5 Days At the Hospital

After Elise was born, we had to stay at the hospital for 5 days, instead of the expected 2 days that my hospital requires for a vaginal delivery. We had to stay longer because both Elise and I had elevated white blood cell counts. Infections. Neither of us had any other signs of infection-- no symptoms or signs of what the infection could be-- but the doctors didn't want it to get any worse, so we were both given rounds of antibiotics to make sure we were healthy when we left the hospital.

They gave both of us our antibiotics intravenously. That meant that I had to keep an IV in for 3 days, and poor Baby Baby had an IV for 5 days. Her little arm was taped to a board that kept it straight, with the IV near the inside of her elbow. It broke my heart. I'm glad that she won't remember what that was like.

My doctor actually wanted me to stay in the hospital as a patient for 4 days instead of 3, to keep receiving antibiotics. But my IV infiltrated on the second day and they had to put a new one in. When an IV infiltrates, the blood vein kind of gives out somehow and the fluid from the IV just starts leaking into the surrounding tissue. So I started to get this painful lump on my arm and they had to stop the IV and give me a new one in my other arm. That lump of fluid-y tissue HURTS. And I was already annoyed about having the IV in the first place, so having to get a second one really upset me.

On the third day my second IV infiltrated. I refused to let them put in a third IV. My white blood cell count was a lot better and the doctor was going to give me oral antibiotics anyway, so I told the midwife that I wanted to forgo the fourth day of IV antibiotics, since they were only having me do a forth day because Elise wasn't going to get discharged until the fifth day and they figured that they might as well give me an extra day of IV antibiotics just to be safe. I was happy to have the IVs out, but then I had painful fluid-y lumps on both arms, due to the two IV infiltrations.

Then, on the 4th day, Elise was given a spinal tap. The doctors wanted to make sure that she didn't have meningitis. If she did, she'd have had to stay in the hospital for 14 days. Otherwise, 5 days worth of antibiotics was determined to be enough. The test came back negative for meningitis, thank goodness.

I was discharged on the third day, but Husband and I were allowed to stay at the hospital in our same room until Elise was discharged on the fifth day. At my hospital, if you have a baby that's receiving medication there, the parents can stay in a room (as if it were a hotel room) so as to be close to the baby. They call it "nesting." I think that's really nice. So I still got to breastfeed her every two hours and change her diapers and know everything that was going on.

It was so nice to finally have her discharged on the fifth day. Take her home. Start our home life with a brand new baby. A healthy baby and a healthy momma.