My Hospital Stay

The second part of our birth story really is our time in the NICU and my time on the Mother Infant Unit. As far as my stay was concerned it was ok. The first day they only gave me one Tylenol with Codeine and I SUFFERED. By the end of the second day I had this terrific nurse named Jaime. My day nurse looked at me every time I whined about the pain like I was a junkie looking for drugs. Jaime, on the other hand, had three sections herself. When I told her what they were giving me she immediately called the doc and had them put me on two Tylenol with Codeine and a 600mg Ibuprofen. Needless to say, day three was a hell of a lot easier than day two. I still had to call the nurse every time I needed my meds (which was annoying) but I wanted to stay on top of the pain.

The other battle I was (and have been) fighting is the breastfeeding. I had every intention of breastfeeding from the first moment, but it didn't happen that way. Since the girls went to the NICU with very low blood sugar they had to give them formula. I figured my milk would come in easily and I could switch them to breast milk. Day two came and went with me pumping and trying to nurse. But no milk. On day three came the colostrum. I could pump about 6 drops per side, so we gave that to the girls in their bottles. Day four came and still no milk. The colostrum was drying up and the girls were more interested in their bottles than trying to nurse and get nothing. I consulted with the lactation consultant daily and she was terrific. She told me to keep hydrating, pumping and trying to nurse. I could give you the blow by blow of the next few days but the long and short of it is that I am 9 days post birth and still waiting for the milk to officially come in. I pump and nurse Gracie and still get very little. It is extremely frustrating. Both girls would do better on breastmilk and I wish I could give more to Abby. I am not giving up and still keeping up my routine. Hopefully I am just a late bloomer.