Rory's Birth Story
I'll just warn everyone--this is not for the faint of heart. So if you don't do well with gory descriptions, or TMI female stuff related to birth and obstetrical checks, skip down to the bottom where the cute picture is :). Those who are okay with birth stories but who are currently pregnant and haven't given birth before, there will be another skip further down. I really don't recommend reading the complications part that happened afterwards.
Labour & Delivery
I woke up around 8:30 AM on Saturday, April 28. While laying in bed I felt a faint trickle, but I thought I just peed myself, being 7 days overdue at that point. The joys of pregnancy, right? I know now that it was actually my water breaking, though. There was only a tiny amount, and nothing else came out, though, so I should be forgiven for being a little slow on the uptake.
Anyway, Chris and my mom and I went about our day. By 3 PM I'd only had one other little trickle, and it was even smaller than the first one. It was slightly pinkish, but I'd been spotting since my last doctor's appointment on Thursday so I figured it was just more of the same. I thought it was just watery discharge. I was contracting, but only 2-4 times per hour and they weren't very strong. I was wearing a pad due to the discharge as well. I did notice it smelled kind of funny, but I think I was kind of in denial at that point.
Anyway, I was laying on the couch around 5 PM when I felt a much larger gush. I got up and didn't say anything to mom or Chris, just went to the bathroom and checked my pad. It was completely saturated and the smell was much more distinctive. (For those who haven't been pregnant or had your water break, it smells kind of sweet and chlorine-y, or at least mine did). I put on a heavier pad, one of the ones I bought for post-partum, and walked into the living room and told mom and Chris that I thought my water had broken. We decided to wait to see if more came out, so I sat on the couch on a towel and shifted around a bit and sure enough, another nice-sized gush.
I called the hospital case room and they told me to come in, so I changed pads again and we had about 30 minutes of organized chaos while we located my hospital bag, stuffed in a few last things, that sort of thing. Throughout the whole time I was very calm. I was having strong contractions, but only every 10-20 minutes and I could talk and breathe through them, although I couldn't walk during one.
Anyway, we got to the hospital around 6:30. While walking from the front door to the after hours admitting desk, my contractions started getting closer together and a LOT stronger, and also wrapping around into my back. I got admitted and wheeled upstairs to labour and delivery. My OB was behind the unit desk when we passed, which was nice because it made it likely she'd be delivering my baby.
I got wheeled into triage and given a gown and asked to change. My mom was asked to wait in the waiting area--she could join us in the delivery room if they decided I should stay. The nurse ended up almost throwing the gown at me because just as I got there, someone else started giving birth. Good timing! Anyway, Chris helped me get changed and we saved the pad as the nurse had requested it. A different nurse showed up to help me within about 5 minutes and she tested the pad--my water had definitely broken. She checked my cervix and I was nearly 4 cm dilated so even though my contractions were still more than 5 minutes apart, they decided to admit me for the birth. She also checked my temperature and I was running a slight fever.
I got up and Chris and I walked to delivery room #1, which was right next door to triage. I got into the bed and hooked up to the monitors. My doctor stopped by to visit and explained that they would also be giving me antibiotics just in case, because of the fever. Mom went home to take the roast we were going to have for supper out of the crockpot so it wouldn't get ruined, although I found out later she forgot to actually put the roast in the fridge. She picked up a few things we realized we'd forgotten, and got back around 8:30 or so.
In the meantime, I got all hooked up to the monitors and had the IV run--they also gave me Ringer's Lactate to help hydrate me as they thought the fever could also be due to dehydration. I have crappy veins so the anesthesiologist on call wound up doing it--he got the line in first try. I laboured with assistance from Chris until mom got back, with the nurse checking on me every so often. By that point the contractions were every 3 minutes and were at about a 6 or 7 for pain.
