Recovery

In my opinion, post delivery recovery was worse than labor. No one warns you about some of the things you will experience. I did not spend my first day home just a little sore and a lot a bit tired. No. I felt like I got hit by a bus, a tractor and King Kong.

Every single muscle in my body hurt. Even my fingers. I guess that's where laboring for 9+ hours with no meds will get ya! I tried my hardest not to clench during contractions but let me tell you..it's hard!

I was exhausted as all get out. I got maybe 4 1/2 hours of sleep (total) at the hospital. For one, I was too excited after the delivery to sleep! And two, I had a newborn in the room with us where I was her source of food. There's no sleep when ya got a hungry 9lb baby!

My nipples felt like they were going to fall off. Due to some imperfect latches I got micro-cuts and at one point tiny blisters. It all got better after about 5 days..but those 5 days were full of tears every time i heard her cry for food. Lanolin ointment was a life saver.

The non-period period. Such a gross nuisance. Stock up on tons of maxi pads people!

The actual stitched up area wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I just felt pressure when I walked around. Witch hazel pads worked wonders for relief.

The cramping in the lower abdomen. Oh man was that a pain (literally). Every move I made my round ligament area really really hurt as well at my lower ab area, which I guess would have been my uterus shrinking. At one point I got worried about how much it all was hurting but I guess it was normal.

Baby blues. It happens to most. I cried at the drop of a hat. I couldn't even attempt to sing a song to Savannah without crying. Every time I thought of her growing up fast I would ball. I felt like I was in a funk a lot of the time. Finally around day 9 the blues cleared up and I was able to 110% enjoy this little bundle of cuteness. Not that I didn't enjoy and love her from the get go..I absolutely did. But feeling lousy and in pain and emotional...it's hard to see through that cloudiness sometimes.

At week 3 is when I finally started feeling completely human and not needing my Motrin 3x a day. Now, at 7 weeks, I feel great. My abs are still a little sore, but hey, that's going to happen when your muscles separate and then try to put themselves back together again.  Breast feeding still has it's ups and downs. I'm pretty sure I have a clogged duct at the moment which is pretty painful. Hopefully it works itself out soon. Other than that I feel like the old me again. An old me which is finding it hard to fit into my tops like I used to (the joys of breast feeding and bigger assets).  My feet don't hurt anymore. My knees don't hurt anymore. I can bend over without having to grab something to hold on to. I can finally sleep on my tummy again. The non-period period is gone (thank gawd) so no more wearing pads that can soak up the sea if need be. I can finally pick up my baby without wincing (ya, it took a week or two to be able to do that..). 

All I have to say is: thank goodness for Matt and him being a wonderful daddy and husband. He took care of me like no other. For the first week he changed every single diaper. I may have changed a few but he volunteered to do 99% of it. He cooked for me. He brought me water. He walked the dogs. He got up to get a crying Savannah to bring her to me to nurse so I didn't have to strain myself. Without him I wouldn't have gotten through the baby blues as fast as I did.

When I get pregnant again this will be what has me the most anxious: going through recovery all over again. Not gaining weight and feeling the discomforts of pregnancy. Not the labor or the delivery. But the recovery. Ugh.

Savannah's Birth Day

Meet Sweet Savannah...

The story of her birthday:

On Monday, May 6, I had my 40 week checkup which showed I was still not dilated and she was still high up in there. My doctor scheduled the induction date for the following week if she hasn't come by then. Scary thought! Matt and I were nervous about forcing things along and using pitocin (I've heard going on pitocin can increase your chances of having to get a cesarean). We went home that night feeling a little discouraged and anxious. We took a long walk with the dogs, I sat on an exercise ball instead of the couch, and followed a few other of the doctors recommendations. 

Sometime in the middle of the night I got up to pee and felt a little leak of fluid which I thought was discharge (sorry if TMI!) or that I peed myself a little (hey, when you're overdue it's bound to happen!).  I changed undies and went back to sleep.  I slept in and relaxed in bed until about 11, when I decided to get up so I can meet my friend Lauri for a Starbucks date. As soon as I stood up I felt a bigger leak and seriously thought I peed myself.  I went to the restroom and noticed there was pink on my undies so I called Matt to tell him that I possibly had my water break, then I called the nurse line at my clinic. She told me it definitely sounds like my water broke, and that it most likely broke initially during that midnight potty break! That means I had to get myself to the hospital pronto because it's been hours and I haven't felt any contractions yet. 

