Labor and Delivery: Additional Details & Behind the Scenes

I wanted to do a post letting you all in on some of the things that went on “behind the scenes” after I delivered Ilah. Just as some of you were/are curious about how my labor and delivery went, some of you may also be curious as to what happened after the fact! So here’s some details…

Let me talk about my c-section first.

• Even though I ended up having to have a c-section, I didn’t feel cheated. No, I didn’t have the vaginal delivery that I had hoped for but I got to experience everything leading up to it {getting dilated to a 10 and pushing for 45 minutes}. As I said before, Ilah’s safety was most important and I have no regrets about following the Dr.’s recommendation to go the route of a c-section rather than continuing to push in hopes that I could have the kind of “experience” that I wanted. I was fortunate that my epidural took on the first attempt and that my c-section went perfectly. We have a beautiful baby girl to love for the rest of our lives and at times I wonder if my heart is going to explode because I’m not sure if the amount of love that I have for her can be contained in it.
  
  The entire caesarean procedure took about 30 minutes. Two incisions were made: one through my abdominal wall and another into my uterus. It only takes about 5 to10 minutes for the Dr. to transition the baby out – the rest of the time is spent repairing the regional incision site. In my case, staples were used and were {painlessly} removed the day that I was discharged.

• The only two side effects {from pain medication} that I felt following surgery was that I itched like crazy, and my feet swelled quite a bit {they didn’t go down for about 7 days. I just had to keep them elevated in order for the swelling to go down. I wasn’t really a good “bed rest” patient – if I had been, the swelling probably would have gone down earlier}.

• So far, I’ve recovered very well from the c-section. After about a week, I was fully off of my pain meds {high MG's of Oxycodone and Ibuprofen}. I didn’t want to get hooked on them as being a pain reliever so from the moment that I got home, I lowered my dosage of Oxycodone from two pills to just one, and instead of taking them every 4-6 hours, I took just one in the morning and one at night, and eventually digressed to not taking any within a matter of days. {Sidenote: I’ve been told that having a bowel movement following a c-section hurts like heck…but that didn’t cause any discomfort for me. But coughing…and sneezing? Ouchy-ga-wah!}.

• Let’s talk mesh. Undies that is. Back when I was preparing my list of what to pack in my hospital bag, I noted underwear {both regular underwear and high wasted underwear - just in case I ended up having a c-section, so that it would comfortably rest above my incision}. My readers left me feedback that I really wouldn’t need to worry about bringing my own underwear because the hospital supplies you with mesh underwear that were supposed to be awesome. I brought the underwear just in case, but I gotta say…those mesh undies that the hospital DID supply…let me tell you…they ARE great!! The nurse who discharged me made sure that I left with at least a month supply of mesh undies!!...{for those curious, this is what they look like}....

The nurse also sent me home with the best sanitary pads that a woman can have post delivery....{this is my drawer at home!}....

• Speaking of things that I left the hospital with. I took the advice of a reader and packed an empty bag - such good advice that I followed! Because it was absolutely true…you leave the hospital loaded up on things for you and the baby!!
  
  Here’s a picture of the first cap that Ilah wore right after delivery – along with a second hat and shirt that she wore while in the hospital…now all a special keepsake.

• Attached to Ilah’s left leg was a hospital security tag. If anyone attempts to take a baby outside of a certain perimeter of the hospital floor, the baby’s security tag registers an alarm that sounds and all elevators are shut down and doors to the staircases are locked. Additionally, attached to Ilah’s wrist was a paper bracelet that had numbers on it. I also had one, and my husband had one. The numbers on our paper bracelet matched Ilah’s. Anytime she went into the nursery for routine tests and we got her back, we had to read the numbers on our wrist off to the nurse, who crosschecked them with the numbers on Ilah’s wrist, to ensure that we were getting the right baby!

Here’s a picture of Ilah getting some nighttime love with her daddy….

• The hospital had these cute buttons that parents could take and pass out to applicable family members - we all wore them proudly!….

• Surprisingly, just three doors down from my room, was a couple from our church who had just welcomed their second daughter into the world!! Here’s a picture of the two daddy’s with their girls….

• Let me tell you…we ate GOOD while in the hospital. One evening my mom brought us PF Changs for dinner. Yumm!! While watching The Real Housewives of Orange County, and eating round two of my leftovers, I cracked open two fortune cookies that revealed messages that seemingly go hand in hand in becoming a new mommy....

I relive my labor and delivery day so often in my head. It was such a beautiful, spiritual, and fulfilling day. A part of me wishes that I could go back to the day that Ilah was born and do it all over again - in slow motion. That's what a great memory does - it makes you want to relive it. We look at Ilah with so much love and amazement. We are looking forward to all that is to come in our lives...with her in it.