Journey

So I am writing the next part of my story. Gaahh! Some may say that delivery by C-section is as easy as 1,2,3. But hell no! It is just as terribly painful as the normal delivery, but the pain comes after surgery. Just imagine being bed-ridden for 3 days, you can't even move because the suture site hurts a lot, no solids for 2 days, and the mere fact that a urinary catheter is attached to you. I had to move very slow, and the coughing part was very much excruciating. Good thing I am, or I was once a Respiratory Therapist, i know how to cough by putting pressure on my abdomen using a  pillow. But still, it was so yayay. What was even more painful with our situation was I could not see my newborn baby since she was not allowed to go out of the nursery. Because of the meconium stain, she was given antibiotics for 7 days and was isolated in the nursery to minimize infection. I still could not mobilize myself so I could go to the nursery to have a conscious glimpse of her, and to start breastfeeding asap. My hubby would only take pics of her in the nursery and show it to me. 

But my mother instincts suddenly pushed myself to move around  so I could sit into the wheelchair and embrace my baby at the nursery. I did it after 1 day and 15 hours post surgery.

Seeing her for the first time when I was not already drugged with anesthesia was Love at first sight. There was that first feeling that she was a total stranger to me,and i thought to myself  "Is this really my baby?". It was a mixture of emotions I could not describe. I could just sit there at the nursery all day staring at her, at this angel that God has given us. Wow! We could not believe that we were capable of making a lovely baby. She is truly a God-given blessing.

The nurse taught me the basics of breastfeeding since I was a first time mom. My milk did not came in yet, but the nurse advised me to just let my baby suck in order to stimulate milk production. She had a good suck after like an hour of brushing her cheeks to stimulate her to suck. I got exhausted already after almost 2 hours at the nursery, I had to go back to my room so I could rest. I told hubby that it was hard for me to visit her at the nursery just to breastfeed since my wound was not healed yet. Hubby was so worried he could not bond with our baby too since he was leaving in 5 days. So we asked Doc Jun, our pediatrician if we could take our baby to the room so we could take care of her ourselves. Since Doc made a strict decision not to bring her home unless the antibiotics were finished. He agreed, we were so excited to bring our baby to the room already. Everyone was enthusiastic to see her upclose, the proud lolo and lola, my brothers, and my pamangkins. There goes the "sinong kamuhka, kanino nagmana" stories already, and we inspected every single body part. It was a once-in-a-lifetime happy experience. 

 It was just so sad that we had to experience our "firsts" in the hospital. first nappy change, first bath, since we had to stay 7 days there for her antibiotics. It was for her health. What was more sad was the thought of hubby leaving in 5 days. But everything has to happen that way, the brighter side of the story was our baby was perfectly healthy amidst what happened to her inside my tummy. I was also fine after the C-section. We could not ask for more. This is only the beginning of my journey as a mother, and our journey as parents.