I can't believe it's been a month since Timmy was born! On one hand, "one month" sounds like such a long time to me. He's getting so big so fast and I miss my tiny little newborn. On the other hand, I can't believe that he's only been home with us for 4 weeks now. It seems like I've known him forever - could it really only be 4 weeks since we brought him home?
Timothy Daniel came into the world on November 10, 2008 by planned repeat c-section. You can see more pictures
here. I was extremely nervous due to some
problems I had during my delivery with Katie in 2005. We got there at about 9:15am and met my mom in admissions. We had an "interesting" nurse who seemed to like to argue about everything - definately lacked the bedside manner. It was almost like she didn't think I deserved any compassion since I was having a c-section. I can't imagine having to go through actual labor with her...thank goodness...and my heart goes out to anyone who has.
They were running behind schedule and instead of an 11:30am surgery, I delivered at 12:43pm. Beforehand, I had decided to go ahead and get staples for closing my incision. My amazing OB, Dr. Geria, also went completely tape-free in my dressing and used 2 big elastic binders (on cue, my argumentative nurse tried to talk him out of that too..or rather assure me that I was wrong about the fact that he wouldn't use tape).
I was also petrified about getting my spinal again. With Katie, the anesthesiologist stuck me at least twice and felt like he hit nerve both times. However, this time around the doctor did a great job - was in and out - it honestly did just feel like a bee sting (which I NEVER believed was possible when I heard people describe it that way before). It hurt a bit when the medicine actually went in - but that was over very quickly.
My next hurdle that I knew was coming was getting sick on the table. With Katie, I was always nauseous in the morning if I hadn't eaten and having to get up to be at the hospital at 5:30am had me throwing up all morning with her until I delivered. I was feeling pretty good the morning of Timmy's delivery so I thought I was in the clear. Throwing up on the table with Katie was one of my worst memories. Since my abdomen was completely numb - it made it so difficult to get relief-but once I HAD gotten sick with her, I then felt fine. Well, soon after receiving the spinal, my blood pressure dropped a lot. I don't know to what, but hearing all those beeps and rushed voices was extremely scary. I wound up throwing up again and it sucked, but my spinal hadn't numbed me quite as high up this time, so it was a little easier. I was only numb to right below my rib cage. It was a great location because I also was able to feel myself breathing with no problem. I remember freaking out during Katie's delivery - that spinal took effect to above my breasts and it's very scary to not feel yourself breathing even though you are. The worst part is that all of this took place before Chris was allowed in the room. It's probably the part that I would have most appreciated having him there with me.
Chris eventually came in and my beautiful baby boy was born. Right after he was delivered - as they were cleaning him up - I think my blood pressure dropped again or the morphine was affecting me badly. I got extremely dizzy and sick to my stomach. So, as Chris was holding Timmy up to me, I was so out of it that I could barely look at him. Thank goodness I have this picture to really capture the memory for myself.
Chris then went with Timmy to the nursery while I got stiched up and sent to recovery. I had a bunch of right shoulder pain, apparently caused by gas captured while I was open. It's so weird to me that your shoulder hurts because you have extra air in your belly.
Finally, I got to meet my little guy appropriately. He latched right on like a champ. (Not showing a picture of THAT). He was awake almost the entire day - until the late afternoon.
At that point, we were open to visitors. My mom had been there all day, but soon Chris's mom brought Katie over to meet her little brother.
We also had visits from my sister-in-law Debi, nieces Stephanie and Gabi, and my sister Lori. Check out
these posts for pics of some of our visitors. I didn't get one of my sister that night though. I think Chris brought my camera home before she got there, so we just got one the next day.
My recovery has been pretty good except for horrible headaches that I had for the first week. I was almost at the point of getting a blood patch because my OB thought it was a spinal headache since I was perfectly fine if laying flat on my back, but in agony to stand up or walk around. It did wind up being muscular/bone related though, as I thought, and after 1 week I finally got to the chiropractor and was much improved. Basically, around delivery time your joints get very loose to allow for delivery. My hormone level was guessed to be pretty high and I was SO flexible that things in my neck and back wound up where they shouldn't be. So this time around, that was the worst part of my recovery. Abdominally, I've done great from the start - perhaps because my head hurt so bad that it was the only pain I was feeling or maybe since it was my second c-section. Either way, I was able to walk up steps from the first day home with very little pain. Unfortunately, I've hit a little snag in the last two weeks and don't seem to have improved much. Basically, I've just been doing too much and have a lot pain on one side by the end of the day. It's also still hard for me to bend down by the end of the day. It's frustrating though, since I don't wake up with any pain - so it's hard to monitor what IS too much during the day until I see how I feel at the end of the day. I've pretty much felt this same way for 2 weeks now.
Now, for viewing pleasure (and a reward for reading this whole darn thing), here are some cute videos of Timmy playing with his bear (really, Katie's bear - but his for now). In the first one he's doing a little "talking" and in the second he's doing a little "dancing". But a warning: I think I have mommy blinders on and they're probably pretty boring if you're not closely related :)
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