After an amazing day that started with me trying to stay pregnant for 1-2 more weeks and ended with me holding the smallest of my new triplet babies, it was time to rest and recover. I sent my husband home with our oldest two kids, but asked my Mom to stay with me. The guest bed (a pull out chair) they had in my postpartum room would have been terribly uncomfortable for my husband but it was just the perfect size for my petite mom.
Sometimes a girl, no matter how old she is, just needs her mom. Moms are wonderfully comforting and understanding, especially where my Mom had had three C-sections and knew what I was feeling and needing. It was wonderful to have some girl time with my Mom. We reflected on how life comes full circle, how it had been almost 34 years ago that my mom was in my place, lying in bed after a difficult C-section (they hadn't numbed her enough during my birth....um, ouch!), with a new baby girl to take care of....and now it was that same little baby that was lying in the recovery bed and Mom was yet again taking care of me.
Unfortunately, she did a lot more taking care of me than resting that night. I was bleeding fairly heavily, and the nurses were a little concerned. They couldn't give me medication because they were worried it would make my blood too thin and I would lose too much blood. My uterus wouldn't stay hard (the nurse kept saying "her uterus keeps going boggy on me", at the time that made me a little nervous but now I think it's kind of a funny way to say that), and they had to keep coming in and massaging it repeatedly throughout the night to get it to contract and harden. The nurse assigned to me kept having to bring in other nurses to help her take care of me. They also called my doctor and he prescribed some medication that would cause contractions. They almost gave me pitocin but the doctor ordered something else instead, which I can't remember the name of.
In the middle of the night, I woke up from one of my few cat naps because I felt a little cold. I tried to put my feet under the blanket and immediately began shaking uncontrollably. I woke up my mom and asked her to help me. I had been so warm, except for my feet, and in an instant I was freezing and shaking, and it scared me a little because I didn't know what had happened to cause that. I am sure it was just more of a reaction to the medication they had given me the day before, but at the time it was scary for me. The nurses came in with more blankets and that helped a lot.
Finally, around 4:30 AM I believe, I told the nurses how nervous I was that my uterus wasn't staying hard. They were really sweet and calmed my fears. They kept saying "It seems like you've lost a lot of blood when we look at it on paper, but you have to remember how much blood you had to begin with, having three babies inside of you." The explanation helped me calm down and I was able to get a little rest after that. Besides, my Mom was there and ever since I was little I knew nothing bad could happen whenever Mom was with you.
Morning finally came and sure enough, true to the warning given to me by the nurse the prior afternoon, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. That was a tough day as far as pain went. Luckily my uterus was cooperating a little more by then so I was able to take pain medicine again. It was much more difficult to walk that day, but I still made it over to the NICU to see my babies a few times, and my big babies also came to see me, wearing their adorable shirts that my cousin Caryn had made for them:
My mom stayed with me two nights, and then on Friday night my husband stayed with me since the kids didn't have to be at school the next morning. I was discharged from the hospital on Saturday evening. I could have stayed til Sunday but I just wanted my own bed again. It was so nice to be able to lay almost flat again (stomach was still a little too big to get incredibly comfy, but it was sooooo much better than sleeping while sitting up, which is what I had been doing for the last 2+ months of the pregnancy).
This hasn't been the usual recovery. It's definitely been more difficult than my first C-section. I never got to have that baby honeymoon where all I do for days is sit and hold and feed a baby. I feel like I have barely sat down since I got discharged. Life in the NICU is incredibly busy - but that's for another post.
I started back to work after almost 2 weeks. Luckily my job isn't one where I have to be on my feet a lot, but it does require a lot of analytical thinking and brain power, which can be hard on little sleep (don't believe it when people tell you it will be "so nice" to have them in the hospital because "you will be able to catch up on sleep while they're there." At least for me, this couldn't be farther from the truth! Late night pumping, early morning pumping, and getting kids up and ready for school doth not a plentiful nights' sleep make!) I have to admit it has been hard to have to go straight from the hospital to teaching lessons and not hardly have any break in my day. I even have to pump in the car most days, just to have enough time to do everything I need to.
The nice part about this recovery has been the weight loss. At my two week checkup, I had lost all the baby weight plus three pounds! You burn a lot of calories running between three babies in the NICU, not to mention all the pumping. Plus, when you're having triplets, most of the weight you gain is baby and placenta weight, after that, there isn't room for much else! I only gained 37 pounds with this pregnancy. About 22 pounds was accounted for with babies and placentas. I probably lost the rest of it in sheer water weight from the insane amount of swelling I had in my legs and feet for 4-5 days following the C-section. I gained 40 lbs with each of my single pregnancies and the weight took about 10-12 months to come off. I am super happy this one was so much easier! Though I do still have all the lovely excess tummy skin/fat from being stretched from here to Timbuktu.
Speaking of the tummy, I am 4 weeks post op and my abdomen is still incredibly sensitive. Even just something brushing against it can cause me to cringe in pain. Oddly enough, however, I can cuddle my baby against my front and not feel any pain at all :) My belly button is just now returning to it's former "innie" status. I also have a good amount of scar tissue this time around, and still have pain along my incision, which makes it hard to walk sometimes. I often feel like I am constantly being pinched or poked with a sharp object. I am hoping that will get considerably better with time, maybe after the babies get home and we can get into more of a "normal" routine, no more constant running between hospital, school, home, and work. And my feet hurt, but that's because they grew with the pregnancy and now my shoes don't fit right :o)
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