Thursday, June 4, 2009

Sorry this has to be quick. I had Helen by c-secton on May 22nd at 1:58 a.m. after laboring for 48 hours. She is still in the special care nursery. We are both fine, but she had an infection in her blood (they have been treating her with iv antibiotics since then), and I had some complications with my surgery. My incision burst open and I have/had about 3 liters of fluid in my stomach. The open incision has to be packed twice daily for 4-6 weeks so that it can drain. Tony does it. He has been great. He not only cleans and packs my wound, but figured out a way to do it so that it hurts less. He even fed me when I was too out of it and in pain at the beginning to feed myself. I basically didn't sleep at all for almost a week and started to hallucinate. The doctors didn't realize that all the pain was coming from the fluid putting pressure on the incision. My recovery has been extremely difficult.

I have barely gotten to see Helen in two weeks...just a small visit everyday. She comes home on Friday evening, and I am still rushing to get things ready for her. I was never able to establish breastfeeding because of this. I use an electric pump that I rented from the hospital every three hours around the clock. I never knew it was possible to be this exhausted. I'm going to try straight forward breastfeeding once she comes home, but I'm not getting my hopes up. It would be soooo much more convenient than the pumping/storing/cleaning everything etc.

Bottom line though, Helen is fine. Better than fine. She was born weighing 6 lbs. 5 oz. at 5 1/2 weeks premature. It took her four minutes to breathe on her own though. I can't even explain what it was like lying on that table waiting ti hear her cry. Any future births will have to be by cesarean because of the incision they used...so yeah, I'm thinkin one will be plenty. She's a doll. Oh, and has auburn hair.

I'll update when I can.

Angie