The Days Following the Birth

A few pictures from the days after we brought Isabelle home from the hospital:

Chandler like to join her for tummy time:

My boys heading off to church on the Sunday before Christmas! Seeing as Isabelle was only like a week old, we couldn't make it...

2 days after be brought Isabelle home, we had to go to a doctor appointment to check on her eating and make sure she was gaining weight since she didn't do so well with eating in the hospital. When she left the hospital she had dropped to 5 lbs 11oz, It's normal to lose a little weight, but by the time we had our doctor appointment she had dropped to about 5 lbs 6 oz. She also had crazy bad reflux, so even when she ate she wasn't keeping it down. The doctor was worried that maybe she had a stomach blockage and sent us to the hospital to get her bilirubin checked and to get x-rays of her stomach. She handled it like a champ and even downed the gross chalky stuff she had to drink before the x-ray (seriously? she wanted that over milk?!) It was pretty intense to spend hours doing theses tests, shuffling around the hospital when I had just had surgery myself and being super worried about my baby. All the doctors and nurses were so nice and understanding. And thankfully, the tests came back showing no blockage. It did show that she had reflux going up to her collar bone. Poor baby! So we just had to keep coaxing her to eat as best we could. It was a little easier to force in down her with a bottle, so I started having to pump all the time and then just bottle feed her. I would still try to nurse her once or twice a day so she stayed used to it. And then we would just keep her upright as best as we could to help her keep it down. She finally began to gain wait and through the next few weeks I would just bottle feed less and nurse more until we got her exclusively back to nursing! One blessing that came out of all this was that I did not have the horrible time with breastfeeding that I did with Chandler. Slowly building up how often I nursed allowed me to toughen up before I had to do it full time.

Just like after Chandler, we stayed at my parents so Mom could help me out while Josh was at work. My last c-section was brutal, and I ended up staying at my parents for like 2 weeks. This time was much better! We only stayed for about 4 days and then I felt well enough to go home!

Isabelle Marie Benson

Isabelle Marie Benson

December 15, 2014

2:05 pm

6 lbs

19"

At Waccamaw Hospital, Josh was allowed to go into the nursery and be a part of the process with Chandler, but here, he had to wait outside the nursery. My family was there, too, and got to see her for the first time! I spent about 45 minutes in recovery and then they brought me up to my room, where I waited anxiously for them to bring me my baby. For HOURS. We kept asking over and over for them to bring her in and they kept saying that they would soon, but she never came. Josh said she was just sitting in a bassinet in the nursery; they weren't even doing anything with her! At this point I was bawling and Josh and Mom were starting to lose it on the nurses. Finally one of them told us they hadn't brought her in because we had to go through a "training" first. To which we told them to do the stupid training so that we could see her. The training consisted of 3 minutes of a lady asking us questions like "is there smoke in the home?" and "do you have a carseat?" Really? I couldn't be holding my baby while they went over that?! Finally, after 2.5 hours, I was finally able to hold my beautiful baby.

She is the sweetest, most perfect angel! Her eyes are pretty gray, so I think they will ultimately be brown like mine. She has dark hair, a little thin on the top. She has flawless baby skin and the cutest little button nose. I could just stare at her all day long.

That evening, Chandler was able to come meet his baby sister for the first time! It was so sweet to watch, he loves her! (And I can't narrow these down to a couple of pictures. I can't.)

(These are technically from Day 2)

She had fun meeting Nonnie, Grandpa, Halston, Jordan, Kaitlyn, and Maylee, too!

We were in the hospital until Wednesday. One of my biggest worries about the hospital stay was Chandler. I didn't want him to feel like he was getting the shaft, and on top of that, he has a hard time sleeping anywhere but his own bed. Mom and Dad were kind enough to take him for a few days, and it was a huge weight off my mind. He had the time of his life and slept great for them!

We spent the next few days in the hospital getting to know sweet little Isabelle. It was so amazing to finally have her here! I've had her name picked out for over a decade and couldn't wait to have a daughter. It's already everything I hoped it would be.

The hospital stay improved after the initial anger over them holding Isabelle hostage after she was born. The nurses were all very nice and attentive. I had a fair amount of pain, but it was manageable. It seemed a ton better than right after I had Chandler! Maybe because I didn't labor for 14 hours first, so it wasn't quite as hard on my body.

The first time I nursed Isabelle, she latched right on and did an awesome job eating for the first 24 hours. But after that, she pretty much refused to eat. Even after about 5 hours. We would rub her back and change her diaper and do everything we could to get her awake so she would eat. But even after she was completely alert, she would refuse to latch. Even the nurse didn't know what to do. She said to just let her eat when she wanted, and then see the pediatrician as soon as we could after leaving.

She took to her pacie immediately, however!

On Wednesday afternoon, we got all packed up to bring our princess home! She came home in the same outfit that both I and then Chandler wore home from the hospital.

So tiny in her car seat!

Arriving home: