The 'Post' post
Hello again, friends. Today's installment will be talking about what all I've done since having the twins. I've had lots of positive feedback from my last blog and I want to thank all of you for your continued support, love and feedback.
In my last post, I talked about the emotional ups and downs I experienced but there has been so much more to tell you! Right after we had the twins, I think I mentioned before that I had to receive 2 units of blood, I was extremely weak and exhausted. I had never had a C-Section before. I knew that I was prone to be anemic when I wasn't pregnant, but I did not know I was borderline anemic while being pregnant. I mean, I craved red meat and dark greens, so I should have known... but I thought that was just the babies fighting for craving rights to my body! Haha! After being moved to my recovery room, I was still hooked up to all the things from the C-section - IV, catheter, oxygen, heart monitor. I wasn't allowed to walk yet and that was all killing me, but to be fair, my legs were still kinda numb. I did though love the abdominal binder they put me in. Did you know when women have C-sections they get a binder for their belly!? It's supposed to help with letting the incision heal properly. I was immediately in love with how well this kept me together and wondered why they didn't give this to every woman when they deliver vaginally OR C-section.
I digress... I was still feeling very weak and they told me before I moved to my room that they gave me enough pain meds to last most of the day which I was of course thankful for. The boyfriend was at work or home sleeping at this time as he was up all night with me, making sure I was OK but had to go to work at 7 to open up and get his store going then went home to sleep while his dad was at home taking care of their chores and his mom stayed with me... As we would see, she would stay with me all day long. She didn't sleep, might have napped for a couple minutes when I did, for almost 40 hours! I think she was more excited we were having the twins than we were! :) Well, as mentioned, I did wind up taking a 30 min or so nap Friday and woke up to find Boyfriend's Mom gone and myself hungry. The food that the hospital offered for lunch was (sorry hospital) TERRIBLE. It was so gross I couldn't eat any of it. BF's mom came back with food that smelled amazing, even though it was just hospital burger/fries, and she was so sweet to go get me some, too. At some point before I ate lunch, I was able to get detached from the oxygen and the catheter and I got up to pee and also wash my face. I do remember how amazing that felt. BF was still trying sleeping at this point but when he did come back to the hospital, he brought me Starbucks!!! My first coffee in MONTHS! He was my angel. He also had to go dig thru my clothes at my house to bring me some bras. :) Because the twins were in the NICU now, the parents and I decided I wasn't going to pump, so now I needed to get sports bras to try to keep from making too much milk. Compression helps to stop/slow that. Unfortunately, I had lost so much weight while pregnant, my sports bras were not super tight and didn't provide a lot of compression.
I know I also told you some time ago that I don't really remember a lot from these days from all the meds. But I do know that BF's mom was with me all day long. She would talk to me about all kinds of things to keep me from being bored and she made friends with everyone who came into our room. She even made a baby blanket for one of the nurses!! She really does have the biggest heart of anyone I know. BF came back with my coffee and he ate and pretty much sat around with me while I tried to get my barrings. I never did feel quite right from all the meds I had been on in the last 24 hours. I did also have some friends come by and see me! My sweet friends, who also are my realtors, brought me some happys to feel more at home in the hospital and one of the coolest red headed chicks I know brought in the wine! (which I unfortunately only had a sip of). Then the BF's brother/SIL came by and spent some time with us as well and brought me the prettiest flowers!!! As the evening wore in on us, I even made a lap or two around the hospital floor while hanging onto my favorite person. The nurses were impressed I was able to get out and get more of those dang amazing ice chips!!! I think I ate them the entire time I was in the hospital. Ice chips are my FAVORITE thing about hospitals.
The first night in the recovery room was hard. BF went home to sleep in his bed, to his defense, the accommodations provided for him had a bit to be desired... After he left, my mind was just going and going. I had declined any pain meds all evening because I didn't want to be all loopy - I'm very sensitive to meds. But I also was in a good deal of pain. My incision was still bleeding a good bit, even the nurses were checking it consistently and changing the dressings but after he left, I wound up taking some meds to try and sleep. I have no idea how I made it the whole day with a short nap since we didn't sleep Thursday night while having babies. But I did take the meds eventually and I definitely recommend it - if you have a C-section, take the meds. Don't be in pain. It took me forever to acknowledge that a C-section is in fact a major surgery! Your body is legit sliced open and things are pulled out of you! Take the meds...
