Let it Be: Our First Week

Our first week with Lexi has been a blur! She was born last Friday morning and it seems like we've been in and out of the hospital ever since. Originally we were in for the standard three days and discharged on Monday. We were both doing pretty well at that point. Lexi's builliruben levels were elevated at 12, but not high enough to be too concerned at that point.

They sent out a home health nurse on Tuesday to recheck the builliruben and they came back at 16. Not exactly going down like we had hoped. On Wednesday, since it was the 4th, we had to go the the ER to get them rechecked. And of coarse, also because of the holiday, they lost our paperwork and our pedi was off so we had to talk to the on call pedi to authorize Lexi's blood test. What a mess! We finally got her test done and had just gotten home, I sat down to feed her and the phone rang. It was the on call pedi saying her levels were 19 and we needed to bring her back to the hospital for treatment.

So, back to the hospital we went and Lexi was put under the Billy lights. I can't even explain how hard it was to see her in the incubator. I was a complete mess. I couldn't stop crying. It was so hard just starring at her in there when all I wanted to do was hold her. She was under the lights all day and night Wednesday. I stayed with her so I could feed her. The nurses really pushed me to pump and give her a bottle, but we were having a lot of latching issues as it was and I didn't want to screw up what progress we had made. They weren't thrilled with me staying, but I wasn't there to please them, I was there to take care of my daughter. The one nurse was a real treat. When we brought Lexi in I had her in CD and they had to take it off to weigh her. The nurse handed it to me with a discussed look on her face and said, "We don't use these here. They're too unsanitary." If I had been in any other state of mind I would have slapped a bitch, but I was too upset over Lexi to give her a second thought. It makes me want to go back and slap her now, though! Lol

Thursday morning our Pedi saw her and took her out of the Billy lights, but she had to stay the day for observation. She had 3 blood draws that day at 6am, 12, and 5pm. They all came back at 14. So, since they didn't go up at all and were holding steady, we got to go home for good. What a relief!

Recovery for the c-section hasn't been too bad. The first three day I had a lot of pain and it was pretty hard to get around. The one pain killer they gave me through the IV made me super itchy and the only thing they offered to give me for the itching was Benadryl. I didn't want to take it, though, because it knocks me right out and I didn't want to be any more tired than I already was. After I was off the IV the nurses got pretty stingy with the pain killers, and I was even only on Motrin. I felt like I had to justify my pain every time I asked for one. The fourth day, though, I started feeling 10 times better. After that, it's gotten better each day.

And now some pics for my sweet little Lexi!

In the car seat all ready to go home from the hospital