John was definitely more involved in the pushing process than I had previously expected. When we took the birthing class they told the husbands that they would be up near the wife holding her hand... not the case. The nurse took one leg and John took the other and pushed my knees into my chest while I grabbed my thighs, put my chin to my chest and pushed for a count of ten, three times during each contraction. John got to see the whole thing and said it was one of the most awesome things he's ever witnessed so I was really glad that he did see everything so that he could have a special memory of her birth.
Although she scored an 8 on the apgar test, she was a bit grey and she had some mucus or something stuck in her chest so they took her to special care. It was a bit sad because neither of us got to hold her in the delivery room, although I was a bit distracted by delivering the placenta, and having my stitches put in. I only had a small tear which was good. I was also extremely exhausted, all the pushing was making me really thirsty and I'm glad it didn't take too long because I was definitely getting worn out.
After about 45 minutes the epidural wore off and I was in a state of partial consciousness from my exhaustion. A nurse helped me up & go to the bathroom, I felt like such a mess and I was so tired & sore. When they put me in the wheel chair I was pretty much ready to ball my eyes out because I was just so tired.
I was finally wheeled in to see Angela, about 2 hours after she was born, and she was doing much better, they were just waiting for a few test results to come back. She was definitely ready for me though and began breastfeeding like a little machine and didn't stop for nearly 40 minutes.
It wasn't until about 11:30pm that she finally came to our room. I put John on diaper & picking up baby duty because moving just was not comfortable. Between Friday night and then again on Saturday night I think I got a total of 4 hours of sleep. Just getting used to Angela's needs, working on the breastfeeding (she had trouble latching on despite how successful she was the first time), and then just dealing with all the nurses, doctors etc coming into the room. Nothing like having a shot in the butt at 3am or blood being drawn at 6:30am after just falling asleep for the first time all night.
Being at home is much more comfortable, the swaddleme blankets with the velcro tabs really have helped her sleep much better, at the hospital she would keep being woken up by her startle reflex but last night I think I actually got about 4 hours of sleep in between feeding/comforting etc and she hasn't cried as much either... however we'll see how today goes. The sleepy wrap is also great, I have her wrapped up with me right now and can eat breakfast and type!
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