And We Ended Up There Anyway...

It took a couple days to recover from Matt's birth. By Monday morning I was feeling awesome; all bruises were fading, and my overall energy was up. Louisa (my midwife's student) had called and said I sounded chipper. The baby was doing great, and really pleasant. Around 11:00 I felt suddenly very tired, and Joe said I should take a nap as the baby was sleeping. I woke up at 1:00 with chills, a horrible backache and a very tender abdomen. Within an hour and a half my temp rose to 102.1. I called Peggy and she told me to go to the E.R. They did blood tests and cultures (which if you know me, you know is very hard for me to do), and couldn't come up with anything except my white blood cell count was through the roof indicating some kind of infection, but they had no idea what it was. They wanted to admit me and give me IV antibiotics (another absolutely NOT in my book). After a while Joe convinced me it was better to do that than go home sick, and have to come back with something more serious or worse. So thinking we might be home by midnight I agreed. The nurse fought me over Lidocane, (a local antistatic) but they gave in. Side note * the E.R. tech was a total ____. They wheeled me up to another floor and as we were getting set up I asked the nurse if we might be out of there before midnight. Her face contorted as she said, "oh, no. Probable 3 or 4 days..." M@#$%RF@#$%R! Bastards. By now I was really upset. After an hour Joe said he'd go get Matt so I could at least see him. I was really happy to see my baby. I had never been separated more than a minute from my newborn, so the few hours seemed endless. Joe and Matt stayed for a few hours, and we decided it would be better for Matt to stay with my mom for the night. I cried my eyes out when they left. Joe stayed with me that night.

The next morning the Doctor came in and said if I responded well to the meds I could go home the following morning. Not what I wanted to hear, but not horrible. Joe left to go home and brave the kids that were coming (it was going to be a full house) with Kaela. Of course I cried when he left... again. My mom came an hour later with baby in tow, and that made my day a lot better. Around 2:00 though, my fever spiked out of nowhere. They gave me meds to keep it down. Kaela visited after she went home from our house, and Joe brought the boys to visit after dinner. He and Matt stayed the night, and my mom went home. My IV was starting to go and they wanted to relocate it, but I said 'hell no'.

Wednesday: I'm going home! I'm ready and excited... until around 9:00 when the Doctor comes in and says I can't go home because of the fever spike. Damn. Joe left with Matt to give him his first bath and I bawled after he left. I've never missed first anything with my kids, but Matt severely needed to de-stink. My mom came back with him all clean and smelling wonderful. A little after she got there my IV was shot, and they had to take it out. They said they were going to have to put it in another location now, because it was no longer working in that spot. Basically, I had so much running through my vein, it couldn't handle it anymore. I was relieved to have it out finally, because I couldn't nurse Matt properly because I couldn't position or hold him well. After such a great start, I feared he was going to get lazy with me and only want to bottle feed. Another real downer. I talked wit the nurse about why I couldn't just go home at this point, and said I wanted her to page the Doctor so I could talk to her. After the nurse left I looked at my mom and said, "I'm done." she gave me a look and I said, "No, I'm done. I've been cooperative, I've done their stupid tests after tests, they still are only guessing I have a uterine infection; they don't know that. I'm going home." I got up and starting packing. After 15 minutes the nurse came back in and said, "Good news! The Doctor said you can go on oral antibiotics now, but we still want to keep you overnight to make sure you don't spike again." Better than nothing. I agreed to stay one more night. Joe brought the boys again, Mom left with them again, and Joe and Matt stayed the night.

I finally went home Thursday around 3:00. As we walked through the doors Joe said, "freedom!". It was so nice to be in my own environment again. Nate was up when I got home and he said, "are you not sick anymore?" I love my kids.

So my absolute fear came true and I ended up in the hospital anyway. It could've been a lot worse, but for me it was bad enough. A special thanks to Kaela and my mom for taking over the child care and holding down the fort while I was gone. An incredibly heart-felt thanks to Joe for making 10,000 home/hospital runs, dealing with my emotions, and being incredibly supportive and understanding. Most husbands would not have done what he did, or would have handled it as well... especially when it came to my emotional fits. But we're all home now, and doing great. I've been a lot less emotional since.