Hospital to Home

I forgot to write about a couple of things from the hospital in the birth blog, and I wanted to document Quinn's homecoming.

Enjoy!

Explanation for this pic: So, the spinal I got for the c-section gave me a spinal headache. It happens to very few people and here is the best way to describe it: when they put the needle in my spine, the hole doesn't totally close up so spinal fluid starts to slowly leak out. That fluid is what my brain floats in and so when I started losing a little fluid, it gave me a MAJOR headache. (If you are in the medical profession, please forgive that awful description!) The issue heals itself, but it can take up to a week. There are a couple of remedies that might help: caffeine or an epidural blood patch. The picture above shows that I tried the caffeine first by drinking lots of coffee and cokes (doctor's orders) and I literally had a caffeine IV. I thought that was pretty funny since people joke about having those. (Now that I am home and sleep deprived, I could use another!) Anyway, that took the edge off the headache, but I ended up having the epidural blood patch because it hadn't gone away. They took some of my blood and put it in my back in the epidural space. The hope was that the blood would clot up the hole where spinal fluid was leaking out. It worked pretty much immediately, and I was so glad. I have never had a migraine, but I assume that's what it feels like.

First family photo.

Quinn posing with my doctor, Dr. Robert Cowan. LOVE HIM and would refer anyone to him!

Getting all buckled in to go home!

Headed home! (I think Jeremy secretly likes holding the car seat to show his muscles.) :) I need to start carrying it around more to start losing some baby weight!

 

Our sweet friends, Jill and Allison, had this sign waiting for us when we got home.

My Mom, Nannie Mae, came and stayed with us for a couple of weeks. I can't even begin to describe how much help she was! She cooked, cleaned, helped with Quinn and helped us keep our sanity when we felt helpless with a newborn. I was especially glad to have her here the first few days when I was SUPER emotional and hormonal. Quinn wasn't gaining weight like she was supposed to, and we were trying to get the hang of breastfeeding (more on that later). It's always good to have your Mom there to comfort you and tell you everything will be okay.

 

Ella wasn't sure what to think of Quinn...she's still a little scared of her.

 The first bath...she wasn't a huge fan, but she has started to like them more.

 Washing her sweet little head of black hair.

 All done...warm and cozy!