Recovery

A lot of this is for me, but if anybody is interested in how my recovery has been then read on!
I felt great right after delivery and for most of the evening because I was still numb and then once the anesthesia started wearing off I didn't have to move really. I had a catheter (spelling?) in and it was heaven!! They left it in until about 11 the next day and I LOVED not having to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. I could drink as much water as I wanted without worrying that it would mean having to heave my hurting body out of bed and into the bathroom. Anyways... I slept pretty good that first night despite being woken up to have my vitals checked, be given more pain medicine, and to nurse the baby. At 5 am they came in and told me I had to get out of bed and go for a little walk. Why it had to be at 5 am I do not know, but I very slowly rolled myself out of bed. When I finally got to my feet and stood up I was shocked to discover how much you use your stomach muscles just to stand! In fact it was a while before I could really stand up all the way straight and walk around. But I made it down the hallway almost to the nursery and back on that first walk. I was so happy to be back in my bed when it was done though. After that I didn't get back out of bed until about 1 o'clock that afternoon (and only because I had to use the darn bathroom). I will say that going to the bathroom is not near the ordeal after a c-section than it is with a normal delivery. There was no soreness down there, except sitting down on the toilet was a little painful.
My blood pressure stayed really low until the morning I came home and the nurses couldn't figure out what to do. I wasn't feeling nauseous or light headed but my blood pressure got all the way down to something over 36 (I can't remember the top number now). They even retested my blood to make sure I didn't have any internal bleeding going on and those numbers showed that my blood pressure should be getting higher, not lower. But since I was feeling fine nobody panicked and eventually it came back up. I was really pale though.
I felt kind of like a human pin cushion at times. I had 5 or 6 attempted IV pokes in me which left bruises on both my hands and a really big one on my arm that still hasn't gone away. I had my blood drawn twice, got my Rhogam shot, and had the TDAP vaccine. So that was fun.
At about 1:30 a.m. that second night I woke up in a lot of pain. Luckily it was time for me to be able to take my next pain pills but when I was swallowing the water to take my pill it kind of went down the wrong tube and made me cough...which hurt like hell. (I'm just saying, it did.) I also had to go to the bathroom so I had to get out of bed and then back in. By the time I got back into bed I was shaking from being cold and in pain. I also had this sharp pain in my neck and back so I couldn't relax and lay down. Justin came over to help rub my neck but that hurt so bad along with everything else that I almost started crying. Finally the pain meds kicked in and I was able to relax and fall back asleep. That was the worst part, and from there things have just gotten better.
Friday I was feeling much better...as long as I had my pain medicine in me. My butt was hurting so bad from laying in bed that once I got out of bed to use the bathroom around 10:30, I never got back into bed. I just sat in the chairs, or would sit on the edge of the bed but not actually get all the way in. Justin had to go to class and then take a test so I was alone for an hour and a half but then my mom came and hung out with me for the day. Dr. Dewey said I could go home if I was feeling up to it and by that afternoon I knew I was ready to go home. Sitting on my couch that was low enough to be able to get on and off of sounded much better than staying cooped up in that hospital room with a bed that was too tall and hard to get in and out of. So I was discharged and came home at 5:30 on Friday, exactly 48 hours after my c-section.
I have spent a lot of time sitting on the couch and resting, but have gradually been doing more each day. I slept on the couch until Tuesday because my bed is really tall and I didn't want to have to climb in and out of it through the night to take care of the baby.
Tuesday I went down the stairs for the first time to take Koyle to the doctor and it wasn't bad at all. I even walked home from the health center and did just fine; it actually felt really good to get some fresh air and stretch my legs. Every day has been significantly better than the previous day so I feel pretty good about my recovery. I even went 17 hours without taking any pain medicine between last night and this afternoon-go me! At this point, one week later, I can pretty much function fine for myself. I have most of my range of motion back as far as bending and twisting goes. Laying down and sitting up is still a little hard because that really engages those tummy muscles. My endurance isn't super high yet and I get tired easily and need to sit down and rest. I still have a long way to go but I am gonna make it.
Some random other things:
The nurses told me I couldn't lift anything heavier than my baby (or a gallon of milk) for an entire month! That is a long time. Today is my first day alone with Matthew and so far so good. But it really changes what you can do when you can't lift. I can't really go anywhere or do things like grocery shopping (carrying the groceries in to the house) or doing the laundry. So it might be a long month for Justin and myself.
As mentioned before it has been nice not to be sore down in the netherland regions. And my bleeding was very, very minimal and has pretty much been done for a few days now. : )
And that's all folks!