Doing Time at U of M (3/2/09 - 3/3/09)

After our super-eventful delivery, Lily had to be on antibiotics for 36 hours and I had to be on them for 48 hours so we got to enjoy an extended hospital stay. Things went pretty well for me after surgery. I got to get up and move around pretty early the following morning so my first priority was to take a sponge bath since it had been forever since I had been clean. Halfway through the day they took out my catheter but they still wouldn't let me eat until I had bowel sounds which didn't happen until dinner time which meant that I went three days without food. My pain was not bad at all except when I had a few negligent nurses who didn't give me my medication on time. Then I really felt the pain of the surgery.
Poor Lily developed jaundice which is pretty common. She had to be treated with the biliblanket and had a ton of heel sticks to check her bilirubin levels which she hated!
We had tons of visitors at the hospital including many people from work, Paul's parents, Rachel, and my friend, Amy. Paul spent the first night at the hospital with me but had to go home the second night because there was no one who could watch Rachel. It was hard being on my own because I wasn't too mobile but was trying to tend to Lily while she was tethered to the biliblanket and we were both tethered to IVs. There were quite a few tangles!
We had the option of going home on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning but I chose Tuesday night so I could finally sleep in my own bed and would have Paul's help. We had to make a pediatrician's appointment for Wednesday to have her bilirubin levels checked but we got to go home without a biliblanket as her bilirubin levels normalized. We were advised to supplement her breastmilk feeding with formula, at least until my milk comes in, as her weight dropped 8.5% from 3.530kg to 3.230kg and the more she eats and goes to the bathroom, the faster the bilirubin is flushed from her system. We left the hospital pretty late. My mom came home to stay with us so that she can pick Rachel up from school while we are at our doctor's appointment. It ended up being very helpful having her there as Lily had quite a restless night and my mom took her for most of it.
Here are some pictures from our hospital stay:

Lily received a very late night bath and got her footprints taken:

Lily meets Grandma Maureen:

Lily meets her big sister, Rachel:

Lily and I relax together in bed:

Lily looks like a glowworm with her biliblanket on:

sleeping with her mouth open:

my adorable perky girl:

getting ready to go home:

our family exiting Mott Hospital: