Harriette is 3 Weeks Old Today!

Harriette is 3 weeks old today (Wed 5/28). Can you believe it? I sure can't. My sister went back home on Sunday (Terry is graduating from police academy this week - Congrats Terry!) My mom and dad left this morning for the graduation up in the Sacramento area. Today is my first real day alone with the girls. I've made it out of the house once by myself (the park for about 10 minutes) and yesterday my mom and I took the girls to Molly's last "Dance for Fun" class.



So I got out of the hospital on Sat May 10. We had the first well baby check up on Tuesday May 13 - everything was fine. Dr. Fukamura - very nice dude - really liked him. Harriette had only lost about 3.5oz since she was born (totally normal). I got my staples out on the same day. Around 3 or 4 am on Wed the 14th I started having some pretty intense stomach pain. Brian took me to the emergency room (LB Memorial). We brought Harriette but called my sister to pick her up later because fortunately they didn't want her in the ER and fortunately my sister and mom were around to watch the girls We were in the ER for 12 hours and then they finally admitted me for endometritis (uterine infection). I had antibotics through an IV and was there for 5 days. Fortunately Harriette was able to visit so I could nurse a little bit. Brian's mom was able to come that weekend to help with watching the girls and giving Brian some rest (poor guy!)

As for the c-section, it went very well - good surgery staff. Dr. Spieser is an excellent surgeon. We had to wait for the assisting surgeon. The epidural hurt quite a bit and Brian couldn't be in there for that. He had to wait down the hall and once they were ready to go, they brought him in. Brian took the photo in the operating room (pretty nice, eh? This photographer was impressed).

I was in recovery for about 7 hours due to some heavy bleeding and for some reason due to the fact that the nurse wasn't very good at the computer program where she had to log my status. I was fine until they brought in another new mom who got sick so I started feeling sick and then I threw up a lot and for the rest of the night. I didn't really get to see Harriette until after I was in my room (but I was pretty out of it).

They finally got me into a room. I was supposed to get the "suite" because there were not many women delivering that day but the nurses had one of their own occuping that room. I ended up in a room right across from the nurses station. That was not fun because they were loud and for some reason eventhough I was right across from the station - I couldn't get a nurse to help me when I needed it right away. Brian was there with me and Harriette the entire time. We let Harriette go for baths and tests but that was it. We didn't trust the nursery staff to take her very long so therefore we didn't really get any rest.

I was NOT happy with the nursing staff overall. There were a few good ones but overall, especially when I needed it the most, nobody was around. They were supposed to check on me every hour and the worst nurse (Grace) filled in the log at the end of the day saying she came in every hour when in fact she did not. My doctor filled a complaint and I will do the same soon.

I did however get pretty good treatment at Long Beach Memorial when I was hospitalized for the infection. I had a really nice and CLEAN private room and good nurses. My only complaints were that in the ER they couldn't get me a breast pump for 12 hours (ouch!) and that one nurse put one of the many IVs into my hand too close to a bone and it hurt a lot (again, ouch), and that on one day the on call doctor forgot to check in on me. My doctor only saw me once and of course I couldn't get ahold of him to ask him any questions (that is my medical group - Harriman Jone's fault though). Dr. Spieser is leaving that group at the end of this month. I have a follow up with him tomorrow then he's out of there. I'm not sure if I should follow him or just go with someone else.

OK I've written quite a lot. I'm very very tired. Harriette is up every 2-3 hours at night. I forgot how much time is spent nursing and changing diapers. I've spent quite a lot of time falling asleep on the couch. Then Molly wakes up and I can't nap until she does. I know it will get easier.

Anyway...I'll write more as I remember it. I think I'm going to combine websites for the girls. It will be hard to maintain 2 sites for each plus my photo website. I'll let you know when I have it up and what the site will be called.

Hope everyone is well. Lots of love to you all! Harriette is crying again - gotta go.
C