Eliza's Birth Story pt. 3

When we got to the hospital, they wheeled me into L&D. They actually ended up treating Eliza just like she had been born there that second. (Thank you Jesus!) I told Matt to stay with her and keep an eye on her, just to make sure she was safe. Which he did, and everything went well on their side.

On my side, I had a nurse come talk to me. I told her everything that happened, she was super cool and really helpful. She was actually wanting to be a midwife. They started fundal massage on me (which is AWFUL) and were working to deliver my placenta. It was very painful, and once it finally delivered, they told me that I had 4th degree tearing that needed to be stitched up. The nurse that I talked to originally asked me if I wanted a little bit of pain medicine before they used the lidocaine, and while hesitant at first, I decided to get some. LET me tell you, I am SO glad that I did. Lidocaine may help num some areas of your body (your toe, your face, etc.) BUT it isn't helpful when they are sewing you up after having a baby...

When the resident was almost done sewing me up, I asked him how many stitches he had used. Mainly because I know that a lot of doctors count their stitches. He said, "Um... I didn't count... There are too many, this is my fourth roll of stitches." ...needless to say recovery was a ROUGH time, but that's another story... By the time he was finished everyone was in the waiting room. Matt went and got my mom and sister. After they got there, Matt took Eliza so that I could go pee, Karla walked me to the bathroom, and by the time I was finishing, I felt very light headed. She told Matt to hand Eliza to my mom immediately and come there. They helped me back to the bed, and I laid back down. Matt's parents came into the room shortly after, and then, we went up the postpartum floor. When we got up to the postpartum floor, they walked us through all of the typical things. They let us know that she needed to be on her back alone to sleep, and while they were telling us, she was quite literally choking and not breathing while laying on her back... Thankfully, my sister saw her and was able to pick her up and get her back breathing normally. Shortly after, Matt's parents left to go to their hotel for the night, and my mom and sister went back to their respective homes. That night was a lot of not sleeping, trying to nurse, and changing diapers.

Matt's parents and brother came the next day. Matt's parents brought us some food, I requested a chicken pesto flatbread and a mocha madness smoothie from Tropical Smoothie Cafe. My middle sister and brother-in-law also came by once my sister got off of work. On Wednesday, my oldest sister came back to the hospital. We also had two other friends of my sisters come in to try to help me breast feed because we were having issues on my right side (we never ended up overcoming it, and Eliza was exclusively breast fed from my left side only)

I didn't move much in the hospital; mainly all I did was go pee. I was able to shower on the last day. I was in entirely too much pain. Matt stayed two nights at the hospital with me; he took care of all diaper changes and medical interventions that she needed. Eliza ended up being born with a pseudo dermal sinus tract, that they were worried was a case of spina bifida. She ended up undergoing an ultrasound and an MRI to see if the spot was connected to her spinal cord. Thankfully, it was not! Matt also went with her to the hearing test and eye test that they do to all newborns in the hospital.

My mom stayed with me on Thursday night because Matt had to be back at school the next day to take an exam that he couldn't miss. Eliza and I were able to check out of the hospital on Friday evening.