The c-section was scheduled yesterday, April 19, at 8:00 am at the Exempla Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette, Colorado. Chris and I needed to be checked-in at the hospital by 6:30 am. Jamie and Jeremy Riddle had offered to watch the girls for us which was ideal because they live about 15 minutes from the hospital. Sadly, we had to wake the girls up about 5:30 Tuesday morning in order to get them dressed and beautified. From past experience, I knew that I wouldn’t be sleeping all that well and was awake from about 2 am until 4 am Tuesday morning. I finally dozed off and got a total of maybe 3 3/4 hours of sleep that night.
Everything was packed and ready to go for both me and the girls and we were out the door around ten to six. We dropped the girls off, leaving them eating donuts and drinking orange juice. They were excited because they were going to watch Barbie “Swan Princess”, a new movie we had purchased a couple of months ago telling them that they couldn’t watch it until they went to Jamie’s house when the baby was born.
Chris and I arrived at the hospital around 6:30 and checked in at the front desk. While we were sitting there, we heard a lullaby playing over the intercom and the lady assisting us said that a baby had just been born and that Chris would also get to initiate the lullaby song when our baby was born. Once registered, the registrar took us upstairs to our room in labor and delivery where I would be prepped for surgery. We were in room one which had a beautiful view of the mountains and the wonderful greenery of Spring.
I changed into a “lovely” hospital gown and our first nurse hooked me up to the fetal monitors. Since it was shift change, we only had this nurse for a short time and were then introduced to Judy who would be with us for the rest of the morning. The first unpleasant task of the day was to insert my IV. Knowing how much I dislike IVs, Chris stood next to me and rubbed my arm as the HUGE needle was inserted. It took the nurse a bit of time to get everything situated as it should be. I made a point of not watching, but boy did it hurt. It is a good thing that I didn’t watch because when she was finished I looked down at my arm and it was covered in blood as well as the pad underneath my arm. No wonder it hurt so much!
At 8:15, it was time to move to the surgical suite. Since I was not numb yet, I was able to walk back to surgery, put on a bouffant hat and climb on to the surgery table. My back was swabbed to disinfect it and then a local anaesthetic was given. The overall effect was so much more comfortable than an epidural because beyond the initial pricks of the needle for anaesthetic, I didn’t feel the needle for the spinal at all. The recovery later in the day, however, wasn’t so much fun.
I could feel the numbness slowly creep into my legs and body. Such a weird and uncomfortable feeling. I had the odd sensation the entire time that my legs were placed at weird angles even though I couldn’t feel them. After getting situated on the surgical table and ready for surgery, Chris was allowed to come into the room and took up his position next to my head. I was draped in a warm blanket over my chest and shoulders and a divider was placed in front of my face to block my view of the surgery. Dr. Isbill and Dr. Kerr-Layton began surgery. All of sudden Chris looks at me and says, “You’re cut open.” I was amazed that it had happened so fast. With Misha I had felt so much more of the cutting sensation and the tugging and pulling.
Our sweet little girl was born at 9:01 am. She came out crying and had apgars of 9 and 9. Some of the first words I heard were “Look at all that hair.” Since neither Amy nor Misha had tons of hair, I was curious to see what they were talking about. I had mentioned earlier in this journal that we had decided on a name, but in the days preceding the birth, I felt more and more predisposed toward another name. Even though I knew it wasn’t Chris’ number one choice, I felt as though this was to be her name. I had mentioned to Chris that I wasn’t certain I still wanted to call this baby Julie, and he graciously accepted that I had changed from what we had previously decided upon. Since I was now choosing the first name, he wanted to pick the middle name. So, her name is Kristen Nicole Kline. We didn’t make a final decision on her middle name until 12 hours after the birth. Kristen weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces - no wonder I was so huge - and was 20 3/4 inches in length.
I remember trying to listen to the nurses’ conversation as they cleaned Kristen up and felt very emotional. Another perfect little angel had joined our family. When the nurse brought Kristen to my side, I kissed her little face and asked to see her hair. I never thought I would have a baby with a full head of hair. It was black and curly, and I was thrilled. Chris came back to my side to watch as the doctors performed the tubal ligation (meaning no more children). He said that my uterus was sitting on my stomach. True enough. He took pictures of it and when I saw the pictures later, my stomach turned. Not a pleasant sight.
I started having muscle spasms in my neck so the anesthetist gave me some morphine in my IV. I listened to the doctors talking as they stitched up my incision and stapled the skin, but I don’t really remember what they were talking about.