While I was in the hospital, my incision would continue to bleed freely. My Dr had to come check it a couple times because of how much it would bleed. It kept scaring me while I was there because it would randomly happen and I wasn't prepared for it. I also noticed before I left that I looked like I was a beaten woman. From the bottom of my pelvis to my belly button and hip to hip, I was bruised, swollen and holding all kinds of fluid! I also felt very weak. My blood counts stayed pretty low which kept me weak and tired and very cold. The nurses would come by and check my incision and tighten my abdominal binder. It was really good they did, I loved that thing. I remember being so ready to get out of the hospital, but so afraid of something happening when I left. I think every woman is scared to leave - I always was, because I knew I would then be responsible for another human life! This time, it was just my own. I was still scared to leave. I was though ready to go get some real clothes and t-shirts that were not maternity, just excited to wear real clothes again! We went to my house from the hospital (total opposite side of town) and realized we were totally locked out, long story. The trip proved to be unsuccessful. So we got some food, dropped off scripts and we went home.
Well, the first night at home, I was kind of in shock. I was scared, emotional but mostly just scared of something happening with my incision/bleeding. BF, as you can guess, was so so very sweet to me, took as good of care of me as he could and made sure I was comfortable. In the morning after our first night at home, I woke up covered in blood. My incision was draining again! BF had to go to work though. I also woke up to calls/texts from the new parents that I needed to go back to the hospital for some paperwork issues. I was a bit concerned about that, too! So I got one of my best friends in Memphis - like my brother - to run me to the DR and got one of the parents to pick me up from there and take me to the hospital for paperwork. It was quite a day! but it was necessary. I did get put on some antibiotics because of the incision and I had to go back in 2 days to get checked again. The next day, that Tuesday, i was picked up again by one of the parents again to go back to the hospital and lawyers office to sign more papers. Since the babies came a bit early, we didn't have all the right papers in the courts yet which made us have to do all this in a hurry after. The next day... Wednesday, we had to go back to the dr. to get my incision checked again. and had an appointment with the house to re-pick out the brick (that's a whole other blog to write!!! - building a house). When we were at the Dr, he was pushing again on my incision, saw all the bruising and told me to stop taking the naproxen. He believed it was causing edema, fluid to gather below the skin and that is what was leaking from my incision.
I also had some almost fainting spells. I would get super close to fainting when standing and have to lay down immediately for a few minutes. This was a bit scary. But it was a fleeting situation thankfully and didn’t stay around long.
The next big issue I had was some pressure on my bottom. I had never ever experienced this before. I told my Dr. about this during my 2 week check up and he told me to give it some time but if it didn’t go away in a week or two to let him know. Since I had never had a C-section I assumed it was from this process, but I had some extreme pressure on my anus/tailbone. It hurt all the time, would keep me up at night. Hurt to lay down, hurt to sleep, sit, stand... hurt all the time. I sat on a heating pad and this did help. A lot. But it was so uncomfortable all the time from week 2-4. Some of y’all may know what I’m talking about but not many people I know have experienced this. But the Heating pad did help!! I didn’t take ibuprofen, even though I believe this would have fixed the issue because of my incision issues. I’m sure that would have helped, since this seemed to be inflammation. My Dr did think it was my tailbone going back into position. Since I didn’t have a vaginal birth, it didn’t have that process to follow to get it back into position naturally.
The issues I’m having now are:
Methodist hospital also was amazing. They called me after the birth every few days to check on me which was so sweet of them. It meant a lot to me that they checked on me so much. I loved how personal they were with their care. I did have some feedback for them regarding the care when I was in hospital, especially for the care person prep. But they were great overall.
My family and my boyfriend's family and the IPs have been beyond amazing. I started this process a single chick with my girls and some close friends and Jeff and his family stepped into this process when they didn't have to and walked along side me and the parents with open arms. They were troopers thru the pregnancy and for sure thru the birth and after. There is no way I could have made it thru this process without them - at all. I might write a blog just about that.
Things have been a whirlwind since we have finished up our journey, but I kinda think we never will truly finish it. The parents are so sweet to me still and I’m so blessed to still get time with the babies, even bring the family over to see them. Enjoy a couple of pics from our visit with them this summer. The parents are doing so good, they are troopers and I am not sure I could do what they're doing! They are rockstars!!!
In my last post, I talked about the emotional ups and downs I experienced but there has been so much more to tell you! Right after we had the twins, I think I mentioned before that I had to receive 2 units of blood, I was extremely weak and exhausted. I had never had a C-Section before. I knew that I was prone to be anemic when I wasn't pregnant, but I did not know I was borderline anemic while being pregnant. I mean, I craved red meat and dark greens, so I should have known... but I thought that was just the babies fighting for craving rights to my body! Haha! After being moved to my recovery room, I was still hooked up to all the things from the C-section - IV, catheter, oxygen, heart monitor. I wasn't allowed to walk yet and that was all killing me, but to be fair, my legs were still kinda numb. I did though love the abdominal binder they put me in. Did you know when women have C-sections they get a binder for their belly!? It's supposed to help with letting the incision heal properly. I was immediately in love with how well this kept me together and wondered why they didn't give this to every woman when they deliver vaginally OR C-section.
