The Hospital Stay

Wow, it's been almost 2 weeks (11 days to be exact) since I delivered and how life has changed! The recovery in the hospital went well. I was in the hospital for 3 nights, admitted on Thu and discharged on Sunday morning.

We had originally grand ambitions to have the baby with us ALL THE TIME and to nurse him and do a total breastfeeding. The PD had mentioned that babies have a few days reserves, so we could try total breastfeeding, as long as hydration levels were monitored.

By Friday (day 2), baby was not peeing, so we decided to top up with formula after nursing him for 10 minutes on each side. The lactation consultant also suggested that I take fenugreek (3x 610mg capsules after each meal) and to pump after each nursing session. I didn't bring my pump to the hospital so I wasn't able to start pumping so soon.

Dr Adrian came by on Friday morning and said that the nurses would remove my IV and cathetar, and to try to walk around. I managed to get up with the help of +3, and walk a few steps. The painkillers that I was taking helped, I wasn't in much pain but felt more stiff than anything.

I had a major case of the farts on Friday and Saturday, Like MAJOR farting. I think it's a post-surgery side effect, I'm not sure, but woah were they loud and massive. I could actually see my belly deflate after a fart-fest.

It was weird having nurses take care of me. For the first day, I was told to lie flat for at least 6 hours. Didn't have to worry about getting up to pee cos I had a cathetar inserted and apparently with the IV drip and the water and red date tea I was drinking, I was filling up the pee bag pretty quickly.

The nurses also helped to change my maternity pad - post partum bleeding is heavy. And since I couldn't get up, they wiped me down with wet wipes too.

Oh, forgot to mention that on the first day while I still had my IV drip, I was trying to nurse the baby when I accidentally ripped the IV drip off and sprayed blood all over my newborn. Oops. The nurses quickly came in and reattached the IV, and also helped to clean my baby up after I was done nursing. Hehehehe.

We had a few visitors - Shyan and family came on Thursday night, Rodney came on Friday at lunch time, the parents and nanny came on Friday as well, SF, Aunty Moi and Uncle Leong came on Friday evening, Jeanne and Sudesh came on Saturday morning, and Yusnita and family came on Saturday afternoon.

The PD (Dr Allyson) and Dr Adrian came by every morning to check on baby and me. I imagine it must be a very busy schedule for them rushing to hospital to visit their patients in the mornings, then rushing off to the clinic to tend to more patients.

Anyway, by Sunday we were given the OK to be discharged. We finally agreed on a name for babyAC - his name means little and fiery hehehehe, which really did suit his character. We registered his birth cert in the hospital, and signed up for his CDA account. Packed up and was sent with a giant bag full of stuff from the hospital.

If there was anything I would have changed, I probably wouldn't have packed diapers and wipes at the hospital. Apparently you get charged for disposables, but I think we ended up paying for them anyway as the bill wasn't exactly itemised (it said "baby package"). And, going home outfits are also overrated. Next time I will just bring baby back in whatever the hospital dressed them in. The less stuff you bring, the less stuff you bring back. Hehe.