Second C-Section Recovery

I am relieved to say that my c-section recovery this time around has been a complete 180 degree difference than my first one with Ellie. I would even go so far to say that I would have another baby if I could guarantee to have this same recovery. We shall see :-)

My biggest concern leading up to Owen's delivery was my limited amount of mobility afterwards. I remember, after having Ellie, feeling so uncomfortable for the first 2 weeks, unable to do anything for myself. Unable to move without wanting to cry. Unable to imagine feeling good and moving without pain. and unable to go without pain medications.

After Owen was delivered, I spent that first day in bed. By the next morning, they removed my catheter, and had me get up to stand. Ryan sat close by watching as 2 nurses helped move my legs into place over the bed in order to stand up for the first time. He could not even believe his eyes! I was basically doing it all by myself. (TMI, but important to know if you are having a c-section), they want you to go to the bathroom 3 times to measure for blood loss and after that, they leave you be to use the bathroom by yourself. I was able to walk to the bathroom, pretty easily, with little help from the nurses. The hardest, obviously, was standing up after being in a sitting position. But once I got up and moving, I was already feeling better. Ryan kept reminding me how immobile I was after having Ellie. And reading back through my recovery blog post, I believe him. I was a total wreck.

The day we left to go home, I showered unassisted, got dressed, and felt pretty darn good. Granted, I was still taking Percocet and ibuprofen round the clock, but for the most part, my pain was pretty minimal. When we got home, I was definitely walking slowly, but I was standing almost completely straight, unlike with Ellie, I was a hunchback for at least the first week. My mom even commented how small my belly was getting with each passing day, and I know it is because I was up and moving pretty immediately after surgery.

What was wonderful this time around was the hospital provides a free service of a home visit from a nurse to remove my staples, check up on me, and weigh and measure Owen. The nurse came 5 days after my c-section, and I was getting so anxious about her visit. She was the sweetest nurse, but the thought of getting my staples removed was making me very nervous. The procedure was so quick and virtually painless. And after getting them taken out, I was feeling even better! I could not believe it. Owen had dropped from his birth weight of 9.7 to 8.12 in the hospital, and when the nurse weighed him, we were all excited to see 9.4 on the scale! I was so proud of him, and my milk supply. She also measured him and thats when we realized the nurses in the hospital measured him wrong. They had him at 20.5 inches, but when the home nurse weighed him, she had him at 22 inches! That is way different, and definitely more accurate! Look at those long skinny leggies!

This is a very long winded explanation of my c-section recovery, but I am sitting here at almost 3 weeks post-partum, completely bewildered how good I feel. It truly is a miracle because the girls keep me so physically busy during the day with shuttling to and from Brinley's preschool, chasing Ellie around the house, all while keeping up with the house duties and cooking. 

I had an amazing doctor, who is also a surgeon, and I've heard your recovery also depends on the anesthesiologist. I'm positive that with those two, on top of their game, helped me recovery as fast as I did. I am so grateful! There is nothing more discouraging after having a baby than when your body just feels broken. I felt broken after having Brinley, even as a vaginal birth. I felt terrible for weeks after having Ellie. And this time, my body has absolutely bounced back so quickly and we (Ryan and I) are so surprised and grateful. 

After my Mom left, I went from virtually no heavy lifting, to too much heavy lifting. My incision has been more tender, my back has been more sore, and unfortunately, the bleeding has picked up again. I am still doing a lot of resting (aka tv watching on the couch) because I know my body needs it and have lots of layers underneath my skin to heal. It is so hard to rest when you have to be somewhere. I wish we could just quit the last month of school so I could avoid having to do anymore driving, but Brinley loves school. Can't take that away from her. I am doing my best to remember that I just had major surgery 3 weeks ago and I need to sloooooooooow doooooooown. 

Owen at 2 Weeks

Owen, aka puppy, baby deer, skinny leggies.

When we got home from the hospital, I was pretty much still bed bound in our bedroom. I was shocked how good I was feeling, all things considered. My c-section recovery will be in a different post :-) Thankfully, my mom was still with us for another week to help ease me into being a mom of 3 and helping take care of all of us. The girls had so much fun with Grandma. My favorite story from my mom was when we were still in the hospital, and she went to get Ellie after a nap, and Ellie looked up at her and said, "Oh, it's you." haha We had a good laugh. Ellie is such a funny girl.