The nurse checked me again and I hadn't dilated any further, but was still running the fever and baby's heart rate was elevated to around 170, so we decided to start me on syntocin to hopefully help things progress further. They dialed it up slowly, but by around 9 or 10 PM I was in serious pain with back labour, and dilated to about 5 cm (I think--it's pretty hazy at this point). I gave the pain an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. The contractions were also every 2 minutes or less and lasting quite long. I asked for nitrous oxide first to see if that would help, but it didn't do anything so I requested an epidural. The four to five contractions it took for the anesthesiologist to come back felt like the longest in my life.
Then the epidural started working. Instant relief, although I needed a top up after 45 minutes. At that point, they had me start flipping from side to side every 15-30 minutes or so, because the reason for the back labour was due to my baby being sunny-side up. I also had a catheter put in due to the level of the epidural--I could feel almost nothing from the chest down other than the pressure of the contractions (minus the pain), couldn't walk, and definitely couldn't get up to pee.
I got checked again after a while (for some reason I think around midnight) and I was dilated to a 7 and he had flipped. They were concerned about my hydration as the catheter wasn't draining very much urine, so they upped the syntocin rate slightly. The nurse was encouraged by my progress, though, and the nurse mentioned that she thought we would be having a baby around 1:30 AM.
Well, by 1:30 AM I hadn't fully dilated yet, so they increased the syntocin again, as baby's heart rate was still quite elevated and mine was too. They wanted things to progress quickly. I got an epidural top-up again as I was feeling some pain with each contraction, quite low, but not so much that I would have trouble pushing when the time came. We all tried to sleep.
At 3:00 AM, the nurse checked me and thought that I was dilated. She had me start pushing, with mom holding one leg and Chris holding the other. Chris is not a blood and gore and pain person, so he was focused on my face and talking me through things and looking supportive rather than watching the show. After 15-20 minutes of pushing, the nurse realized that there was a tiny lip of cervix left so she had me stop pushing. She checked me again at about 3:55 AM and I was good to go, so I officially started pushing at about 4:00 AM.
I pushed hard through several contractions, and I could feel him moving down. It was quite painful as he still wasn't quite perfectly aligned in the birth canal, but he did straighten out with the nurse's assistance as he moved down. By around 4:15 (ish) my mom could see his head. At first they thought he was bald but a few more contractions and some hair was visible. Note that he wasn't actually crowning yet, just very close to it.
I started feeling very nauseated so I asked to rest through one contraction before continuing as I didn't really want to throw up on either my mom or my husband. That one contraction was good enough for me to feel better enough to concentrate and focus on the job at hand. A few more contractions and the nurse ran to get my doctor and the resuscitation team (since baby's heart rate was still elevated, as was mine).
My doctor positioned herself in the 'catch' position and the next contraction started. I pushed and felt him crown. Pushed again and the rest of his head delivered. Pushed again and felt TREMENDOUS relief as the rest of his body just sort of slithered out.
Family Bonding Time
Rory started shrieking at the top of his lungs as they put him on my chest. The time was 4:36 AM. He peed all over me. I cuddled him and mom and Chris touched him and took a few pictures (that will never be posted :P). My mom cut the cord while Chris held my hand and just sort of gazed in awe at Rory (like I said Chris doesn't do well with that sort of thing, so we'd decided on that ahead of time).
They took Rory away to be weighed and have his stats checked, that sort of thing, while the doctor delivered the placenta and stitched me up, as I'd torn slightly. I think the stitches took about 5 minutes. Mom and Chris were busy over at the weighing station cooing at Rory and taking lots of pictures. The whole time he was just screaming away, so obviously (and happily) the resuscitation team wasn't needed. Rory weighed in at 9 lbs 5 oz and was 21 1/4" long (but they told me 21 3/4", which is why I had it wrong in my earlier post). His vitals were perfect. Mine were still a bit iffy due to the fever and elevated heart rate, but they weren't super concerned.
We got about an hour or two to spend together in the delivery room, with very little interference by the nurses or doctor. Mom and Chris both got to hold Rory as well. Chris started singing to him to get him to stop crying--it worked like a charm. I think mom stepped out to give us some alone time, but I can't remember. Chris called his mom and dad to give them the good news. Mom waited to call dad as he'd given instructions to call him at 7 AM BC time if things happened quickly.
