Chloe's Birth, Part 3

To read part 1 and 2 of Chloe's birth click here and here. 

I was totally numb from the waist down now, before I could kinda feel tingly. Clarke and my mom came in and within 20 minutes she was here! They held her up but I only saw a hand, that's it. Clarke went over to start taking pictures and I heard her cry, everyone was saying how beautiful she was. Finally they brought her over to me. I must say I was so exhausted at this time, I was trying so hard to stay awake. 

Our first family photo! I do remember asking if she had a lot of hair, my mom said she did.

At this point they asked my mom and Clarke to leave the room. I remember thinking that something must be wrong because they were suppose to let her lay on my chest to regulate her temperature and have more family time while they "fixed" me up. I got so nauseous at this point and started throwing up. And that's all I remember from the operating room.

So here is what happened: my uterus wouldn't contract to stop the bleeding. They tried more pitocin, the drug they used to start the contractions to make it contract again. When this didn't work I lost a lot of blood. They said I lost over a litter of blood and I was extremely close to needing a blood transfusion. My doctor used a fairly new procedure where she basically put a balloon in my uterus to apply pressure on it. Luckily this pressure stopped the bleeding. They said ten years ago I would have lost my uterus because this was a fairly new procedure. 

I remember waking up back in my room and seeing Clarke holding Chloe. I had no clue how much time had gone by, I was so groggy from all the meds and all the blood I had lost. My first very vivid memory of my daughter was at midnight (they woke me up to nurse, this was 7 hours after she was born). I remember thinking breastfeeding wasn't as painful or hard as I thought it would be. Again at 3 am they woke me up to feed her, this time I asked my mom how much did she weigh and all sorts of details that I still didn't know. I still had no clue about all the complications that had occurred.

As the morning came and the day progressed I learned about everything that had happened. This picture is actually almost 24 hours after I had her, but I still hadn't gotten out of bed. They eventually deflated the balloon and took all the many wires off my body. All I had left was the IV, which I had to keep until Sunday night because I also had an infection when I delivered her so I had to get antibiotics. Chloe also got an IV and got antibiotics for the the first 48 hours as well. Saturday night I finally got to move to the mother/infant unit and I finally got to eat some real food. Before that it was just clear liquids and some apple sauce or jello. 

Recovery in the hospital was rough. But, Monday came and it was finally time for us to go home. After almost a week in the hospital I was so happy to be going home, I cried as they wheeled me out.

The labor and delivery didn't go as I had hoped, but in the end there was a healthy baby and a healthy mom. Honestly I am so grateful for that because that is the one outcome that really matters, and not everyone gets that. I will make a full recovery and I can still have more children (not anytime soon though)! Chloe is just perfect and she was worth everything I went through. 

If you are still reading this thanks!!! I know it was a long story!