I digress... I was still feeling very weak and they told me before I moved to my room that they gave me enough pain meds to last most of the day which I was of course thankful for. The boyfriend was at work or home sleeping at this time as he was up all night with me, making sure I was OK but had to go to work at 7 to open up and get his store going then went home to sleep while his dad was at home taking care of their chores and his mom stayed with me... As we would see, she would stay with me all day long. She didn't sleep, might have napped for a couple minutes when I did, for almost 40 hours! I think she was more excited we were having the twins than we were! :) Well, as mentioned, I did wind up taking a 30 min or so nap Friday and woke up to find Boyfriend's Mom gone and myself hungry. The food that the hospital offered for lunch was (sorry hospital) TERRIBLE. It was so gross I couldn't eat any of it. BF's mom came back with food that smelled amazing, even though it was just hospital burger/fries, and she was so sweet to go get me some, too. At some point before I ate lunch, I was able to get detached from the oxygen and the catheter and I got up to pee and also wash my face. I do remember how amazing that felt. BF was still trying sleeping at this point but when he did come back to the hospital, he brought me Starbucks!!! My first coffee in MONTHS! He was my angel. He also had to go dig thru my clothes at my house to bring me some bras. :) Because the twins were in the NICU now, the parents and I decided I wasn't going to pump, so now I needed to get sports bras to try to keep from making too much milk. Compression helps to stop/slow that. Unfortunately, I had lost so much weight while pregnant, my sports bras were not super tight and didn't provide a lot of compression.
I know I also told you some time ago that I don't really remember a lot from these days from all the meds. But I do know that BF's mom was with me all day long. She would talk to me about all kinds of things to keep me from being bored and she made friends with everyone who came into our room. She even made a baby blanket for one of the nurses!! She really does have the biggest heart of anyone I know. BF came back with my coffee and he ate and pretty much sat around with me while I tried to get my barrings. I never did feel quite right from all the meds I had been on in the last 24 hours. I did also have some friends come by and see me! My sweet friends, who also are my realtors, brought me some happys to feel more at home in the hospital and one of the coolest red headed chicks I know brought in the wine! (which I unfortunately only had a sip of). Then the BF's brother/SIL came by and spent some time with us as well and brought me the prettiest flowers!!! As the evening wore in on us, I even made a lap or two around the hospital floor while hanging onto my favorite person. The nurses were impressed I was able to get out and get more of those dang amazing ice chips!!! I think I ate them the entire time I was in the hospital. Ice chips are my FAVORITE thing about hospitals.
The first night in the recovery room was hard. BF went home to sleep in his bed, to his defense, the accommodations provided for him had a bit to be desired... After he left, my mind was just going and going. I had declined any pain meds all evening because I didn't want to be all loopy - I'm very sensitive to meds. But I also was in a good deal of pain. My incision was still bleeding a good bit, even the nurses were checking it consistently and changing the dressings but after he left, I wound up taking some meds to try and sleep. I have no idea how I made it the whole day with a short nap since we didn't sleep Thursday night while having babies. But I did take the meds eventually and I definitely recommend it - if you have a C-section, take the meds. Don't be in pain. It took me forever to acknowledge that a C-section is in fact a major surgery! Your body is legit sliced open and things are pulled out of you! Take the meds...
While I was in the hospital, my incision would continue to bleed freely. My Dr had to come check it a couple times because of how much it would bleed. It kept scaring me while I was there because it would randomly happen and I wasn't prepared for it. I also noticed before I left that I looked like I was a beaten woman. From the bottom of my pelvis to my belly button and hip to hip, I was bruised, swollen and holding all kinds of fluid! I also felt very weak. My blood counts stayed pretty low which kept me weak and tired and very cold. The nurses would come by and check my incision and tighten my abdominal binder. It was really good they did, I loved that thing. I remember being so ready to get out of the hospital, but so afraid of something happening when I left. I think every woman is scared to leave - I always was, because I knew I would then be responsible for another human life! This time, it was just my own. I was still scared to leave. I was though ready to go get some real clothes and t-shirts that were not maternity, just excited to wear real clothes again! We went to my house from the hospital (total opposite side of town) and realized we were totally locked out, long story. The trip proved to be unsuccessful. So we got some food, dropped off scripts and we went home.
