From Hospital to Home and so on

I went into the hospital on Friday, July 30, and came home Monday, August 2, with a new baby girl in my arms, she is our sweet Bailey Lynn. I gave her stats in the previous post. I'm surprised she weighed only 7 lbs - 7 oz, I was quite large when carrying her; some people commented that I looked like I would give birth any moment, and this was at five months, to saying they thought I was carrying twins. From what Michael told me, a majority of the reason I was large was due to so much fluid. I had a C-Section, and when the doctor went to break my water, it sprayed out all over her and the assistants; they were a bit surprised, and wet, to say the least. Why did Michael have to tell me this, you ask? Well, here's the thing... I panicked again. Yes, again. I was so frustrated. I did the same thing when I had Caitie and didn't get to hold her as soon as she was born, Michael got that honor, as he did this time as well. I had to be put out once again due to being a crazed lunatic; there's something about going numb from the waist down, this was from the spinal block, and then being restrained by being told to put my arms out to the side, and then having them strapped down, that causes me to panick, and pretty much embarrass myself (this isn't hard to do, so that was no big deal, really). I'm somewhat claustrophobic, which means being afraid of small spaces. That's kinda how it felt... like being trapped in a small space without much air... it feels like the walls are closing in on you and you can't breathe... so a nurse gave me a syringe filled with feel-good, put-you-out, make-you-miss-experiencing-the-baby-being-born, wake-up-when-the-excitement-is-over, kinda medicine. The first part wasn't so bad, the 'feel-good' part, but the rest was a bummer. The rest of the stay wasn't so bad, except for the day of discharge... I got 'Nurse Ratched' again! I couldn't believe it; I had the same discharge nurse when I had Caitie. She's the nurse from... well, you know... Anyway, this is for another post. Below are a few pics of our Bailey Lynn...

Michael took these first two pics. He got Caitie holding her new little sister Bailey not too long after she was born. I think pretty much everybody got to hold Bailey before I did; and so it was when I had Caitie as well.



Michael took this pic shortly after I breastfed Bailey for the first time; this was taken in our private room. As you can see, I'm pretty much naked in the background there. (too much info, maybe?)



I took the pics below.

We took Bailey to her newborn ckeck-up last Friday. I didn't get a pic of Caitie with him, I wasn't as much into photography then, so decided to get a pic of the doc with both my girls this time. You can see how excited Caitie is about it. (the lighting was terrible.)



I took some pics of Bailey while she was napping. I like this 'soft' shot.

I put her in more light for this shot.

I then got some pics of both my girls. It's not as easy as it looks since Bailey isn't holding her head up yet. Caitie did a good job of holding Bailey's head up though.

Caitie's kissing Bailey's head. Yes, I taped a bow to Bailey's head; don't worry, I just used a little scotch tape. It didn't hurt her a bit when I took it off, unlike my horror story of when a dr's assistant ripped off the tape from the bandage on my lower stomach the day after I had the C-section. I asked her to stop because it hurt so much, but she continued saying it was best to rip it off fast. I am now using Bacitracin to help heal the large scab that is there now. When other dr's assistants and nurses saw it, they gasped and forgot they were there to check my C-Section incision, they would just look and ask what happened. Now that I think about it, I think I'll add her to the 'not so pleasant' part of my stay in the hospital, right along with Nurse Ratched (the nurse from the movie 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', in case you're wondering).

I enjoyed taking these pics, especially this one, I like how they're looking at each other. It looks like Bailey's eyes are closed, but they're not, she's looking at Caitie.
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I took more pics of them together using one of Caitie's quilts from her grandma; her grandma made Bailey some quilts too, but I haven't got their picture with those quilts yet. In the pics above of the two of them, and the pics below, Bailey is wearing outfits her nana got for her. Yes, I taped a bow in Bailey's hair again.



I like how they're looking at each other in this pic.
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It looks like Caitie has her sister in a choke hold position, but I assure you, she's just trying to keep Bailey's head up.




Tidbits of info you may want to read, or not...

- I changed the white balance on the last set of pics of the girls... comparing them to the girls' pics above, you can see quite a bit of difference; I like the latter pics better due to this.

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- When I was weighed last, which was a few days before delivery, I weighed 142, I now weigh 116. Talk about a lot of fluid gain! When calculating it... 7 lbs - 7 oz was Bailey, most of the other remaining pounds must have been fluid gain, which amounts to around 20 lbs. (there was the placenta too, of course. too much info, maybe? i'm good at giving too much info.) My pre-pregnancy weight was 112, so I have to lose the extra four pounds by watching what I eat... can I do it? We shall see.


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