Baby Oren is Here- Part 4

Visitors, Going Home & Recovery

We are incredibly blessed... we were showered with so much love from friends and family at the hospital. Starting Tuesday morning, the day after Evangeline was born, we had a non-stop flood of visitors until the day we left. It was absolutely wonderful! The nurses commented on the crazy amount of visitors for one family. The excitement from our friends and family on our newest arrival was such an encouragement to us. We even had a very special friend (Brian Solomon) drive over 2 hours early Tuesday morning to meet Evie and pray for her. What a special time for us. It meant so much to see him walk through our door that morning. It spoke such volumes to us. Thanks Brian. You made our day!

Going Home!

Evie was born Monday, March 28th and we were discharged from the hospital on Thursday, March 31st. We were definitely ready to go get Mekonen and get settled in back at home. I just could not wait to see my boy and couldn't wait for us to reconnect. It took us all morning to get paperwork done and get all our stuff together. Our car was packed!!! All I could think was, "Wow. And we only have two kids!" Mekonen was extremely excited to climb into the backseat and be headed home. He got in, and peered over the side of Evie's carseat and said, "Baby Evie!!" It was so cute.

Evie in her going home outfit. She looks a little worried about joining our family. Haha. 

Mommy putting Evie in her carseat. Wow. I remember when we first put Mekonen in this carseat at the Indy airport. It was hard getting Evie in it because she is just so tiny. I was afraid I was going to break her arms. 

Awww....ready to go home!!! (And we think she looks like her Grandma Magz in this picture). 

Recovery

Recovery has been good and bad all at the same time. Well into the 2nd day at the hospital I found out you had to actually ASK for pain medication. What?? And why on earth didn't anyone tell me! Apparently, once the pain meds are not administered via IV, you have to ask for them. I didn't know this. It didn't don on anyone to tell me until they saw me bawling on the side of the bed while Jon literally picked me up out of it because I couldn't move. Argh. Moving to new positions was painful. Once I got in a position, the pain would be okay. But if I stood up, or sat back down after standing, it was quite painful. Trying to roll over in bed was the worst. After just a few days, the belly pain wasn't too bad and was manageable. But it was the incision that gave me the worst time. 

Before leaving the hospital, my doctor said it looked like my incision was getting infected so she gave me an antibiotic. Over the weekend, my incision became extremely red and was raised quite a bit (you could see it through my clothing). I called the maternity center Sunday and asked about it and they told me to call the on-call doctor right away. Since I was on an antibiotic she said I would be okay until the morning and then I needed to get to the doctor the next morning. So I went. My doctor ended up switching my antibiotic and wanted me to come back in a couple days. She said something at that appointment about draining it, but that we didn't need to (which I was glad for). But over the next two days it got worse, and I was back. My doctor took one look at it and said, "Please tell me you took pain meds before you came." Then, I was nervous! I told her yes and she said, "Ok. good because we couldn't do this without it." She proceeded to re-open my incision and drain it. No numbing medicine or anything. Um yeah. That weekend it still wasn't getting any better. Next appointment we found out that I had staph infection (which I guess can be extremely dangerous). Then they reopened the incision again and drained it again. Ugh. Twice? Seriously? And the second time I hadn't take my pain medication quite so close to appointment time.

All that to say, the incision has been difficult, but the rest of the c-section pain/recovery has been good. Every day it got better and better, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The hardest part is not being able to lift things and not being able to get back into working out yet. The doctor said pretty much anything heavier than Evie is too much. This was especially difficult for Mekonen who keeps wanting me to pick him up. Jon has been wonderful. Doing so much around the house and with the kids, all while taking care of me. What a great guy! Jon's mom came over everyday the first week I was home and was a tremendous help with Mekonen and driving me back and forth to the doctor's. Then the following week my parents came and my mom was able to stay for the next week. What a huge help and blessing! I was extremely sad to see her leave this past Sunday. Mekonen keeps asking, "Grandma come over???"  We also had a pretty consistent flow of visitors and offers for help from so many friends. So thanks to everyone!!