I was transferred to recovery just a short distance down the hall and stayed there for the next hour and a half. The wonderful thing though is that Kristen was brought in to be with me, and I nursed her there for the first time. That was a nice experience since in Utah with my first two girls, I didn’t get to see them until hours later. Kristen didn’t even have her bath until I was taken to my room on the Mom and Baby unit. Room 23.
I was starving at this point but only allowed to have ice chips and water. The nurse wouldn’t budge on the no food rule, and I suppose it was a good thing since once I was in my room, I spent the afternoon throwing up. I think it was a bad reaction to the spinal. Since all I had had was water, I was mostly dry heaving which definitely did not feel good on a freshly stapled stomach.
The girls arrived with Jamie and Jeremy around 1 pm. They were pretty excited to meet their new sister, though they had had a very fun morning with Jamie and Jeremy. I’m a little blurry here on how long they stayed, etc. since I was mostly throwing up and not really enjoying myself. Jamie and Jeremy didn’t stay too long though, and I think the girls left before too long as well.
Even though I was starving, my nurse wouldn’t let me have anything besides water, and since I continually threw up with the water, she was even more adamant. Shift change for the nurses occurred at 7 pm and I was happy to see a friendly, helpful face in my new nurse. She removed my IV and helped me out of bed around 8 pm just so I could get up and get a little movement. I walked with much pain and extreme slowness to the bathroom where I proceeded to throw up in the toilet, BUT that was my last time throwing up. Hallelujah! And my nurse ordered a turkey sandwich that I gratefully ate around 11 pm.
I can’t say that I was able to get a lot of sleep that night, though it was probably my best night while in the hospital with Kristen sleeping for a six hour stretch. I do remember calling for the nurse to help me, though my mind felt extremely foggy; my catheter bag was full to overflowing and she decided to remove the catheter altogether. I didn’t mind. It is nice to not worry about getting up to go to the bathroom, but I get to the point where I feel constrained with all the tubes and such being attached to me.
Amy and Misha missed me. Anytime I talked to them on the phone, they would tell me how much they missed me. Amy talked Chris into having “straight” hair, which on her means combing the front of her hair so that it looks rather pitiful. She knows with me that I wouldn’t let her out with her hair looking so crazy.
The food service at the hospital was rather unique but nice. I had a menu from which to order and got to choose what I wanted to eat rather than just having a surprise meal delivered to me. The fruit was really good most days with fresh pineapple, watermelon, blue berries and cantaloupe. Meals were one part of my hospital stay that I really enjoyed.
I had been saying for awhile that I was looking forward to my hospital stay just for the time away to be pampered, but frankly, I didn’t sleep well and this hospital’s philosophy on rooming-in with the baby was rather stressful. I had some nurses who would watch Kristen while I showered, but I always felt the pressure to hurry as they would take her to the nurses station and watch her there. There was a nursery, but it was not used at all.
Chris came with the girls to the hospital on Wednesday in the morning. They were headed out for a day of fun at the Denver Museum of Natural History and Science. They stayed for a little bit to play with Kristen and see me. If I remember correctly, Kristen slept for most of the afternoon while I rested, talked to family, walked around the Mom and Baby unit for exercise, and started working on this journal. Resting wasn’t easy since it seemed as though every time I lay down a nurse would come in to check my vitals or give me pain medication.
My visiting teacher and friend, Maria Burnham, came to visit on Wednesday afternoon. She is pregnant and due July 8th. It was nice to spend time talking with her as she stayed for about an hour. I was grateful for a little change of pace.
Chris had planned to come back to the hospital after visiting the museum and eating at IHOP with the girls, but called to say that he thought Misha was getting sick. I was sad that they weren’t able to come back to visit, but I didn’t want to risk having me or Kristen get sick either. Sadly, Chris and the girls stayed away for the next two days. Fortunately I had a phone in my room and the computer to connect me to family.
The next couple of days were filled with much of the same-nurses taking my blood pressure and temperature as well as checking on Kristen, daily visits from the pediatrician on staff, visits from doctors to check my incision, pain medication, walking as much as possible and trying to get some sleep in. I was pretty tired with getting up with Kristen so often at night. My milk didn’t come in until Thursday, and I think what little colostrum she was getting wasn’t satisfying her. I gave her some formula finally one night as she pitched quite a fit, and that seemed to calm her.
