The Elsass Family: From a Family of Three to a Family of Four

Well, Friday was the day that we (or at least I had) been waiting for. Baby Girl Elsass was going to make her grand entrance. We had our last doctor visit on Thursday. I guess, just for fun! Everything was still checking out just fine.... except that part where she was breech! :) I didn't work on Thursday, which was nice. It allowed me to catch up on everything I wanted to before the baby came. Driver's license was renewed, went to the doctor, the chiropractor and ran a few errands before heading home. I even managed to clean the house a little. Vacuum and dusting were done and the bathrooms were all wiped down, since Josh just cleaned them. Now, it was acceptable for Grams and Uncle Jason to come!! :)

I knew I was going to be able to eat on Friday morning before the surgery, so I did actually try to eat dinner. Fruit Loops and two pieces of toast. For anyone that really knows, this was a lot of food for me in the evening. I even topped it off with a blueberry muffin and a glass of milk at 10:30pm. I went to bed shortly thereafter and surprisingly had no trouble falling asleep. Unfortunately, I didn't stay asleep and ended up awake for a couple of hours in the wee hours of the morning. I did finally fall back sleep, but only to wake up long before my alarm was set. I think I was a little nervous (or a lot nervous!)

We took on last pregnancy picture and a picture of our family of three before heading out the door.

Big Brother Eating Breakfast Before School

Jackson went to school in the morning. He didn't want to, but we didn't want him in the hospital all morning causing a riot. Josh and I headed back into Labor & Delivery, where they took us right back to the recovery room. I had to put on the awesome hospital gown and booties and crawl into a very narrow and really not that comfortable bed. They monitored the baby and the contractions I was having for a while. The nurses explained a lot, the Dr. Mendise explained some more (most of which just made me more nervous as he was talking about what I would and wouldn't feel. I didn't think I was going to feel ANYTHING.) Then in walked Bud. He was my savior when Jackson was born just over four years ago. He gave me the epidural. Well, this go round, he was part of the team that would do my spinal block. Now I have had the epidural and I have been put under one other time and I have never reacted to the medication, so I assumed it would be the same. Right at 11:30am they took me back to the surgery room to get prepped and get my spinal block. I was really nervous now because Josh wasn't with me. AHHH....

So the whole team of people were super awesome and they were trying to distract me a little from myself. It sorta worked. The spinal block took only a matter of moments before I was laughing at the feeling (or lack thereof) in my legs. I laughed when I lost feeling with Jackson too. Not sure why I think it is so funny. Maybe it is the nerves. Once they had me laying down on the table, I really started to get nervous. There seemed to be a lot going on around me and I really couldn't tell what it was. AND.... Josh wasn't in the room yet, so I was nervous about that too. At one point, Dr. Mendise asked me if I was ready. Of course not!! Who is ever ready to be cut open. A few moments later, Joshua walked in the surgery room with all his get up on. Finally. He seemed a little nervous too.

The whole "set up / tear down" took longer than actually delivering the baby. All the pressure and pulling that Dr. Mendise said was going to happen was MUCH LESS than I thought from our initial conversation. Once the baby was on her way out, Dr. Mendise told Josh to get the camera ready and sure enough the first thing out was her little butt. Crazy baby girl. I was a little surprised that Josh got some of the pictures that he got. (I will spare the Internet of such pictures). They held her up over the curtain once she was all the way out. I wasn't prepared. I didn't even know they were doing it, since I really didn't get to see her (no worries though - Joshua got that picture on "film" too!!) I could hear her crying and Josh looked less worried than he did when Jackson was born. (Jackson was a little blue and was having a little bit of trouble breathing.)

While they were busy closing me up, Josh got some more pictures and then the not so fun part began. I started getting some pretty horrible pain in my right shoulder, which they gave me medication for, then the medication was making me a little dizzy, so they gave me something for that too. I was all kinds of drugged up by the time I was wheeled back into recovery. In recovery, I was starving and nauseous at the same time. I wasn't really sure which was worse. I ended up eating a few crackers and then puking them into a nice green bag, along with the ginger ale I was washing them down with. Puking felt really awesome on stomach. After throwing up a few times, I started to feel a little bit better, or so I thought. I did manage to nurse the baby before we were moved over to maternity floor.

Welcome to the world Audrey Daniele Elsass!!

I still wasn't feeling too great when we got moved from recovery to the maternity floor. I ended up throwing up one more time once we got over there. It didn't take too long to get settled in and as soon as I had the feeling back in my legs, I was able to clean up a little in the bathroom. The room I was in this time had its own shower (not that I had any intention of getting in it yet, but it came in handy over the next couple of days.)

Now that we were all settled into the room, we had a visitor!! Big Brother Jackson FINALLY got to meet his baby sister. I think it might have been love at first sight. Once we told Jackson that he was going to be a big brother, it seemed to take an eternity to get here. I am sure it seemed even longer in Jackson's world.

Over the next 24 hours we had several other visitors at the hospital.

The days in the hospital were long and I wanted to go home, although was sure I wouldn't make it any time soon. On Saturday, I was so worried about the thought of going home on Monday. I wasn't sure how anyone ever left the hospital after a cesarean section. Not only was I tired, but I was so sore and I really struggled to get up. I did manage to get into the shower on Saturday and get a little cleaned up before we had all those visitors. By Saturday night, I was so ready for a little quiet time. I didn't even do anything all day, but just the chaos of people was enough to wear this mama out.

On Sunday morning, Josh came up to the hospital alone and the three of us got to spend a little time together. (Daddy even played golf while holding his daughter!)

I was able to shower again on Sunday, only things went much better than the day before. I couldn't believe how different a day made. I was now actually thinking that going home on Monday was going to go okay. Sunday was a lot more quiet. Grams came up to the hospital a little later in the day. While she was there, I started to get dizzy and had a headache. The same thing happened again on Monday morning. One of the nurses said it might be the effects of the oxy and maybe my body was having trouble with it now. I didn't eat well on Sunday night, so Monday was probably just the remainder of Sunday. I ended up throwing up again on Monday before we left for home. Advice from the medical personnel: lay off the narcotics for a day and see how I do and then cut back on the dose after a day off. Great - the one thing everyone has told me to do - "take the drugs" - I need to not do because they are making me sick. Ugh.

Coming Home

On Monday, we did get released from the hospital. It never happens like you think it should, but we were still home by 1:30pm on Monday.