The on call doctor came in about ten minutes after Scarlett was born. He was a little irritated that the bed hadn't been broken down and that we didn't wait for him to have our baby. I mean... WE waited, but my body didn't! Scarlett came whether we were ready or not.
When my placenta came out, it came out in pieces. I was hemorrhaging and he spent the next 1.5-2 hours trying to find the rest of the pieces inside me and stop the bleeding. The nurses were pressing hard on my stomach while he searched for the placenta. My epidural was at the max amount of medicine it could give, I had several shots for pain and to stop the bleeding, and some pills inserted inside to stop the bleeding. Those two hours were a complete blurr of extreme pain, nausea, and the most throwing up I've ever done in my life. Combined.
It was very traumatic. The combination of all the medicines killed my stomach. I had to be laying back so the doctor could pack me and stop the bleeding. I was pretty much throwing up for thirty minutes straight. I was throwing up so much it was hard to even get a breath. I remember the doctor talking about a hysterectomy... It was all scary... so scary.
I don't remember much... Just feeling faint, fainting, throwing up, medicine, major abdominal pain, and the insane amount of pressure from the doctor trying to find the placenta pieces and stopping the bleeding.
Aaron stayed by my side the whole time and mom and Nikki stayed with Scarlett. The nurses had Nikki give her some sugar water since I wasn't able to nurse her.
Around 4:30 AM things started to calm down. I remember waking up and telling Nikki goodbye and fell right back to sleep. Then my mom came over to me and said goodbye. While she was talking to me I remember feeling hot and my hands itched. Then I heard my mom tell the nurses I was breaking out in a rash. Turns out it was a side effect of one of the medicines. So more medicine in me for that!
Aaron kept baby Scarlett next to him by the couch while I slept another hour. I woke up at 6:00 AM needing to use the bathroom. One of the medicines gave me an upset stomach and another gave me a low grade fever. Then I nurses Scarlett for the first time.
When I woke up my right leg felt like it was still numb from the epidural. I remember thinking that was weird since the other leg was already back to normal.
When I lowered it on the side of the bed, I couldn't bend it. And the fire was back. But worse. 100x times worse. I was expecting immediate relief from my varicose veins after delivering. The weight of a baby was off the veins. It was supposed to feel better. But it didn't. It was so bad that I couldn't put any pressure on my leg.
I said goodbye to my nurses that morning and thanked them over and over. They were so caring and attentive through it all. Maybe it was my hormones, but the nurse who took their place wasn't very considerate. I kept wanting to scream at her "you have NO idea what I've just been through!!!!!" Needless to say, I was very glad when she wheeled me out of Labor & Delivery and upstairs to our new room.
As we were leaving our room I started bawling.
It was all so much.
This pregnancy was so much.
The retained placenta was so much.
My leg was so much.
And I was finally leaving that room.
The next two days were ... weird. It was really hard for me to bond with Scarlett. It felt weird. All I could focus on was the burning in my leg and the fact that I couldn't bend it at my knee.
The on-call OB came to check on me that morning and called the vascular surgeon I had been seeing to come check out my leg. Every spot that had a varicose vein was now bright red, swollen, majorly inflamed, and was so sensitive to touch that even the sheets had me shrieking in pain. We found out that I had Superficial Thrombophlebitis, which is inflammation of a vein located just below the skins surface. The inflammation is cause by blood clots. So yes, all varicose veins that I had had clotted. The cluster in my right groin also clotted over into my left groin.
Everything was hard.
Everything hurt.
Everything was incredibly tender and sensitive.
Everything burned.
It was (and is) all superficial. (It's been superficial the whole pregnancy.) Meaning there is no serious risk of having a clot in my deep vein (DVT) or that clot traveling to my lungs or anywhere else (pulmonary embolism). That doesn't mean that it can't happen, but it is very unlikely that it will.
My doctor (the vascular surgeon) said Superficial Thrombophlebitis is surprisingly painful and it would get worse before it got better. He was right. The next few days were almost unbearable.
The whole hospital stay was a blurr.
Lots of medicine.
Lots of crying.
Lots of hurting.
Scarlett did OK with nursing. She didn't seem to pick it up quite as fast as the other two kids, but she got it well enough. Aaron stayed with me the whole time and Sophia and Silas had a great time staying with my mom.
Scarlett was so precious.
All I could do was look at her and cry. I couldn't believe she was really here.
She cried a lot more at the hospital than I remember Sophia and Silas crying. I thought she was going to be my loud baby, but it turns out she is actually very quiet.
She was a little jaundiced but not enough to be put under the lights.
Despite the blurr of our hospitals stay and the whole vein issues, the room was peaceful. It was a nice few days for me, Aaron, and Scarlett to be together.
On our way home to meet brother and sister!
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