We checked in with labor and delivery triage around 12:30. That was not the most pleasant experience. In order to check to make sure my water did break they had to swab me but could not use gel for the speculum, as it could read a false positive. Ouch ouch ouch!  The lady checked me and said I was 1 maybe almost 2 cm dilated. Matt and I thought we were going home at that point..but nope! She told us I'm getting admitted as I'm in labor and my water broke hours ago. And apparently I was contracting (according to the monitor) but I didn't really notice the contractions. 

Once they brought me to my room they started me on pitocin right away (ugh). Let me tell you...pitocin is not fun. My natural contractions I was able to handle. As soon as the meds kicked in it got pretty brutal. There was no way I could lay down as the contractions were more uncomfortable that way! So I sat on a labor ball the majority of the time with the baby's heart monitors strapped around my belly (those are a huge pain...I hated them). Matt was awesome and would bring me popsicles, ice chips and he would rub my back or my hands to try to relax me.  A few hours went by and my midwife wanted to check me. I was 3cm dilated and I wanted to wait until I was past 4cm before considering the epidural. 

A few hours later I just could not handle the pressure anymore. My contractions were literally on top of each other. The nurse said I was having cluster contractions where I would have my long one then as soon as that dropped I immediately would have a short one. After less than a minute it'd start all over again. I guess they had the pitocin up all the way and eventually they decided my body has kicked in on labor stuff on it's own a while ago and is making contractions that much more intense. So, it's 10:15 and I say I want the epidural. The guy comes in, has me sit on the edge of the bed and that's when things got bad to worse for me. All of a sudden a gush of fluid released itself and a little part of me was worried it was blood (I've seen too many shows/movies where something went wrong haha) but I think it was just the rest of my water breaking. The contractions got even worse, which made it hard to sit still for the needle (but I did..I just shook the heck out of my feet and squeezed the nurses hands for dear life. Matt had to sit at the doctors request while the doc performed the epidural). At some point during the procedure I threw up my popsicles (lovely).  The needle was and everything was all set. Or so we thought. But then a contraction hit. And another. Getting more intense. It's about 10:30 and the epi doctor said he's going to give it another 10 minutes because it should have kicked in by then.  At that point the nurse decided to check me to see my progression and I was still at around 4-5cm. 

While waiting for the 10 minutes to pass the contractions got stronger. Finally, the epi doc had me roll to my side and he pulled the epidural out just a little to readjust. It's about 10:40/10:45. Just then my midwife walked in and said she wanted to check me herself. As soon as I scooted down for the check the meds finally kicked in (thank you Jesus!). That's when she said "okay, looks like you're good to go". Matt and I look at her like, 'what?' and she says "you're 10cm. You're going to start pushing now". We immediately said, "no I'm not ready!". lol I mean, that was a big moment! I wasn't prepared to push because 1.) just minutes ago I was 4-5cm, and 2.) the meds just kicked in...what if I wasn't numb "down there" yet?!  But I put on my big girl panties and started pushing...

I have to say...the pushing was the easiest part of the whole labor process! I felt good for the first time in 9 hours. I could breath. I could joke in between pushes. Matt actually looked down there while I'd be pushing and be amazed that they could all see baby girl's head already and with lots of dark hair to boot! He jokes that there was a little pony tail. 

Savannah Grace was born 11:22pm weighing 9.05lbs. Big girl!  I'm amazed and thankful I was able to deliver her the way I wanted to with no complications (aside from my blood pressure being high during labor). There was some tearing which required me getting stitches. I try not to think about it because it still freaks me out. 7 weeks later I feel back to normal..but still..it's an icky thought! 

It's amazing to think that for almost 10 months Matt and I have been daydreaming and planning for our little girl to arrive..and now she is here and we are even more in love than we could ever imagine. Every tiny thing she does we talk about like it's the most amazing thing on earth. I mean, who doesn't think their baby's spit bubbles aren't the cutest?! Or how they spread their little toesies when they're stretching? Or how adorable their tiny sneezes are? Oh the joys of parenthood..my how our lives have changed. And I love every second of it :) 

40 weeks + 3 days