ellie's birth story: part 4

Surprise!  Bet you didn’t guess there would be a Part 4.  But I felt like the story wasn’t quite done yet, and there were some things I wanted to remember.  Read Part1, Part 2, and Part 3.

A few hours later, a nurse and a CNA came back to help me go to the bathroom for the first time.  My left leg was fine, but for some reason my right leg was still completely numb.  They told me to stand up slowly and lock my knees to make it less likely for me to faint.  I did the best I could, but it was difficult, to say the least.

They gave me some instructions about what to do, and when I was finished, they helped me into a very large pad, which looked eerily similar to a diaper.

You guys.  I won’t go into detail, but the next few hours brought the most bleeding and the most pain I’ve ever experienced.  I’m sure it’s not this way with everyone, but it was worse than labor for me.  Every time I walked, every time I moved, I was in an immense amount of pain.  And it stayed that way for the better part of ten days.  No one ever warned me about that part.  I mean, I realize that it involves a fair amount of common sense, but really.  I feel like someone could have said something.  Or maybe they did and I just wasn’t paying attention.  Also likely.

But the upside of all of that is that it was made a thousand times easier by a simple glance at our new daughter.  My in-laws, Jeremy and Ali, came for a much-needed visit, and they even brought Thin Mints, Twix, and flowers.  Best in-laws ever.  And late that night, we watched the season premiere of Psych.  But to be honest, I was a little distracted by holding baby Ellie and marveling at how perfect she was.

She didn’t leave our room until that night, when we had them take her into the nursery so we could try to get some sleep before we went home.  It didn’t work.  Well, I guess it worked for Tim, but I think I got about 45 minutes of sleep total that night, between Ellie coming in for feedings and nurses coming in to check how I was doing.  The funny part is, as much as I don’t do well on little sleep, I really didn’t mind.  I just wanted to see her.

The next day was full of paperwork, more instructions from the nurses, and a visit from Ellie’s doctor.  I’d been able to take a shower the night before, and I took another one that day as well.  In our downtime, we snuggled with our baby, and since Tim liked to hog her, I even had some time to “get ready” for the day.

They told us that our insurance would allow us to stay for another day, but by the end, we were both ready to go home with our new daughter.  And my mom was coming in that afternoon, which made me even more eager to get home.  We strapped Ellie into her carseat, which made her look even tinier than her 6 pound, 9 ounce frame, and the CNA walked us out to the car.

I rode in the back with Ellie, and she slept the entire way home.  I switched between staring at her and out the car windows.  In the brief time we’d been in the hospital, the sun had come out and melted a good percentage of the snow.  I smiled.

Whether or not it was really spring, my spring had finally come.