Life with a newborn is kind of a roller coaster. The first two nights we were home, Owen only woke up once. We were tooootally spoiled. Now that he is spending more time awake, he is on a pretty consistent 2 hour nursing schedule and sleeping 2-3 hour stretches at night. His biggest hurdle is the grunting. Hours of grunting at night sometimes! But then when his diaper blows, he sleeps like a champ. Nursing has been going great, and my milk has really regulated with little to no engorgement. Thank goodness! 

We are all pretty infatuated by little Owen. The girls are doing better every day to be careful around him and use their quiet voices when he's trying to sleep (especially if he hasn't taken a nap all morning!). Brinley loves to help and loves to hold him. She is my little shadow when I'm nursing Owen, or changing his diaper, or just holding. I've caught her, and Ellie, a few times pretend to nurse their baby dolls too and it is really funny/cute to see. 

My mom was such a huge help. I really can't put into words how amazing it was for her to be here again to welcome another one of our babies. She has such a calming spirit about her. She really helped me mellow out, especially when all I wanted to do was yell or cry or lock myself in our bedroom and never come out. It is extremely challenging to take care of all these little people, while still recovering yourself from major surgery, so having her here for that additional week was so important! She kept commenting on how relaxed I was being, even when it was complete chaos. Now that she's gone, I've felt myself get pretty tense throughout the day. Ellie makes it challenging because of how spazzy she can be around Owen, and Brinley makes it challenging with her constant questions and "mom, play with me now" demands. They are both doing better this week at realizing that Mom can't be there all the time to play with you every second.

Mister Owen has such a sweet spirit about him. He is very calm and peaceful. Rarely cries. Sometimes puts himself to sleep for naps when I put him in his bed. Loves to nurse. Loves watching and being around his sisters. Loves to wiggle out of his swaddles. and I can only guess, but loves being apart of our wild family :-)

The Girls Visit The Hopsital

It was a short visit, but it was such an exciting time for everyone when they walked into our room. Brinley was the first to see Owen. She couldn't even believe Owen was real. She just could not believe it!! Her baby brother was finally here and she could hold him and kiss him as much as she wanted. Her face! Her smile! I am so thankful Ryan went camera crazy because this moment was so special!

So while Brinley was snuggling baby Owen, Ellie sat with me and asked about every single needle, and bandaid, and mark on my body. She is always so concerned about peoples boo-boo's and why I had to get them. Love her tender heart. She kissed my IV at least 10 times during this talk because she kept saying, "Mama got hurt? Is mama ok??" So precious.

That's the face of a proud big sister! Brinley is so obsessed with him, and will drop anything to help with getting a burp cloth or the boppy or just about anything! Her favorite thing is to hold Owen and count his fingers and toes over and over and over again.

Next up, Ellie's turn holding Owen. This made me a bit more nervous, but she did a great job! Ellie just wanted to kiss and hug him every 5 seconds, but her gentleness wasn't exactly on point yet so I was getting a bit anxious having her around. She was also getting a bit crazy running around my bed at this point and all I could think about was some tube getting ripped from my body. Like I said, it was a short visit :-)

this girl right here ^^ she's my little buddy. 

After having Owen, and then having the girls come visit the hospital, Brinley looked and felt like a 10 year old, and Ellie looked and felt like a 5 year old. Their little bodies doubled in size overnight and it makes me a bit sad!! Ellie was always my squishy little baby, but now she is nearing 3 years old and not so much a baby anymore! And then there's Brinley, who seems so advanced for her age and informs me daily of things I don't know. She is so brilliant. She also has a sweet tender heart that would do anything for the people she loves.

Then Grandma FINALLY had her chance to hold baby Owen. That patient grandma :-) We made a deal that the two nights we were in the hospital, for Ryan to put the girls to bed and my mom stay at the hospital with me for a couple of hours to keep me company and bond with Owen. It was also good for the girls to have Daddy help with bath and getting them to bed each night. We had so much fun catching up and basking in his newborn glory. There is just something so special about my mom being with me after having my babies. Couldn't do it without her. 

Lots of love!

Baby Owen

I never really know where to begin when it comes to a birth story. So, lets just jump right in, shall we?

Owen Steele Briggs

April 22, 2015

7:56am

9 lbs, 7 oz.

22 inches

So, no new news here, but Owen (yep, that's the name we picked for him!) was a planned scheduled c-section. Since about 36/37 weeks, I had been contracting pretty consistently and hard, but they never got stronger, or by the time I jumped into the bath for a little soak, they went away. And as much as I wanted to be done being pregnant, I wanted a big healthy baby that was almost 40 weeks and more importantly, I needed my mom here. Scheduled c-sections are nice because it really takes the pressure off what to do with your other kids and not having to play the "is this real labor?" game when you're nearing your due date.