Well, the first night at home, I was kind of in shock. I was scared, emotional but mostly just scared of something happening with my incision/bleeding. BF, as you can guess, was so so very sweet to me, took as good of care of me as he could and made sure I was comfortable. In the morning after our first night at home, I woke up covered in blood. My incision was draining again! BF had to go to work though. I also woke up to calls/texts from the new parents that I needed to go back to the hospital for some paperwork issues. I was a bit concerned about that, too! So I got one of my best friends in Memphis - like my brother - to run me to the DR and got one of the parents to pick me up from there and take me to the hospital for paperwork. It was quite a day! but it was necessary. I did get put on some antibiotics because of the incision and I had to go back in 2 days to get checked again. The next day, that Tuesday, i was picked up again by one of the parents again to go back to the hospital and lawyers office to sign more papers. Since the babies came a bit early, we didn't have all the right papers in the courts yet which made us have to do all this in a hurry after. The next day... Wednesday, we had to go back to the dr. to get my incision checked again. and had an appointment with the house to re-pick out the brick (that's a whole other blog to write!!! - building a house). When we were at the Dr, he was pushing again on my incision, saw all the bruising and told me to stop taking the naproxen. He believed it was causing edema, fluid to gather below the skin and that is what was leaking from my incision.
I also had some almost fainting spells. I would get super close to fainting when standing and have to lay down immediately for a few minutes. This was a bit scary. But it was a fleeting situation thankfully and didn’t stay around long.
The next big issue I had was some pressure on my bottom. I had never ever experienced this before. I told my Dr. about this during my 2 week check up and he told me to give it some time but if it didn’t go away in a week or two to let him know. Since I had never had a C-section I assumed it was from this process, but I had some extreme pressure on my anus/tailbone. It hurt all the time, would keep me up at night. Hurt to lay down, hurt to sleep, sit, stand... hurt all the time. I sat on a heating pad and this did help. A lot. But it was so uncomfortable all the time from week 2-4. Some of y’all may know what I’m talking about but not many people I know have experienced this. But the Heating pad did help!! I didn’t take ibuprofen, even though I believe this would have fixed the issue because of my incision issues. I’m sure that would have helped, since this seemed to be inflammation. My Dr did think it was my tailbone going back into position. Since I didn’t have a vaginal birth, it didn’t have that process to follow to get it back into position naturally.
The issues I’m having now are:
- My stomach muscles are still separated around my belly button. I can feel it when I sit up and engage my core. It doesn’t hurt, but I see them separate. They call it an umbilical hernia I think.
- My incision is also funky looking. It folds over and will not move from the muscle. Like it’s attached to the inside wall and won’t lay flat. This causes my pants to not fit right and for it to do other things I really don’t like that are gross. (Ask me privately and I’ll tell you)
- I bled for 15 weeks straight after birth. This was pretty scary considering how anemic I was and that I had to get two bags of blood after birth. But we couldn’t figure out what the issue was for quite sometime. I tried 3 rounds of drugs/hormones which I REALLY don’t like. As I told you before - I am very sensitive to drugs, especially hormones! After week 9/10, I was starting to get really scared and discouraged. I was bleeding so bad at one point that I’d bled thru my clothes at work multiple days and it was so embarrassing as an adult - I hadn’t done that since JR high maybe SR high. We tried many many things and finally we got it fixed and me back on track. I'm happy to say I have been on a normal cycle for at least 1 month! :)
Methodist hospital also was amazing. They called me after the birth every few days to check on me which was so sweet of them. It meant a lot to me that they checked on me so much. I loved how personal they were with their care. I did have some feedback for them regarding the care when I was in hospital, especially for the care person prep. But they were great overall.
My family and my boyfriend's family and the IPs have been beyond amazing. I started this process a single chick with my girls and some close friends and Jeff and his family stepped into this process when they didn't have to and walked along side me and the parents with open arms. They were troopers thru the pregnancy and for sure thru the birth and after. There is no way I could have made it thru this process without them - at all. I might write a blog just about that.
Things have been a whirlwind since we have finished up our journey, but I kinda think we never will truly finish it. The parents are so sweet to me still and I’m so blessed to still get time with the babies, even bring the family over to see them. Enjoy a couple of pics from our visit with them this summer. The parents are doing so good, they are troopers and I am not sure I could do what they're doing! They are rockstars!!!
This was beautiful and I enjoyed the pictures. Jazmin looks so happy!
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