Hospital Healing and Melt-Downs

Not So Two-Shea- Hospital healing and melt-downs

Little Cora with her elephant from Grandma and Grandpa Zittergruen

I was so excited and terrified to bring our little girl home.   The three days at the hospital are really kind of a blur.  The first two I was feeling physically rotten and also walking on air.  I was sooo tired, but I was on a caffeine high (and I didn’t have any coffee until Wednesday!).  I LOVED the visitors!  We really had visitors come at ideal times during the day, spaced out.  Steve told a few people they should wait to come see us at our home, and while at the time I knew he was right, I just wanted everyone to come whenever they could.   I wanted to show off our little girl!

I really had fallen in love with the ‘call nurse’ button.  We had been told multiple times to take anything we could home from the hospital (like diapers, brush, pads…) and I couldn’t quite figure out how to take the ‘call nurse’ button.  I asked Steve if I could get a bell..and he said no.  Actually, he said something a little more colorful than that, but you get the point.

I am going to backtrack a little bit to Tuesday night.  I did have a little mini melt-down Tuesday night.  You know…”What were we doing thinking we can take care of this fragile little thing?  I am not ready to go home tomorrow!  I really don’t want to break the baby!”  So, I was wandering the halls.  Cora was in the nursery that last evening and I was trying to get some rest.  I went to go see her.  While I was looking through the window a young man came wandering down the hall.  He wandered over to the window to look through.   He looked tired, and stressed, and a bit lost. 

I asked, “Which one is yours?”  He pointed to the boy on the far right.  He then told me that his little boy had arrived just that afternoon.   I congratulated him and said that his wife and he must be walking on air.   His face dropped, and so did my heart when he told me that the delivery didn’t go very well.  Their little boy was ok, but his wife had lost too much blood and was in ICU at that hospital.  It looked like she would probably be ok.  

It is hard to know what to say to someone after hearing that.  I just listened and offered my sympathy and prayers.   I can’t imagine how torn his heart was that night…elated by the birth of his first healthy son, but images of the hell and uncertainty that his wife and her health had been through.   I had remembered earlier that day something going on…the nurses had been very stressed and our check-ups had been delayed quite awhile (which we were fine with because I knew something was going on). 

So…that really was a wake-up call for me that night.  I realized how fortunate I was that everything went very well, and while I was in some pain and discomfort, it was normal and I would heal.  I would have so much help at home too.  I somehow held it together until I got back to my room and then I cried, this time for him and his wife.   Sitting here now I think about them.  Are they home?  Is she any better?   I pray that their family is together. 

I really loved our stay at Mercy Medical Center.  I am very glad that little Cora waited until after midnight on Sunday, July 8^th to come meet us, because if she would have come a few hours earlier we would have been discharged on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, and I NEEDED that extra day at the hospital.  By Wednesday afternoon though, especially with my mom and sister there, I felt pretty ready.  

Both of us in our going home outfits

Steve had that Monday off (she was born 4:00 A.M. Monday morning), but went back to work on Tuesday for the rest of the week.  He could have taken more time off, but his shop was going to be closed the entirety of the next week. 

Steve visiting during work while we were at the hospital.  He forgot to bring clean clothes, so did skin to skin 

 I was very fortunate to have my mother and father with me most of the day on Tuesday and then on Wednesday my sister too. 

So, Wednesday morning came.  My mother and sister brought up lunch so I again wouldn’t have to eat the hospital food and we went through our discharge instructions and were soon on our way home.  I felt much more prepared to go home than I thought I would.  Maybe it helped that I knew I wasn’t going to be alone. 

Going home pictures