Turns out your timing was perfect because my blood pressure spiked pretty badly right after you arrived (199 over 145). I wasn’t awake enough to be worried, but everyone in the delivery room was, especially Daddy and Grandpa. I was too busy feeding you your first meal. They gave me a few doses of medicine over the next hour or so, but they weren’t helping, and out of concern that I might have a seizure, they started me on a magnesium IV drip and moved me into the high-risk pregnancy section rather than regular labor recovery. Magnesium dulls your nervous system, so my arms felt like lead and I was very groggy for the next 24 hours, but between Daddy and the lactation consultant, we were able to make sure I could keep cuddling you and feeding you, even if I couldn’t actually lift you. By Tuesday night, I was able to come off the magnesium drip and I started making more sense right away – Daddy had been a little unnerved by how out of it I was, but I got better pretty quickly after the medicine was gone and I was able to have something other than clear liquids. French fries and chocolate chip cookies and iced tea from Max & Erma’s were what I wanted for dinner and it tasted SO good, since I’d not had anything other than juice and Jello since a piece of toast around lunch on Sunday.
Wednesday, my blood pressure still wasn’t low enough, so we had to hang out a bit longer, but I just got to feed you and cuddle with you and rest, so I didn’t mind at all. By Thursday morning, they thought you had a touch of jaundice and were concerned, so we were afraid you were in for another night in the hospital. I really just wanted to get you home and settled in our space (and get a shower!), so they scrambled around and found a light blanket and you came home as a little blue glowworm.
The ride home was the most terrifying car ride of Mama’s entire life! I’m still not sure exactly why. I wasn’t scared to be bringing you home – couldn’t wait, in fact. I think it was probably partly that we’d been in such a still, quiet, monochromatic environment, and suddenly, in my overly emotional state, we were out in the world with all these colors and noises and things moving and I was absolutely petrified that something would happen to you somehow. It didn’t help that an ambulance and fire trucks passed us. You slept through the whole thing, of course, but I cried and cried and cried so hard that I could hardly breathe. Scared Daddy pretty badly and he was thinking he was going to have to pull over and let me calm down, but we made it home and then things were so much better. I was so excited to start our life at home with you that I forgot all about how scared I’d been when we got home!
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