What a Ride (Part II: Recovery & Discovery)

It's been four weeks already and I can't even believe it. I go back to work in another week and a half and I'll probably be back to a normal blogging schedule then. It's weird that all of the sudden my whole life is consumed by someone who doesn't even weigh ten pounds (well, he might by now, I'm not sure). If he naps long enough I may be able to get through this post as promised.

Warning: May contain more information than some of you may want to read.

I said in my last entry that the labor wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be. Well, the recovery has been A LOT more difficult than I thought it would be. I guess I hadn't given much thought to what would happen after the delivery. I was just worried about making it through that part.

Once the epidural wore off late Thursday morning I was in a lot of pain. Every muscle in my body seemed to hurt. Labor is quite the workout. I tore so they had to stitch me up and I got hemorrhoids from all that pushing so I had a really hard time sitting for quite awhile. It's still not as easy as it was before but it's gotten a lot better than it was that first week. It's not all bad though. It was really weird not to feel nauseated when I woke up in the morning. Or have heartburn every time I laid down. And I've lost 20 lbs already and I think most of it was just from the delivery. I'm back in my pre-pregnancy jeans although they're not my skinny pre-pregnancy jeans. I can lay on my stomach now without thinking I'm going to squish the baby. I had forgotten what it was like not to be pregnant.

Baby J slept almost constantly the whole time we were in the hospital which made trying to nurse very difficult. Especially when the nurses just kept him in the nursery because he was so cute they just wanted to play with him. Um, ok, but he still needs to eat. The nursing thing never panned out so we just put him on formula which is SO much easier, albeit more expensive and not quite as good for him but what can you do?

Taking care of Baby J has been easier for the most part than I had envisioned. He's a very good baby. Bronson stopped by for a visit and asked if he ever cries because J didn't cry the whole time he was over. He really doesn't cry that much. And when he does it can usually be resolved by feeding him, changing him, or picking him up. He's not what you'd term a "colicky" baby. It's definitely still a full-time job taking care of him though. He sleeps really well at night - usually for 4-5 hours at a time - but not so much during the day so it's hard to get much housework done. I definitely could never work from home. I've been trying to do some stuff for work while I'm on leave but I'm lucky if I get an hour a day done. And forget checking my email or other peoples' blogs! I'll have plenty to read when I go back to work:) Mostly we just sit around and play. And I've watched way more daytime television than I like to admit.

What a Ride (Part I: Labor)

Has it really been two weeks already? As you can probably imagine, life has been pretty crazy for the last little while. I've been meaning to update for about a week but every time I try, Baby J wakes up from his nap or something else is going on. We'll see if I can get through a whole post today... I'll probably have to do installments since I have so much to write.

I went to the dr on the 29th and I still wasn't progressing so she was for sure going to induce me. I was supposed to go to the hospital Wednesday night to get started but around 2 Wednesday morning my water broke. I told Hubby that we needed to go to the hospital but he was sleeping and thought it was a dream. I finally got him awake and we got everything ready to go. We got to the hospital around 3 am and almost immediately I started having contractions. They weren't too bad at first. They hooked me up to the fetal monitors and all that jazz and we pretty much just had to sit around and wait. We weren't really tired anymore and there is absolutely nothing on tv (even cable) that early in the morning. So it was pretty boring. They started me on pitosin around 10 am and my contractions got steadily worse until about 7 hours in I decided I was done sucking it up and was ready for an epidural.

I had been a little worried about getting an epidural but it really wasn't bad. Part of it was probably that I couldn't see what was happening, and the other part was that I was so focused on just getthing through the contractions that I really couldn't think about what the anesthesiologist was doing. But it was definitely the right choice. I have no problem paying that man for his services! Once the epidural kicked in I couldn't feel a thing. Which is good because I was in labor for 15 more hours! It just got really boring sitting there waiting for the baby to come. I watched way too much television and family members stopped in to see us. It really wasn't at all like I had thought it would be. It was really a lot easier than I imagined (thanks to the wonderful drugs!). The worst part is that I wasn't allowed to eat anything besides ice chips and I was absolutely starving! I just had to sit around and wait for my cervix to dilate to a 10. Around midnight Thursday morning that finally happened and the pushing started. And at 12:48 that morning Baby J was born.

Hubby got to watch the whole thing but I didn't want to see it! He got to cut the umbilical cord too and he was the first one to hold our baby. As for me, I was just exhausted. It had been a really REALLY long day. But at least I finally got to eat! Oh yeah, and hold my new little baby boy:)

Up Next - Part 2: Recovery and Discovery

Link to Baby Watts

The baby has arrived, to see his website go to: http://www.jaromwatts.blogspot.com