Our first week - part I - the hospital

Its our first full week of being a family of three.

Silas was born on Friday the 14th. My water had broken the night before at around 10:30 and I was in labor until around 2pm the following day when I spiked a fever. My temp was over 100 degrees and Silas' heart rate went from 120 bpm to over 180 bpm. I felt so cold that I had them turn off my a/c and bundle me with heated blankets, but none of those things seemed to help. The midwife on call said that the best route would be an immediate c-section.

Josh of course had just ran home to get a shower, eat some food and check on our animals and they wanted to take me in right away. Fortunately we only live about 10 minutes away and he was able to get to the hospital as they were prepping me for surgery.

I was in a lot of pain from the epidural and still very cold. Josh held my hand the entire time and talked to me as they performed the c-section. Before I knew it Josh said they were pulling Silas out and they held him up and I could see is angry red face. My poor little guy didn't want to come out! As they were stitching me back up Josh went with Silas to be taken care of. Since I had a fever they wanted to put him on antibiotics as a precaution so that if I did have an infection I didn't pass it on to him so they had to put an I.V. in his hand after they cleaned him up.

I was wheeled to recovery while Josh went with Silas to the nursery. Everyone got a chance to see him except for me. I wanted nothing more than to hold my son. Once Silas was situated Josh came down to recovery to see me. He showed me pictures of Silas being cleaned up and a few videos he had taken of our little guy. I cried with joy for our little one. He looked so precious and wonderful. I sent Josh back to be with him and slowly the rest of my family came back to see me.

At around 6 they finally started the process of transporting me to my post partum care room. My nurse DeAnna said that she could take me down to the nursery if I felt up to it, but I wouldn't be able to stay long because of shift change. I started to get up and she was amazed because she had never seen a mom so quick to their feet after surgery. All I wanted to do was to see Silas.

It was amazing to see him the first time and touch his little hands and feet. His arm was wrapped up tight with tape and such with an I.V. and I wanted to cry because I had caused him to have to have it in. They said he'd have to spend 48 hours in the nursery.

I spent all the time I could in the nursery and probably over did it the first day. We had a steady stream of visitors and in between sharing Silas with them down in the nursery I was trying to breast feed, but with little success. Having a breast reduction 7 1/2 years ago has limited my ability greatly, but we went forward and he would latch on each time. He has a strong latch and suck, but isn't able to get a lot out.

The Pediatrician came in on Saturday and said that he looked good and gave the o.k. for the nurses to let Silas be wheeled into my room for feedings during the night. He said that he'd have to have the I.V. in until Sunday evening though and then he could room with us until we were discharged.

Sunday was much like Saturday with lots of visitors. I worked on walking around and breast feeding. My incision hurt and I had to take it easy on Sunday as I did too much on Saturday. By 10 pm Sunday night Silas had his I.V. out and was wheeled in our room. We had our first night together and it went very well. He woke up several times to be fed and hardly fussed in between at all.

Monday we worked on getting ready for home. I had a lactation consultant come in to talk to me about breast feeding and had my staples removed. We finally got to leave for home around 3 pm with strict orders for me to take a nap in my own bed, which I did.