After a bit, they moved me and Rory to our room in the moms and newborns unit. The truly squeamish should stop reading here. Really, I'm not joking. Things got really ugly and scary at about this point.
The Traumatic Aftermath
Rory got his second check and I got my post-delivery check from the nurses (checking that my uterus was contracting down, etc). Then the nurses had me walk to the bathroom and showed me how to care for the stitches and take care of things down there, and also where the pads were and the best way to position them in the disposable underwear, etc. While they were explaining this and I was sitting on the toilet, I felt a large clot pass. One of the nurses stayed to fish it out (so it could be weighed) while the other helped me back to the bed.
They checked my uterus fundus again and it had gone lopsided and was in a higher position than it had been. While they were pressing and manipulating, a GIANT clot shot out of me at high velocity! My mom was pretty blown away by it (and was worried it was going to hit her, that's how much force it came out with!).
To be quite honest, at this point things got really, really hazy. I know an obstetrical resident (but not my doctor) came in and I know that I passed at least one more large clot--over a litre of blood lost at that point. I remember getting suppository meds to try to make my uterus stop bleeding.
My doctor came in and discovered that somehow (probably from all the manipulation) my stitches had been ripped. She couldn't fix them in that room so they wheeled me back to the delivery room and she did some repair work under a local anesthetic. Chris and mom stayed back at my room with Rory.
I started feeling quite light-headed, but was left in the room with just a nurse present while they checked my uterus every 15 minutes. Each time they pressed on it, I lost another large clot. At that point it was well over 2 litres of blood lost.
I was pretty shocky, I think, because I was even more light-headed. Chris came to visit me and they filled in both him and me on my options. They wanted to take me to the OR to do exploratory surgery to find out why I was still bleeding. They also wanted to give me at least one unit of blood. I signed a form and they wheeled me down the hall. Chris left the hospital with my mom--Rory went to the nursery.
By the time I got to the OR I was barely conscious. They took my glasses off of me. Everything is very blurry from that point onwards.
I remember being shifted to a very narrow bed. Someone strapped down my arms. I was given oxygen. I was asked to take deep breaths.
The next thing I remember is waking up and being told I was in recovery. I was a bit hazy at first but I gradually came back to myself. Aside from having no motor control and a very sore throat (from being intubated), I felt a lot better. An OB resident came in and explained what happened:
They performed exploratory surgery and discovered that I was quite badly torn internally and that my cervix also had tears. Those were repaired. They did a D&C to ensure that no placenta remained that was causing the bleeding. Finally, they inserted a balloon into my uterus to keep it from bleeding further. In addition, they transfused one unit of blood and packed my entire vagina with cotton.
While in recovery they told me that I couldn't eat or drink until after some blood work scheduled for later that afternoon, as if I was still losing blood they might have to operate again. They did give me some ice chips for my throat, though. They also put compression ... things ... on my legs to prevent blood clots, since I wouldn't be allowed to get up out of bed very frequently. The compression things inflated and deflated about every 2 minutes, putting pressure on my legs. I also still had the catheter in me, and another drain coming from my uterus/vagina for the balloon.
After the anesthesia had mostly worn off, they let Chris come in to see me (he had to put on scrubs and stuff). We got to talk for about 5 minutes before they shooed him out. They sent him back to my room and had Rory brought from the nursery to him. Meanwhile, they finished up with me and wheeled me to my room.
After that, I improved pretty rapidly. I got an additional 2 transfusions, one that afternoon and one overnight. My levels were still low after that, but they thought part of the reason was due to dilution from the very large amounts of intravenous fluids I was getting so they decided to not give me another transfusion and just start iron pills instead. I also received several doses of two different IV antibiotics to prevent infection of the stitches, my uterus, basically everywhere they had to work on me.
By Sunday night, I had been allowed out of bed once. I still had a catheter in, but I got to change my own pads and wash my face and brush my teeth. I was also allowed to eat, as my uterus was shrinking properly, was firm (as it was supposed to be), and the bleeding was very minimal.
