Hazel McDonald's Birth Story || Pt. 2

Warning: TMI sometimes...mostly for my memory!

Recovery:

That night, I was required to pee before 2:00am and before they would take out my IV.

Of course, knowing me, I could not pee to save my life.

Unfortunately because of this, I had to have the catheter put back in.

Not something I ever wanted to experience when I'm no longer numb.

I had to have the catheter in for 24 hours.

When they finally took it out it was amazing.

They also took out the IV (FINALLY) the next morning.

Right away after Hazel was born, I had Andy get the binky we brought and put it in her mouth.

She latched onto that binky perfectly.

When we had her try to breast feed, she could not have latched to me better.

Well okay, she could have (my fault though), 

we had to use a nipple shield but only because my nipples are flat.

She latched on so quickly and honestly I cannot say it enough, that I know because of the binky is why she latched to me so well. 

So whatever people say about "nipple confusion", it's not always going to be the case.

Due to Hazel being 40 weeks 1 day, she was considered small for her gestational age.

(I was 6lbs14oz at 40 weeks, so whatever)

They had to monitor her blood sugar levels.

Since she latched on so well, her levels were never a problem.

Both nights in the hospital we asked that she be kept in the nursery.

It was really nice to be able to somewhat rest after the really long 14 hours we had just had.

 

We had lots of visitors come to see us in the hospital.
It was so nice to know all these people were so excited for us and to see Hazel!
(Sorry if you came and didn't get a picture taken!)

 

Take home outfit that Grandma, Lucy, Leslie and Paige picked out!

The first few days of Hazel's life spent in that hospital are still sort of a blur.

We had lots of visitors, and we spent lots of time feeding her, and trying to get myself to pee.

I wouldn't change those first few days for the world.

Something that not a single person tells you when you are having kids is that the first 2 weeks of parenthood is the hardest two weeks of your life.

The first week because as we were leaving the hospital Hazel had a little bit of jaundice, we had to go get her lab work done the very next day of leaving the hospital.

I'm sorry but you do not make a new mom leave her house the very next day...

We loaded Hazel up, got in the car and went and got her lab work done.

She went from a 9.8-10.5 so they asked us to take her again the NEXT day to have her lab work done again..

Seriously...two days in a row we have to leave the house?

On top of the lab work, we scheduled to have her newborn photography session done that day too.

So this time, Andy went solo with Hazel to do the second round of lab work while I got ready for the session.

Luckily her levels went from a 10.5-8.something.

We felt so blessed that we wouldn't have to do more lab work and that she was getting better!

But still, the next day we had to take her to the pediatrician to be checked.

Holy cow, on top of all these outings we had to take in the first week, we had a million visitors.

To say we were beat/exhausted is an understatement.

It was hard and honestly, next child I may be more strict when it comes to the first week.

Also on top of all this, I am in so much pain from labor and my legs to my feet are swollen like sausages and I looked like the Nutty Professor.

My feet and legs were so swollen that it was horrible pain when I'd walk 

(so how fun to have to leave the house everyday).

My doctor said that I needed to give it 2 weeks...ugh!

Saturday was the only day spent doing nothing!
We didn't leave the house for anything specific and it was so nice to just get to relax!

Saturday night/Sunday all day, I began to feel like I had a fever.
We took my temp and it was 100.8.
According to online and everyone we talked to, if you have a fever after delivering you need to call your doctor even if it's a slight fever.
So we called the doctor and she instructed me to head to the ER as soon as possible.
The ER doctor thought it could be a couple things but was first concerned about the fact that I had to have the catheter put back in and thought maybe I could have a urinary tract infection.
I had to give them a urine sample, so when I went in to do that there was lots of bleeding.
More than I had noticed before.
Of course I started to panic.

Luckily, the bleeding wasn't anything they were concerned about. 

The labs for the urine came back cleaned. No infection there.

Next they were worried about products of conception (placenta left in), so they sent me down to get an ultrasound done.

The ultrasound came back clean as well.

The doctor came to the conclusion that it was probably early signs of mastitis. 

He gave me a Rx for an antibiotic to take, then we headed home.

Needless to say, it was a crazy first week of being new parents!

We are so happy to be on this adventure as crazy as it is!