The next time she started crying hysterically the next day, I gave her more formula and she drank it hungrily. I always thought that “nipple confusion” was just a term that lactation specialists made up to make you feel guilty about not breast feeding, but with Kristen, I soon learned that it is real. On Thursday when I tried to feed her, she didn’t want anything to do with my milk, but instead seemed to want a bottle. After another crying fit, I finally calmed her down enough to get her latched on. I had my nurse call the lactation specialist and she was able to help me. So, she hasn’t had a bottle since, though she is becoming attached to a pacifier. I don’t mind that so much. Both the other girls did too, I think they just need more opportunities to suck.
Not having visits from Chris and the girls was rather lonely so I was quite ready to go home by Friday. Misha was beginning to feel better, but when Chris arrived, he said that he was beginning to get sick as well. I was heartsick. I didn’t want to bring a newborn home to a house full of germs, nor did I want to get sick. But what could I do? Technically I could have stayed until Saturday morning, but that still wouldn’t have solved the problem as Chris just proceeded to get sicker as the weekend passed.
So, Chris loaded everything up into the van while I tried to hurriedly nurse Kristen. I was pretty certain she wouldn’t make it all the way home without her regular feeding. Chris also went to get all of my prescriptions filled at the pharmacy. And finally we were all ready to leave. There is always an insecure feeling leaving the sanctuary of the hospital with a brand new baby, but after being wheeled down to the van and getting Kristen into the car, we were finally off. Kristen started to cry immediately, and so I climbed from the front seat to the middle seat to sit beside her and give her a pacifier. Since Misha was sick and Chris was getting sick, I felt very overwhelmed, wishing I could somehow wipe out all of the germs floating around the van–knowing of course, that they would be all around us at home as well. How to protect a tiny baby?
I took refuge in the guest room and Chris’ office/Kristen’s room and asked everyone else to stay out. At this point, Amy was not sick, but on Saturday I noticed her sniffling. All day long I kept asking her if she was sick. She repeatedly said, “No” until dinner time when I noticed that she had a runny nose–a tell-tale sign of an impending cold. I was pretty upset by this point. Everyone was sick and while I had hoped that Chris and the girls might take care of me and things around the house, I was up getting meals on the table, cleaning up, and emptying the dishwasher. Granted my hormones were likely in overdrive as well, but by Sunday morning I pretty much broke down. While I was talking to my parents, I couldn’t keep from crying and sharing my disappointments. They offered to come and help, but I figured by the time they got here the following weekend, everyone would be healthy and on the mend. I simply asked them to join me in praying for a miracle.
We had different families bring meals for a number of days. Bryce and Becca Whitesides brought lasagna on Saturday night, James and Lisa Martindale (my visiting teaching partner) brought chicken cordon bleu, rolls, grapes, and potato salad on Sunday, my visiting teacher Maria Burnham brought soup and cookies on Monday, and a new sister I just started visiting teaching, Lisa Bennett, brought a chicken pot pie on Tuesday. Mike and Kathy Krause gave us a gift certificate to Domino’s pizza and my other visiting teacher brought a frozen lasagna, corn and refrigerator cookies before she left for Australia. It is so nice to have thoughtful friends and neighbors.
A Kaiser Permanente home-health nurse came to check on both Kristen and I on Monday morning. We were both doing ok and Kristen was starting to gain back some of the weight she had lost in the hospital. She said that she could come back another time if we needed her to and that was comforting. I was just grateful to still be healthy at this point.
On Tuesday the 26th Chris started back to working half days. He would help clean in the morning and get the girls going for the day and then work for the afternoon while Misha slept and Amy played. It gave me a chance to give my attention to Kristen and to rest since I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep at night. Kristen was usually waking up two and three times a night to eat and I was pretty exhausted.
Thursday was IBM’s Annual “Take your children to work day”. Amy was able to go last year and had been looking forward to going back all year long. Misha was getting to go this year as well. So, all three of them were up and out of the house early Thursday morning to get to the classes and activities on time. It was nice to have a quiet house for a few hours.
Misha has decided that she no longer needs naps. We tried to disguise them as “quiet time” for awhile and she would usually fall asleep after reading books for a bit, but she seems to have caught on. Some days she will still lie down to rest if she wakes up early, but most days she and Amy keep right on playing. For awhile, I think Amy wasn’t too happy about Misha missing her naps because Amy enjoyed the quiet time it gave her, and I know that I definitely miss the nap times. When Chris is home, I can usually get a nap in, otherwise not at all.
