One Too Many Hospital Stays

This is my long epistle of how everything went down. My first hospital stay was worth every minute because I was blessed with a very adorable little girl. The second hospital stay was very difficult for me and I have decided that I never want to go to a hospital again unless I am having another baby.

Nate and I could not wait for the day that our little girl was born. Once her due date came we expected something to happen each day but she seemed quite content. I was 11 days overdue and went in for my weekly check up. I was finally told that I was going to be induced. I had waited for this moment for a long time but wasn't quite sure what to expect. My appointment was in the morning and my parent got to the Smith home at about 5 and I called the hospital at 5:30 to see if I could come in. They told me to call again at 7:30. I was trying not to get my hopes up but was so excited that it might be the day that I have a baby. My parent, Nate, and I walked around for a while and we had dinner and I called the hospital again and they said I could come! I was super excited and Nate and I were running around getting everything ready and I almost forgot my purse but we made it out the door with everything that we needed. I was admitted at about 8 pm. This first night was a very long night. Three times throughout the night they inserted a pill in my cervix to see if it would soften it and start my contractions. My belly was also hooked up to monitors all night so that the baby's heart rate could be monitored. It difficult to sleep with the noise of the monitors and also I could only stay on a certain side when hooked up. After one round they had me walk around the hospital and then take a bubble bath in the tub. That was awesome. The nurse put a ton of bubble in though so I had to keep moving the bubbles around so that they wouldn't overflow and get everywhere.

Sometime Thursday morning they decided to break my water. That was one of the most painful thing I have been through. The contractions starting coming really hard. I had to really concentrate through each one and could not wait until they gave me the green light to get the epidural. In a very short amount of time I dilated from a 2 to a 6 and the baby's heart rate would drop after each contraction. The amaxing thing was that Nate and I never felt worried and knew that everything would be okay. I finally got an epidural which the first round made my legs numb but I could still feel the contractions which wasn't fun. I pushed my way through them and Nate was there helping. My body was shaking uncontrollably and I had to have oxygen. They continuted to watch baby's heart rate and decided it would be best to have a C section. I got another dose of the epidural which was AMAZING. I was so numb and couldn't feel a thing. They hooked some monitors onto the baby's head and watched her a little more and I was dilated to an 8. Her heart rate was doing a little better but I was quite a bit overdue they weren't sure if she would fit through. So I got all prepped for the C section as did Nate and all the nurses kept telling us that they were amazed at how calm we were with what was going on. Nate and I both felt very strong that everything was going to be just fine. It was quite the experience being in the operating room with the huge lights. It was weird feeling my body being tugged and pulled around but not feeling a thing. The worst part of it all was when the doctors pushed on my ribs to get the baby out. It felt like they were going to break my ribs and it also made it very hard to breathe. They got Paige out of me in about 13 minutes. They were all joking about how fast my doctor was. Once I knew she was out I waited for that moment to hear her cry. It was amazing to hear her for the first time. Nate got to go over and see her and brought her over to me so that I could see our sweet girl for the first time. They wheeled me back to my room with Paige and Nate following behind. It was so sweet to watch her being weighed and measured and to see her cute little feet and just see this sweet spirit and Nate and I created.

The next few days were tiring but worth it. We had lots of visitors, Paige got her bath and shots which was hard for me to watch, Nate changed all her diapers while at the hospital, and it was nice to just be together as a new family.

The next week was filled with not quite as much sleep as we were used to, poopy diapers, adjusting to breast feeding, adjusting to parenthood, recovery from surgery, and loving this little girl with all our hearts.

Paige was about 1 week old when I started having this pain on my side. At first I thought I had pulled a muscle. The pain increased over the next few days and on Monday I was in enough pain that I decided to go to my doctor. I thought maybe it was something to do with the C section. My doctor felt around and told me to go to the emergency room if my pain increased and I got a fever or was vomitting. He was afraid that I may have appendicitis. Tuesday morning I woke up in a lot of pain. I could hardly walk, was very dizzy, and had a fever of 101. We went to the emergency room and checked in about 1:30. I sat in a room for many hours until I could get a CT scan done of my stomach area. The hardest part was of course the pain but also they wouldn't let me drink anything so I was super thirsty. I finally got the scan done and they decided to admit me to the hospital and watch what was going on. My appendix looked fine but I had some inflammation in the top part of my colon. I got wheeled to my room, hooked up to an IV, and got my blood drawn.
Tuesday night was a very long night. I got maybe one hour of sleep, got my blood drawn a few times, and had to deal with the IV in my arm. I also had a fever of 103 and would sweat and then chills. It was a rough night and then Wednesday was an even harder day. I was told that a GI doctor would come and see me during the day because the other doctors didn't want to do anything like maybe a colonoscopy unless this doctor said so. This doctor didn't show up until 11:30 that night. It was a very frustrating and emotional day waiting for this doctor and having people telling me one thing but it not happening. It didn't help that I hadn't eaten since Tuesday morning and they wouldm't let me eat and only have sips of water if needed in case I had to have surgery. Thursday was better since the doctors came and talked to me more throughout the day so that I felt like I was being taken care of. There were about three or four different doctors trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with me. I was a mystery case to them. They ruled out appendicitis because by this time if there was a problem it should have burst. They decided I had a really bad infection and kept fluids and anitbiotics going through my IV with my blood being drawn daily to be sure that my white blood cell count was continuing to get back to normal. Thursday I was allowed a clear liquid diet for parts of the day but that night they took it off again in case I had to have surgery still. It was difficult not knowing what was exactly going on. I kind of wanted them to just do the surgery so they would know for sure. Friday I was finally told I could eat because I was continuing to make progress and the anitobiotis seemed to be working. They didn't want to do surgery because that would be one more thing that my body would have to work on healing and deal with. I was so ready to go home by then but they kept me until Saturday afternoon to be sure I didn't relapse and that food would stay down.

This is one of my first "real" meals that wasn't liquid.
Every day for about three hours my little angel came to visit me. It was one of the best parts of my day. It was also difficult because I couldn't hold her too long because it would cause pain but I enjoyed feeding her and napping with when I could. I am so grateful for Nate's parents and taking care of our little girl as we went through this whole process. I don't know what we would have done without them. I know Paige was well taken care of and I am so grateful for the support of family. I am also so grateful for Nate. He would sit with me at the hospital all day and deal with my tears, my emotional break downs, and would just sit there with me even if I wasn't talking much. His prescence meant so much to me. I am the luckiest girl ever to have such an amazing husband.

I am so grateful to be home and not in a hospital. The recovery process has been difficult. I have never had a surgery in my life and am not used to having such a long recovery process. I have to tell myself every day that there will be one day when I will feel 100% normal again. I cannot wait for that day! I take each day at a time and enjoy time with family. We are moving back to Idaho this week and that will be another whole adventure in itself. I decided that I will defer the semester so that I can fully recover and not cause more stress to my body and also so I can spend more time with Paige. These last few weeks have been hard on me because I can't do all that I would like to as a mother but each day I am getting better and one day this will be a thing of the past and an experience to be learned from.