Monday morning, the night nurse got me up, again to change my pads, and took off my compression things. The OB resident came in and removed the packing from my vagina. It hurt like hell. Not as bad as back labour, but it hurt really badly. Fortunately, pain meds kicked in shortly thereafter. My doctor came by a little later and removed the drain and balloon. Later in the morning the day nurse removed my catheter and the saline IV lock from my right hand. Aside from being tethered to an IV line in my left hand, I was free! (Yes, I had two IV lines, one to each hand--the one in my right hand was for the blood transfusions and the one in my left for everything else, mostly syntocin (to help my uterus contract down properly) and various antibiotics).
Monday afternoon after a dose of antibiotics finished, I had the other IV line locked and they would only reattach it for each antibiotics dose, so I only had to maneuver the IV during certain times of day. I finally got to shower.
Tuesday morning they removed the other IV line and we got discharged. I got home around 1 PM.
All The Other Details
During all of this, I should mention that mom and Chris were visiting frequently. Chris spent the night on Sunday with very little actual sleep (so he was present for the removal of the packing and balloon), went home around 8:30 AM and slept for several hours. My mom came around noon and helped me with my hair after my shower (she babysat Rory for me). Once I was showered, she went and gave the car back to Chris. He stayed until 7:30 PM and cuddled and played with Rory while I had a nap. Then he went back and had dinner with mom. They both came back around 10 PM and stayed until 11:30.
Chris worked Tuesday morning so I was actually by myself at the hospital all morning. Mom picked him up and they got there around noon.
The entire time Rory was rooming in with me, except while I was having surgery. While I was in the OR, the day nurse gave Rory a bath and a tiny amount of formula. I started breast feeding with supplementation once I got back from surgery and we're still doing that as, due to the massive blood loss, my supply is very low. However, my milk is slowly coming in and we've got latching and things all figured out. Right now I feed him from both breasts, give him formula afterwards, and then pump while he's in a food coma-induced nap. As the amount I've been able to pump has increased, I've gone from mixing it with the formula (which he doesn't always finish, so some got thrown away), to giving the pumped breastmilk first and then formula afterwards.
Anyway, that's how things stand and I probably won't give such a TMI post again, but if anyone has any questions just IM me or send me a private message and I'll probalby fill you in on the gory details ;).
Now for the promised picture:
Labour & Delivery
I woke up around 8:30 AM on Saturday, April 28. While laying in bed I felt a faint trickle, but I thought I just peed myself, being 7 days overdue at that point. The joys of pregnancy, right? I know now that it was actually my water breaking, though. There was only a tiny amount, and nothing else came out, though, so I should be forgiven for being a little slow on the uptake.
Anyway, Chris and my mom and I went about our day. By 3 PM I'd only had one other little trickle, and it was even smaller than the first one. It was slightly pinkish, but I'd been spotting since my last doctor's appointment on Thursday so I figured it was just more of the same. I thought it was just watery discharge. I was contracting, but only 2-4 times per hour and they weren't very strong. I was wearing a pad due to the discharge as well. I did notice it smelled kind of funny, but I think I was kind of in denial at that point.
Anyway, I was laying on the couch around 5 PM when I felt a much larger gush. I got up and didn't say anything to mom or Chris, just went to the bathroom and checked my pad. It was completely saturated and the smell was much more distinctive. (For those who haven't been pregnant or had your water break, it smells kind of sweet and chlorine-y, or at least mine did). I put on a heavier pad, one of the ones I bought for post-partum, and walked into the living room and told mom and Chris that I thought my water had broken. We decided to wait to see if more came out, so I sat on the couch on a towel and shifted around a bit and sure enough, another nice-sized gush.
I called the hospital case room and they told me to come in, so I changed pads again and we had about 30 minutes of organized chaos while we located my hospital bag, stuffed in a few last things, that sort of thing. Throughout the whole time I was very calm. I was having strong contractions, but only every 10-20 minutes and I could talk and breathe through them, although I couldn't walk during one.
Anyway, we got to the hospital around 6:30. While walking from the front door to the after hours admitting desk, my contractions started getting closer together and a LOT stronger, and also wrapping around into my back. I got admitted and wheeled upstairs to labour and delivery. My OB was behind the unit desk when we passed, which was nice because it made it likely she'd be delivering my baby.
