First Night With Emily

I was woken up all night by nurses checking my temperature and blood pressure. Mario tried sleeping through the night but he wasn’t very comfortable. I woke him up at 8am so he could get ready for work. I felt a little afraid that he wouldn’t be there, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want him to leave for work worrying about me or Emily. I was hoping I’d woke him up with enough time so I could take a shower, but he was putting all our luggage away and we ran out of time. Mary had stopped by just in case he wanted her to take the Equinox but he said no, he’d take it and Adan would just drive his truck home.

Emily’s new nurse brought her back to the room just as they brought me my breakfast. Mary held her while I began to eat, but Emily was screaming her little lungs out. I asked for her and I felt so good; she’d stopped crying as soon as Mary set her in my arms, aww.

Mario had some quick breakfast (that wasn’t very good) and left. I needed to pee, but I also needed to eat, so, as painful as it was, I slid out of bed and put Emily in her bassinet so I could eat. She’d fallen asleep so she was fine. I think I was in more pain that day than I was the day before. I wanted to kick myself. I would have felt marvelous had I not gotten the tubal done. But oh well.

All the new moms were having a meeting at 10am. Now they have these meetings so everyone gets their discharge instructions at the same time. Emily’s nurse came and took her; he said she was getting the PKU done and would keep her at the nursery during the meeting. I grabbed all my things as fast as I could (which wasn’t fast at all) and took a shower. It was a challenge, since every little movement brought on a shock of pain, and it hurt to stand too long but I desperately needed a shower.

The meeting was at least 2 hours long. I was in so much pain the C-section girls were walking around better than I was. I was only half-listening most of the time since the cramping was so overwhelming. Once the speaker was done talking about breastfeeding and giving us our instructions we were escorted back to the nursery to pick up our babies.

Dr. C. came to check on Emily as I was going to bathroom again a while later. He said she was great; the tests came back just fine and my incision looked good so we could go home that day. Yes!!

They brought me my lunch, but I fed Emily first. The Social Security girl came by next and I signed the documents. The girl who takes the pictures for that Our365 picture company came by next. It took forever because Emily needed a diaper change and needed to be changed into a proper onesie since Mario had barely brought the diaper bag that morning and I hadn’t had a chance to change her. I was really disappointed with the whole thing. She used my pink polka-dot robe as the background and the prices for the tiny packages were insane. I got the smallest package and it came out to $41! She said she’d get them printed for me there at the hospital. I asked what the difference was if they mailed them to me like before; was the quality better? She said no, it was the same. I almost didn’t want to get them at all, but I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t get Emily’s when I got all the other kids’. Sure enough, when she brought them to me I wasn’t happy. I could have done a better job posing her myself and I could have gotten much better quality at Walgreens or Winkflash!

I finally got to eat lunch after all that, and it wasn’t very appetizing to begin with. I was glad they were generous with the bread, butter and fruit, or else I probably would have starved.

I started getting all my junk together while Emily slept in her bassinet, checking twice that I wasn’t forgetting anything. I read for a bit and got the okay to be discharged. Emily’s nurse came by a bit later and let me know she’d gotten the okay, too, so he was going to discharge her and bring me some gifts. I called Mario to let him know we’d be leaving soon. It was 2. He got there and started taking all our junk to the truck. A nice elderly volunteer gave Emily and me a ride in the wheelchair to the emergency room exit where Mario was waiting with the truck. He said, “Well it seems like this is your first baby.” I smiled up at him and said, “She’s actually our fourth!” He laughed and gave me a high-five :).

The ride home was…an uncomfortable one. I’d never been in that much pain on the ride home with a new baby with any of the other kids. Every turn, bump, dip, movement caused my back and belly to hurt. Mario was trying to drive as carefully as possible.

We got home before the kids were home from school. It was like walking into someone else’s house—Aide did an amazing job cleaning up!

Jaylen was most excited to see us. Eenan was happy to have us all home. Alaethia kept wanting to play with the baby. I really do think she thinks she’s another one of her baby dolls.

I set up camp in the living room, because the couches are super comfy and the bathroom’s right there. I fell asleep with Emily in my arms. It was the best sleep ever, however short-lived it was. Jorge, Elda and Brandon came by to see Emily. I was still sort of slipping in an out of consciousness, but was glad to see everyone.

Our bed is really high and there was no way I’d be able to get on it without ripping my incision open. Mario went straight to the bedroom and removed the box spring of the bed so that I could actually climb on it. It was sort of lopsided, so we decided he’d put the box spring back the next day.

My back and abdomen were still in a lot of pain. It was hell waddling back and forth from the bedroom to the bathroom and back. I almost didn’t want to go pee just to avoid having to move.

Emily woke up around 9pm and was just looking around with her little wondrous eyes till around 1am. I breastfed her for what seemed like years—I started wondering if maybe she was using my boob as a pacifier O_o. I watched TV till she fell asleep. She slept in her bassinet and woke up every 2 hours to eat. She’s such a happy baby! And a happy baby makes a happy mommy ;).