THERE'S A REASON I HAVEN'T POSTED MORE PICS
This post comes to you from the "comfort" of a hospital room too. I expected to be posting pictures from my high speed connection at home, but we aren't there yet. Julie and Mary Addison were discharged from the hospital Saturday afternoon, and we were all still on an adrenaline high. After an incredibly fast delivery with hardly no complications, we had a beautiful baby girl and were finally home as a family. Mary Addison took a nap in her new crib, Julie took a warm bath, and all seemed well. 4 hours after arriving at home, Julie was in extreme pain with extreme swelling to the point that she could not even use the bathroom. A quick call to the doctor yielded a response that they "were afraid this would happen," and Julie and her mom were on the way back to the hospital. Mary Addison and I stayed back to pack some bags in case this was another extended stay (which it turned out to be), and 20 minutes later we were on our way to join Mommy.
Saturday night was very tough for all of us. Julie was in the worst pain that I have EVER seen her in. She was in much worse pain than the delivery itself. The worst part of watching her in this pain was that there was no end for it in sight either. They immediately inserted a catheter and an IV with some pretty hefty drugs. At least during delivery, you know that it will all be over when the baby's out, but this was lots of pressure that wasn't subsiding. They gave her 2 bags of plasma to thicken the blood for surgery to take place the next morning. Julie started becoming very emotional about not being able to breastfeed Mary Addison (because of all the drugs she was being given), but the baby didn't hesitate to take the formula. I left out to feed her in another room each time I fed her that night so that mommy didn't have to see her with the bottle.
So, some of you are probably confused right now about what all this swelling and pressure was from. During the delivery, Julie "ripped." As most of you know, this is very common. The doctor sewed Julie back up, expected a little bit of swelling from the trauma, and it was a done deal... supposedly. What actually happened was that Julie's blood was too thin from the thinner that she has been on for the last several weeks, and her blood did not clot well enough in the wounded area. She simply bled way too long internally after she was sewn up, and after going home, climbing the stairs, taking a bath, and just being mobile, it was obvious that she was not healing internally.
Fast forward to Sunday morning... Julie had a very good attitude about the whole situation although she had an emotional breakdown the night before. As they were taking her into the OR, she looked up at me and said, "This is much better than them having to take my baby to the OR." The surgery consisted of the doctor opening Julie through a fresh incision and evacuating the wound of all clots, and "yuck." She came out without a hitch, and is doing much better now. In fact, her catheter was removed a few hours ago, and we expect to go home on Wednesday (hopefully Tuesday). She's been breastfeeding again since midnight last night, and Mary Addison hasn't had the first objection to it.
Saturday night was rock bottom for both of us. I'm not pretending that I was in just as much pain as Julie, but it's never fun to watch your wife get two bags of blood while you're playing mommy and daddy all night. Since Mary Addison had been discharged from the hospital earlier that day, the nurses legally could not take care of her. I was lucky enough to have the help of Julie's parents all night, but stubborn enough not to use it. I wanted to take care of my daughter by myself! Even though Julie was HEAVILY drugged all night, she was still coherent enough to be miserable because she wasn't getting to love on her daughter and feed and change her diapers.
Good news though. We're out of the woods. We back on the upswing. I have over 400 pictures of Mary Addison that I promise to be posting soon, but my connection to the internet is through my cell phone, and it simply can't handle too many pics. Maybe I'll at least upload a few tonight though. Keep checking back for a link.
Thanks for all of your prayers!
Saturday night was very tough for all of us. Julie was in the worst pain that I have EVER seen her in. She was in much worse pain than the delivery itself. The worst part of watching her in this pain was that there was no end for it in sight either. They immediately inserted a catheter and an IV with some pretty hefty drugs. At least during delivery, you know that it will all be over when the baby's out, but this was lots of pressure that wasn't subsiding. They gave her 2 bags of plasma to thicken the blood for surgery to take place the next morning. Julie started becoming very emotional about not being able to breastfeed Mary Addison (because of all the drugs she was being given), but the baby didn't hesitate to take the formula. I left out to feed her in another room each time I fed her that night so that mommy didn't have to see her with the bottle.
So, some of you are probably confused right now about what all this swelling and pressure was from. During the delivery, Julie "ripped." As most of you know, this is very common. The doctor sewed Julie back up, expected a little bit of swelling from the trauma, and it was a done deal... supposedly. What actually happened was that Julie's blood was too thin from the thinner that she has been on for the last several weeks, and her blood did not clot well enough in the wounded area. She simply bled way too long internally after she was sewn up, and after going home, climbing the stairs, taking a bath, and just being mobile, it was obvious that she was not healing internally.
Fast forward to Sunday morning... Julie had a very good attitude about the whole situation although she had an emotional breakdown the night before. As they were taking her into the OR, she looked up at me and said, "This is much better than them having to take my baby to the OR." The surgery consisted of the doctor opening Julie through a fresh incision and evacuating the wound of all clots, and "yuck." She came out without a hitch, and is doing much better now. In fact, her catheter was removed a few hours ago, and we expect to go home on Wednesday (hopefully Tuesday). She's been breastfeeding again since midnight last night, and Mary Addison hasn't had the first objection to it.
Saturday night was rock bottom for both of us. I'm not pretending that I was in just as much pain as Julie, but it's never fun to watch your wife get two bags of blood while you're playing mommy and daddy all night. Since Mary Addison had been discharged from the hospital earlier that day, the nurses legally could not take care of her. I was lucky enough to have the help of Julie's parents all night, but stubborn enough not to use it. I wanted to take care of my daughter by myself! Even though Julie was HEAVILY drugged all night, she was still coherent enough to be miserable because she wasn't getting to love on her daughter and feed and change her diapers.
Good news though. We're out of the woods. We back on the upswing. I have over 400 pictures of Mary Addison that I promise to be posting soon, but my connection to the internet is through my cell phone, and it simply can't handle too many pics. Maybe I'll at least upload a few tonight though. Keep checking back for a link.
Thanks for all of your prayers!