I got wheeled into triage and given a gown and asked to change. My mom was asked to wait in the waiting area--she could join us in the delivery room if they decided I should stay. The nurse ended up almost throwing the gown at me because just as I got there, someone else started giving birth. Good timing! Anyway, Chris helped me get changed and we saved the pad as the nurse had requested it. A different nurse showed up to help me within about 5 minutes and she tested the pad--my water had definitely broken. She checked my cervix and I was nearly 4 cm dilated so even though my contractions were still more than 5 minutes apart, they decided to admit me for the birth. She also checked my temperature and I was running a slight fever.
I got up and Chris and I walked to delivery room #1, which was right next door to triage. I got into the bed and hooked up to the monitors. My doctor stopped by to visit and explained that they would also be giving me antibiotics just in case, because of the fever. Mom went home to take the roast we were going to have for supper out of the crockpot so it wouldn't get ruined, although I found out later she forgot to actually put the roast in the fridge. She picked up a few things we realized we'd forgotten, and got back around 8:30 or so.
In the meantime, I got all hooked up to the monitors and had the IV run--they also gave me Ringer's Lactate to help hydrate me as they thought the fever could also be due to dehydration. I have crappy veins so the anesthesiologist on call wound up doing it--he got the line in first try. I laboured with assistance from Chris until mom got back, with the nurse checking on me every so often. By that point the contractions were every 3 minutes and were at about a 6 or 7 for pain.
The nurse checked me again and I hadn't dilated any further, but was still running the fever and baby's heart rate was elevated to around 170, so we decided to start me on syntocin to hopefully help things progress further. They dialed it up slowly, but by around 9 or 10 PM I was in serious pain with back labour, and dilated to about 5 cm (I think--it's pretty hazy at this point). I gave the pain an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. The contractions were also every 2 minutes or less and lasting quite long. I asked for nitrous oxide first to see if that would help, but it didn't do anything so I requested an epidural. The four to five contractions it took for the anesthesiologist to come back felt like the longest in my life.
Then the epidural started working. Instant relief, although I needed a top up after 45 minutes. At that point, they had me start flipping from side to side every 15-30 minutes or so, because the reason for the back labour was due to my baby being sunny-side up. I also had a catheter put in due to the level of the epidural--I could feel almost nothing from the chest down other than the pressure of the contractions (minus the pain), couldn't walk, and definitely couldn't get up to pee.
I got checked again after a while (for some reason I think around midnight) and I was dilated to a 7 and he had flipped. They were concerned about my hydration as the catheter wasn't draining very much urine, so they upped the syntocin rate slightly. The nurse was encouraged by my progress, though, and the nurse mentioned that she thought we would be having a baby around 1:30 AM.
Well, by 1:30 AM I hadn't fully dilated yet, so they increased the syntocin again, as baby's heart rate was still quite elevated and mine was too. They wanted things to progress quickly. I got an epidural top-up again as I was feeling some pain with each contraction, quite low, but not so much that I would have trouble pushing when the time came. We all tried to sleep.
At 3:00 AM, the nurse checked me and thought that I was dilated. She had me start pushing, with mom holding one leg and Chris holding the other. Chris is not a blood and gore and pain person, so he was focused on my face and talking me through things and looking supportive rather than watching the show. After 15-20 minutes of pushing, the nurse realized that there was a tiny lip of cervix left so she had me stop pushing. She checked me again at about 3:55 AM and I was good to go, so I officially started pushing at about 4:00 AM.
I pushed hard through several contractions, and I could feel him moving down. It was quite painful as he still wasn't quite perfectly aligned in the birth canal, but he did straighten out with the nurse's assistance as he moved down. By around 4:15 (ish) my mom could see his head. At first they thought he was bald but a few more contractions and some hair was visible. Note that he wasn't actually crowning yet, just very close to it.