So on Wednesday the 22nd, we had our scheduled day. Surgery was planned for 7:30am and so we had to be at the hospital by 6am. We kissed the girls goodbye one more time while they were sleeping and left the house while it was quiet and dark.

We checked in right away and the nurses quickly got my IV (two tries...I wanted to punch the woman!) and of course, just like when I was waiting for a c-section with Ellie, I was having hard contractions the entire time before. We had a good hour to wait before the surgery began, so Ryan and I just chatted and laughed about the fact that we were having a 3rd kid and how crazy life has been for us lately.

Before we knew it, I was walking down to the OR to get prepped for surgery. Ryan was given a little bundle of scrubs to wear but couldn't come back to the OR until I had my spinal and were basically starting the surgery.

The spinal always stresses me out! We have a doctor anesthesiologist friend who actually told his other doctor friends that we were supposed to get the VIP treatment (whatever that is supposed to mean when you're getting a huge shot down your spine), but it really took the edge off the whole experience. They came into the room saying, you're our special patient this morning since you know Joe! The lady administering the spinal was hilarious. The entire time, she talked. It bothered me during the c-section, but looking back, she kept me so distracted I think it helped.

I was laying flat on the table, arms out wide, staring at a blue curtain. Ryan came in right as they were getting started and sat on my left side holding my hand. I was feeling really good up until they were pulling Owen out. I mean, my belly was ginormous. No doubt he was going to be a big boy. They were really pulling and tugging and I was not feeling too good. The doctors assistant was pushing from the top of my uterus and that felt like someone sitting on my chest because I could barely breathe. The nurses are so insane, she goes, "do you want to see him get pulled out?" UM, NO THANKS! I'd rather not.

Ryan went right over to the station where Owen was. He came out crying so loud and cute! It felt like an eternity before I could actually see him, but it was probably only 5 minutes. But, 5 minutes! I was getting majorly annoyed because I kept asking to see him but no one was listening to me and they were all over by him oooing and ahhing. Ryan came over to my head a few times telling me about how cute he was, but he didn't have Owen with him! With Ellie, they had the baby station perpendicular to me, so all I had to do was look over and I saw her little body and see what they were doing to her. Owen must have been at the other end of the room because I could not see anything at all (probably my only complaint about the entire surgery). They finally brought him over and held him close to my face and I kissed him a few times. I knew he was going to be over 9 pounds because when they placed him on my chest, I could not breathe. We got a few pictures and then they took him away because his blood sugar levels were low. I didn't mind it because the end of my surgery was not very comfortable. The doctors assistant misplaced an instrument during the surgery and they could not find it for the life of them. So of course, they searched my body (yuck!!!) and then finally brought in the radiologist and assistant to give me an emergency x-ray to see if it was inside me. Thankfully, it was not and they closed me up quickly and everything was fine.

Because Owen's blood sugar levels dropped so drastically after he came out, they had to take him into the NICU for an hour and give him a bottle of formula. Ryan kept trying to be my voice that I didn't want him to have any formula, but his levels were so low they have to administer formula immediately regardless. Plus, my surgery went longer than expected and I couldn't argue with them about it.

They finally brought him in and I was able to cuddle him and nurse him in recovery. After about an hour and a half, we went up to our room and got settled in. When you have a c-section, they keep you bed-bound for 24-hours. I don't mind it because it forces me to rest and rely on the help of nurses and Ryan. I was feeling tired, but pretty good after the surgery. Owen needed his blood sugar levels checked every 3 hours for the next 24-hours, and between his vital checks and my vital checks, we were interrupted a lot that first day! 

We were really blessed to have wonderful nurses, and overall, a great hospital stay. We were able to be discharged on Friday afternoon. They were pushing to keep us an additional night, but I basically said no, we are fine to go home, so our nurses quickly got all the tests done on Owen that needed to happen early Friday morning. Owen was such a sweet baby in the hospital. Yes, he is a newborn and hasn't let us sleep much, but he doesn't cry too often and loves just being around everyone. He nursed like a champ right from the start and I feel so lucky to have had another great nurser. 

^^sneaky boy peed right on his daddy just minutes before going home!

^^that big baby somehow fit inside my tummy!

NEXT POST: Brinley, Ellie, and Grandma Steele visit Owen for the first time in the hospital.