My After Birth Experience

I don't know how much time had passed. Still, once the Doctors were finished putting me back together, they took my baby to the nursery to put her under a heating light and to make sure she was doing alright. I was moved off the table to a bed and wheeled to another room to recover for a bit before being taken to an actual room.

While I was in the, I'll call it the "in-between" room, my mother and husband were with me, and the fog in my head slowly started to clear up. It never completely went away, but it did clear up some. I apologize that it's been a year and a half, so I can't remember everything anymore. I don't remember how long we were in that room for, but I do remember being able to drink water. I think I was hungry too, but wasn't allowed food yet. I know I was hungry before the C-section, so I think I probably was hungry afterwards.

I could easily move my arms and head; basically from my torso up, I could feel normally and move normally. But I couldn't really feel anything below that. It felt numb. When I first got to that room, I remember lying there and trying to will feeling back into my legs. I know we were in that room for a few hours because the sun was up by the time I was wheeled to an actual room.

My mother stayed with me, and my husband stayed a while; I think he left around dinner time. He only got one week of paternity leave, so we agreed to wait to use it until the baby and I were home. During the day, we had a few visitors. Our daughter's godmother came by with some clothes for her. I'm 4' 11", and our daughter was born a month early, so she was tiny, and we didn't have preemie-sized clothes for her, which were too big on her at the time. A couple of my aunts and cousins came by, but because of the room we were in, and it hadn't been long since I had my C-section, only 2 people were allowed back at a time. So there was a bit of back-and-forth and rotating visitors haha!

I don't think I was allowed to eat a full meal yet, but I was really hungry, so the Nurses gave me some crackers to test and see how my stomach was doing. The crackers wouldn't settle, so I couldn't have a proper meal until the next day. However, having water was somewhat helpful. Unfortunately, that meant that my poor visitors had to hear and/or watch me puke into a puke bag. I don't know all my blood pressure readings because I couldn't see the monitor from where I was sitting.

I did try to breastfeed because I had started producing while I was pregnant, and I really wanted to breastfeed rather than buy formula if I was able to. Unfortunately, my baby didn't really latch on. So we had to use formula until the nurses got me a breast pump. I was still a little foggy or disoriented, but clearer than when I was on the table. Probably more at the level I was before my C-section. I think they kept me on the Magnesium drip for the entirety of my hospital stay. That first day, my baby was in and out of the room. I would have liked her to stay in the room with me the entire time, but on that first day, I wasn't able to care for her without assistance.

My stepdad couldn't be there the first day because he had to work, so my mom stayed with me the first night. The next morning I was wheeled to another room, and my mom stayed to get me settled and to figure out who was going to stay with me while she went to work. The idea of being left alone did not sit well with me. I worried about how I would take care of my child on my own. She had already been away from me longer than I would have liked. If I was alone, would she get to stay with me? Would I be able to take care of her right now? Would she have to stay in the nursery? Fortunately, a plan was made, and my stepdad would be staying with me the rest of the time.