I started feeling very nauseated so I asked to rest through one contraction before continuing as I didn't really want to throw up on either my mom or my husband. That one contraction was good enough for me to feel better enough to concentrate and focus on the job at hand. A few more contractions and the nurse ran to get my doctor and the resuscitation team (since baby's heart rate was still elevated, as was mine).
My doctor positioned herself in the 'catch' position and the next contraction started. I pushed and felt him crown. Pushed again and the rest of his head delivered. Pushed again and felt TREMENDOUS relief as the rest of his body just sort of slithered out.
Family Bonding Time
Rory started shrieking at the top of his lungs as they put him on my chest. The time was 4:36 AM. He peed all over me. I cuddled him and mom and Chris touched him and took a few pictures (that will never be posted :P). My mom cut the cord while Chris held my hand and just sort of gazed in awe at Rory (like I said Chris doesn't do well with that sort of thing, so we'd decided on that ahead of time).
They took Rory away to be weighed and have his stats checked, that sort of thing, while the doctor delivered the placenta and stitched me up, as I'd torn slightly. I think the stitches took about 5 minutes. Mom and Chris were busy over at the weighing station cooing at Rory and taking lots of pictures. The whole time he was just screaming away, so obviously (and happily) the resuscitation team wasn't needed. Rory weighed in at 9 lbs 5 oz and was 21 1/4" long (but they told me 21 3/4", which is why I had it wrong in my earlier post). His vitals were perfect. Mine were still a bit iffy due to the fever and elevated heart rate, but they weren't super concerned.
We got about an hour or two to spend together in the delivery room, with very little interference by the nurses or doctor. Mom and Chris both got to hold Rory as well. Chris started singing to him to get him to stop crying--it worked like a charm. I think mom stepped out to give us some alone time, but I can't remember. Chris called his mom and dad to give them the good news. Mom waited to call dad as he'd given instructions to call him at 7 AM BC time if things happened quickly.
After a bit, they moved me and Rory to our room in the moms and newborns unit. The truly squeamish should stop reading here. Really, I'm not joking. Things got really ugly and scary at about this point.
The Traumatic Aftermath
Rory got his second check and I got my post-delivery check from the nurses (checking that my uterus was contracting down, etc). Then the nurses had me walk to the bathroom and showed me how to care for the stitches and take care of things down there, and also where the pads were and the best way to position them in the disposable underwear, etc. While they were explaining this and I was sitting on the toilet, I felt a large clot pass. One of the nurses stayed to fish it out (so it could be weighed) while the other helped me back to the bed.
They checked my uterus fundus again and it had gone lopsided and was in a higher position than it had been. While they were pressing and manipulating, a GIANT clot shot out of me at high velocity! My mom was pretty blown away by it (and was worried it was going to hit her, that's how much force it came out with!).
To be quite honest, at this point things got really, really hazy. I know an obstetrical resident (but not my doctor) came in and I know that I passed at least one more large clot--over a litre of blood lost at that point. I remember getting suppository meds to try to make my uterus stop bleeding.
My doctor came in and discovered that somehow (probably from all the manipulation) my stitches had been ripped. She couldn't fix them in that room so they wheeled me back to the delivery room and she did some repair work under a local anesthetic. Chris and mom stayed back at my room with Rory.
I started feeling quite light-headed, but was left in the room with just a nurse present while they checked my uterus every 15 minutes. Each time they pressed on it, I lost another large clot. At that point it was well over 2 litres of blood lost.
I was pretty shocky, I think, because I was even more light-headed. Chris came to visit me and they filled in both him and me on my options. They wanted to take me to the OR to do exploratory surgery to find out why I was still bleeding. They also wanted to give me at least one unit of blood. I signed a form and they wheeled me down the hall. Chris left the hospital with my mom--Rory went to the nursery.
By the time I got to the OR I was barely conscious. They took my glasses off of me. Everything is very blurry from that point onwards.
I remember being shifted to a very narrow bed. Someone strapped down my arms. I was given oxygen. I was asked to take deep breaths.
