In the Hospital

We had to get a shot with the B&B cap :)

Now that our little bundle of joy had entered the world, it was time to get started with my recovery!

Our hospital experience at North Shore Private was amazing.  Sydney and I were there for 5 nights so I could recover from my C-Section. David didn’t stay the night but he was there first thing every morning and stayed late each night.  Neither of us got much sleep those days I was there.  I was up every few hours at night to feed her and with his traveling back and forth to the apartment it made sleep a low priority.  David was still able to get a couple of swims in which was great for his stress level.  The folks at the Bold & the Beautiful were SO excited for him/us.  It was wonderfully surprising how many of them reached out to get updates on our status and to see if the baby had been born yet.  I’m so glad David was able to share some very early pictures with all of them during his morning swims that week :)

The first night I couldn’t get out of bed due to the surgery so Sydney stayed in the nursery and they brought her to me to feed her.  I was up and out of bed the next day though.  Shower and all (boy it felt good to get cleaned up!).  It got easier every day to get up and move around, but it was much more slow-going than I had expected.  I had never had such invasive surgery before so I had no idea how debilitating the recovery would be. 

The nursery was open only at night and I decided to take advantage of it every night.  It meant they called me when she was awake and ready for a feed and I would walk (ever so carefully!) down to the nursery to get her.  I was so grateful for the ability to snuggle her back down after the feed and roll her back into the nursery so I could sleep more soundly for the precious few hours I had until the next feed. 

The Midwives were absolutely amazing in the maternity wing.  From the delivery through the recovery, I felt so well taken care of.  There were 50+ rooms in the maternity wing.  All private, and for the most part all full!  Each Midwife had 6-8 patients she was responsible for.  I had the same Midwife each night (by coincidence.) Jenny was wonderful helping with my breast feeding challenges, answering my questions, and giving me pain meds when needed.  During the day, I had a few different Midwives but they were all so pleasant and helpful.  I got to spend some one-on-one time with a Lactation Consultant which helped a lot. 

I had some trouble with supply in the beginning as well as the latch, but we worked it out in the end.  When we got home I had a private Lactation Consultant come to the house to help me work out the kinks.  I swear she was worth her weight in gold!  We were all good after that visit :)

Wrapped up after her first bath

Sydney's first bath!

We took a bathing class, a soothing techniques class, and enjoyed a special celebration dinner on our last night.  The support and resources offered were wonderful.  I’m SO glad we decided to go with a private hospital for the experience!

In the end I put on 34 pounds and I’m proud to say I continued running until I was 36 weeks along.  After that I continued to walk at least 5 days/week.  I think the continued exercise made a huge difference to me both emotionally and physically.  I had quite a bit of swelling at the end so I couldn’t wear my wedding rings and was relegated to sneakers as my only shoes for my big ol’ “Shrek feet” but all in all I was very pleased with how well my body and mind took to pregnancy.  I was one of the lucky ones, for sure!

Proud Daddy

Sleepy baby

Going home from the hospital was both scary and exciting.  I was so glad to be going back to our own home finally, but we were both so overwhelmed with all the new things to think about.  I’m normally so organized and well thought out but I could barely think straight that day.  After being in the hospital for 5 days, it becomes what you know... it’s safe and you know you have resources to lean on to help you build your confidence.  Going home just the three of us was scary.  What if I didn’t know how to fix what ever she was upset about?  How would my body heal having to move around on my own?  What would it be like to have her sleep in our room with us?  How would I get into a routine that would be comfortable for all of us?  So many questions and really no answers.  The only way to find out how things would go was to go home together and start our lives as a family.  So, that’s what we did!  David had taken the week off and Mimi wasn’t arriving for a week so we got started getting used to our new lives! 

~LAA :)

Going home from the hospital