Alison's story!!

Well, at least I am going to try to tell the story. I haven't had too much computer time these last two days due to an extremely hungry infant!

Okay, so Sunday, Chris and I went to Kobe for dinner and I gorged on yummy yummy Japanese steakhouse food. I ate it ALL! Then we headed home and I finished packing for the hospital. Monday morning, after a night of really not sleeping too much due to nerves, we headed for the hospital around 6:30am or so. We got there, got registered and eventually asked to come back to the prep room. We had to call our parents to tell them to hold off on coming to the hospital because no one would really get to see me until I got to my room around noon. I changed into the robe and the most adorable hair net (heehee). I laid down on the bed and the nurse started monitoring Alison and took my history. After doing all the pre-op, we waited just a little bit for the OR to open up. They had had an emergency section so we were pushed back just about ten minutes or so. The anesthesiologist came in and told me that instead of a normal epidural, they were going to do a spinal block on me to completely numb me. I walked into the OR and got up on the torture device, oh I mean the operating table. They did the block and immediately, my legs felt like warm water was being poured down them. It was the strangest feeling! I'm sure it felt similar last time, but I didn't remember it. They laid me down and set up the drape. It couldn't have been more than five minutes when they were then poking me to make sure I was numb. I was, so they brought Chris into the OR. The drape at GBMC was MUCH lower than at St. Joe's so Chris kept his head right down by my head so he couldn't see anything on the other side. The surgery itself wasn't bad. I was nervous, but it wasn't bad. They started everything at 9:15am and at 9:38, we heard the sweetest sound a mother ever can hear. The doctor held Alison up so I could see her and then the nurses took her to get cleaned up.

Chris was called over and he got to cut the cord this time since it wasn't an emergency and he got to put on her first diaper. They weighed her and Chris brought the camera over to me so I could see the pictures. They finished up the surgery and the tubal on me as Chris and Alison went to the recovery room to wait for me. The doctor complimented me on my anatomy. Yeah...weird!

While in recovery, Chris brought back my parents one at a time to see me. After a while of them monitoring me, they finally wheeled me back to my home for the next few days. I was starting to feel weird then but just thought it was the drugs. Chris' parents came back then along with my parents and Carter. The nursery took Alison for her evaluation and ended up having her for like two hours! But during that time, I got the full side effects from the spinal block. I got these waves of nausea and would retch. Which really didn't feel too good after the numbness started going away. Over the next day and a half, I would get these bouts along with EXTREME itchiness. Ugh, it was horrible! But having Alison to hold was worth it all.

From the get-go, Ali was a great nurser. She latched well and seemed to get the whole thing. Tuesday was a good day after some of the side effects started to wear off. Then, Tuesday night, the nurse brought Alison back from her nightly evaluation. She had lost 8.2% in weight. That just depressed me so much. I knew she would lose some, but I really was hoping it wouldn't be enough to worry about. I lost it. I think then everything just crashed down on me. The stress of the surgery, the pain, and now the fact that my baby was losing weight. I hadn't stayed ontop of my pain all day and by the evening was in excruciating pain. Chris had been out doing something and came back to me in tears. The night nurse came in and saw the breakdown I was having. She got me the full amount of pain meds and suggested to me to send Alison to the nursery for the night. They would supplement her for the night and I could get some much needed sleep. After debating it, I decided it needed to happen. And after another crying round, I went to sleep. I woke up feeling a lot better and called to bring my baby back to me. We decided to try doing the supplementing through the syringe while she was nursing just to get her to stay at me longer. I also started pumping. Wednesday was better and it didn't hurt AS much to get up to walk around. Thursday was even better and I probably could have gone home. But Chris had to go into work and I didn't know what time he would be back, so we stayed until Friday.

Overall, it was a stressful and painful experience, but my daughter is the sweetest thing ever! Carter is doing great with her and is going to be a great big brother. The nursing is going much better. I am trying not to stress about it because that doesn't help things along at all. Yesterday and today she has been cluster feeding and I feel that my milk is finally coming in. We'll see on Tuesday if she's gaining or losing weight. I nurse her as much as I can and if she's still hungry after me nursing her more than twice in an hour, we give her a bit of formula. I'm trying to hold the formula until I absolutely cannot take anymore nursing for a bit. So, hopefully, in a few days we will be on a good schedule and she will be getting at least most of her milk from me.

I'm sure there will be more updates about these first few weeks, but right now, it's time for me to wrap this up. I have to pump and then rest a bit. It's been a long day. I'll update again when I get a chance! But as most moms know...these first few days are always so hectic.