The next thing I remember is waking up and being told I was in recovery. I was a bit hazy at first but I gradually came back to myself. Aside from having no motor control and a very sore throat (from being intubated), I felt a lot better. An OB resident came in and explained what happened:
They performed exploratory surgery and discovered that I was quite badly torn internally and that my cervix also had tears. Those were repaired. They did a D&C to ensure that no placenta remained that was causing the bleeding. Finally, they inserted a balloon into my uterus to keep it from bleeding further. In addition, they transfused one unit of blood and packed my entire vagina with cotton.
While in recovery they told me that I couldn't eat or drink until after some blood work scheduled for later that afternoon, as if I was still losing blood they might have to operate again. They did give me some ice chips for my throat, though. They also put compression ... things ... on my legs to prevent blood clots, since I wouldn't be allowed to get up out of bed very frequently. The compression things inflated and deflated about every 2 minutes, putting pressure on my legs. I also still had the catheter in me, and another drain coming from my uterus/vagina for the balloon.
After the anesthesia had mostly worn off, they let Chris come in to see me (he had to put on scrubs and stuff). We got to talk for about 5 minutes before they shooed him out. They sent him back to my room and had Rory brought from the nursery to him. Meanwhile, they finished up with me and wheeled me to my room.
After that, I improved pretty rapidly. I got an additional 2 transfusions, one that afternoon and one overnight. My levels were still low after that, but they thought part of the reason was due to dilution from the very large amounts of intravenous fluids I was getting so they decided to not give me another transfusion and just start iron pills instead. I also received several doses of two different IV antibiotics to prevent infection of the stitches, my uterus, basically everywhere they had to work on me.
By Sunday night, I had been allowed out of bed once. I still had a catheter in, but I got to change my own pads and wash my face and brush my teeth. I was also allowed to eat, as my uterus was shrinking properly, was firm (as it was supposed to be), and the bleeding was very minimal.
Monday morning, the night nurse got me up, again to change my pads, and took off my compression things. The OB resident came in and removed the packing from my vagina. It hurt like hell. Not as bad as back labour, but it hurt really badly. Fortunately, pain meds kicked in shortly thereafter. My doctor came by a little later and removed the drain and balloon. Later in the morning the day nurse removed my catheter and the saline IV lock from my right hand. Aside from being tethered to an IV line in my left hand, I was free! (Yes, I had two IV lines, one to each hand--the one in my right hand was for the blood transfusions and the one in my left for everything else, mostly syntocin (to help my uterus contract down properly) and various antibiotics).
Monday afternoon after a dose of antibiotics finished, I had the other IV line locked and they would only reattach it for each antibiotics dose, so I only had to maneuver the IV during certain times of day. I finally got to shower.
Tuesday morning they removed the other IV line and we got discharged. I got home around 1 PM.
All The Other Details
During all of this, I should mention that mom and Chris were visiting frequently. Chris spent the night on Sunday with very little actual sleep (so he was present for the removal of the packing and balloon), went home around 8:30 AM and slept for several hours. My mom came around noon and helped me with my hair after my shower (she babysat Rory for me). Once I was showered, she went and gave the car back to Chris. He stayed until 7:30 PM and cuddled and played with Rory while I had a nap. Then he went back and had dinner with mom. They both came back around 10 PM and stayed until 11:30.
Chris worked Tuesday morning so I was actually by myself at the hospital all morning. Mom picked him up and they got there around noon.
The entire time Rory was rooming in with me, except while I was having surgery. While I was in the OR, the day nurse gave Rory a bath and a tiny amount of formula. I started breast feeding with supplementation once I got back from surgery and we're still doing that as, due to the massive blood loss, my supply is very low. However, my milk is slowly coming in and we've got latching and things all figured out. Right now I feed him from both breasts, give him formula afterwards, and then pump while he's in a food coma-induced nap. As the amount I've been able to pump has increased, I've gone from mixing it with the formula (which he doesn't always finish, so some got thrown away), to giving the pumped breastmilk first and then formula afterwards.
Anyway, that's how things stand and I probably won't give such a TMI post again, but if anyone has any questions just IM me or send me a private message and I'll probalby fill you in on the gory details ;).
Now for the promised picture: