Recovery: Hospital Stay

In order for us to be able to move from the labor and delivery room to the postpartum room, I had to walk successfully to the restroom by myself. I thought this would be awhile, but only after an hour, I did it. Then they brought in the wheelchair and wheeled us into the room. By this time it was around 4am and poor Mr. Hunt was soooo tired. I don't blame him. I'm sure I was tired too, but I still had so much adrenalin, I wasn't even hungry anymore. All I could do was stare at Jane.
The postpartum room was smaller, but it was big enough for the three of us. Mr. Hunt's "bed" wasn't as nice as it was in the labor and delivery room which doesn't really make sense to me. You would think the better/bigger room would be the room that you have to stay in the longest. Instead of a pull out couch, all he got was a reclining chair.

Jane slept pretty much the first 24 hours. It was a big surprise if she ever opened her eyes. Sometimes she was stirring around and seemed to be awake, but never opened her eyes, then next thing I knew she was sleeping again. This made it hard to try to feed her too.

The nurse would come in every 2 hours or so to check on us. If we were sleeping, she would just look at us, peek at Jane, and then leave. I'm a light sleeper though so I always knew she was in there, but I would act like I was sleeping. She also wanted to make sure that I didn't need anymore water, meds, or something to eat.

Speaking of eating. I guess most new mothers forget to eat because the cafeteria would call our room every few hours to ask if we wanted something to eat. The food was AWFUL so I would just order snacks from them and Mr. Hunt would go out and bring me real food for my meals.

In this next picture you can see poor little Jane's "birth mark" on her head. Its bright red. Since then its gone away, but I was so worried that it hurt her.

Since we didn't have any family in town, our friends/neighbors took over as family. It was great. I could have never imagined having more help. We owe them BIG TIME.

They:

Cleaned our entire house (and by that I mean top to bottom....spotless)
Visited in the hospital and brought candy, drinks, and gifts for Jane
Took care of the dogs, our crazy dogs that they had never met before this
Cooked us dinner the evening we came home. Mr. Hunt loves Shanyn's enchiladas. That's what she cooked and they were waiting in the pre-heated oven for us when we got home

and much more!

We kept the dogs in their crates since we don't leave them out ever, but they have never had to spend the night in their crate before. I was worried sick about them the entire time. Sure enough, Hannah had a breakdown and she threw up and pooped in her crate the first night. It was a special surprise for Shanyn the next morning (which was also the first time she had ever seen them). Good thing Mr. Hunt had perfect timing because he went home while Jane and I took a nap to check on them. When he got home, she was there trying to clean it all up. Mr. Hunt took over.
I bet none of you have neighbors like that do you?

Anytime she ever opened her eyes, I grabbed the camera! It was a rare occasion.

I actually enjoyed myself at the hospital. I just laid in the bed, watched TV, slept, stared at Jane, and was waited on hand and foot. All the while I was still worried about my fur babies. I did have to get a few stitches, but whatever medicine they gave me worked really well. I knew I was in pain though because I could tell when the meds were wearing off. I would just call the nurse and she would bring me more meds. Besides that, I was feeling pretty great to be honest. Better than I thought I would. People also always told me how tired I would be after she was born. Both right after and also the first few months, but to be honest, I felt and still feel like a new woman. This tired has nothing on the tired I was feeling at the end of my pregnancy. I felt so much more refreshed, and I still do. Sure I'm tired, but not even close to what it was like while still pregnant.

I really wanted to leave so that I could see my dogs and let them be out of the crate for more than 30 minutes at a time so I begged my nurse to let us leave after being in the postpartum room for about 24 hours. She made me a deal that if Jane passed her jaundice test, I passed my test, and if we got a pediatrician appointment the next day, then she would let us leave.
Finally we all passed and we got the appointment and we were ready to finally leave.

The weather in Texas had been pretty warm. I wore capris and a three quarter length top to the hospital and I packed warm weather clothes for Jane. Just our luck though, the night we left it was FREEZING. We had to pack on different clothes and make sure Jane was covered up good. Mr. Hunt heated the car for awhile before we got in too.

Mr. Hunt made sure to take a picture of his sleeping chair so that he could remember how uncomfortable he was! Although it didn't deprive him of any sleep since he was so tired anyway.

WE FINALLY WERE HOME!

Looking back, if it weren't for worrying about my dogs, I would have stayed int he hospital as long as they let us. I'm sure Mr. Hunt doesn't feel that way since he didn't really have a nice bed or anything, but I sure did. 

Also the fact that I just laid there the entire time and was waited on for EVERYTHING, it was GREAT. When we got home, Mr. Hunt still waited on me, but he also had to go back to work for a few hours here and there and all of the sudden I had to get up and get things on my own all while holding Jane or making sure she was content somewhere. It wasn't too different, but it was definitely noticed. 

We are also SO THANKFUL for our small group. The first night we came home we had enchiladas in the oven (like I mentioned before). Second night another couple, the Campbell's brought us BBQ, fries, and fruit. The third night the Herries brought us food from a great restaurant here in Austin called Rudy's. Everything was SO GOOD and YUMMY. It was so well appreciated. They also all brought Jane some gifts. How sweet are they all? I didn't realize how helpful it is for people to bring you food until we we on our own a few days before my parents arrived. We ended up either ordering for delivery or eating fast food which is fine, but it was nice having some real food those first few days. We love each and every one of our small group members. They are all so thoughtful and they love Jane which makes us happy.

I know most people hate being in a hospital. This was the first time I ever had to be a patient in a hospital so I have never had prior experience. I didn't really feel like I was in a hospital though, besides the hospital bed. I also think because I was in the woman's ward, I didn't feel like I was near a bunch of sick and sad people. That probably would have made it worse if I were. Next baby, I may stay as long as they let us. That is if we get good nurses again. 

Love,

Jennifer