it is the least of my complaints. Constipation is number one, getting used to breastfeeding is number two (scheduling a lactation specialists sometime this week will hopefully help), and the incision from the cesarian is number 3 (with pain relief, I hurt very little). Whenever I feel sleepy I go take a nap and the night sleep is just fine for me as well - so far. I want to be back to normal as soon as possible...I would like to stop taking blood pressure medication and would like to walk at a normal pace, drive and run around as usual...but i understand, it's just been a week.
As we begin another week and Alexandra continues to grow I can only anticipate more and more what will come.
(FYI: after an hour in the shower with lots of conditioner I was able to detangle my birdnest ball of hair and it was all salvaged)
1 Comments:
I am sleep deprived now and survive on 5 hours a night, but I also sleep like 10 hours on my days off! She'll be going off to college soon, so hang in there as it will be a breeze after that!
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