Monday, May 14, 2012

Recap of Delivery and Week 1 (written 4/30/12)


The delivery went very smoothly!  I think there were about 35 people in the OR.  I was able to be wheeled down in my L&D bed straight from my room to the OR and right back up to my room after the surgery.  I know there were lots of people in the waiting room too even though I never saw them.  I had an epidural so I was awake the whole time and Dave was right by me.  It was definitely strange being operated on, but from my perspective the OR was quite calm and orderly considering what was happening.  I did get to see each baby as they wheeled them out of the OR and up to the NICU.  I only saw my parents afterwards then shut down the visitors- I slept the rest of the day and night.  Poor Dave had to put up with so much!  He was visiting the babies, updating the visitors, making decisions for PR and the babies- he was glad when the day was over!  Speaking of PR, we never expected for the news to get out so fast.  We haven't seen or read everything that's been printed or shown about us, but we've caught some.  It has been so surreal seeing myself on tv and the front page of the chronicle.  Channel 11 even filmed our house and showed a close up of my parent's dog and an interview with a neighbor I've never met.  The guest book on our website blew up with comments- mostly positive with a few negative here and there.  My personal favorite negative comment was "your vagina is a clown car".  

Back to babies... they are so neat!!  I really can't believe how they all fit in my belly.  I got to meet them on Tuesday and as of today I've held the 5 stable ones :)  We've also been changing some tiny diapers, taking temperatures, cleaning eyes and mouths, and anything else the nurses are willing to teach us.  The staff has been awesome at TCH and our babies are 2 to a room all next door to each other which makes visiting easy.  The 5 are chugging along nicely which is amazing to me.  Leah is sick sick sick.  We knew she was sick when she was born and really couldn't be in the womb any longer.  The past week she has slowly made small gains.  Her biggest issue has been not peeing and retaining fluid.  She's so puffy she looks like she's going to burst.  Doctors have narrowed the cause down to weak blood vessels that leak fluid.  Today she finally started peeing a ton!  And she was stable in everything without much suppport.  But within a few hours of this good news, we were told that they found air in her abdomen while doing an x ray to check something else.  So within a couple hours she was in surgery to find the leak in her intestines and cut out the bad part(s).  We were definitley scared and anxious, but the surgery went well with only a tiny part of her bowel being removed.  Now it's the critical time of recovery but we're hopeful that she can recover and get back on track.  She will need another surgery in a couple of months to fully repair her bowels from this surgery.  

I am recovering well.  I was discharged on Friday and haven't had any issues.  My ankles and feet are swollen and I still look pregnant, but my doctor says that will get better with time.  My tummy feels like a waterbed.  I was only taking motrin for pain last week and have been cutting down on it since I've been home.  It's wonderful being home, being able to walk around the house, and only take one round of pills!  I still need to rest a lot and sometimes forget to, but overall doing good.  

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