Sam: Day 2

My experience recuperating from this C-Section was so totally different that from the 1st one. With Allie, she was born at 1:36 in the morning and by 8:00 I was up walking the halls. I was able to walk and function while having my epidural and continuing to push the PRN button. With this one, I was almost 48 hours after surgery and I still had no use of my right leg. I had a friend of mine taking care of me the second day and she and John had to literally carry me to the bathroom. I was frustrated because I couldn't get up and take care of Sam by myself and I was scared because I knew that the longer that I stayed in the bed, the worse it was going to hurt when I did get up. So I would drag myself up to the side of the bed as often as I could hoping that it would help, but in the end, we had to pull my epidural early so that the feeling would return to my legs.

My second, not-so-fun, experience was with breastfeeding. I have to admit that I was not committed to breast feeding with Allie and therefore I was not successful. With Sam, I really wanted to try hard to see if I could be successful. It was like I tried it my way with Allie and it didn't work, so I ate my words and asked for help from the "Boobie Nazi's" aka the Lactation Consultants. I realize that breastfeeding can be a very touchy subject and believe me, I know the benefits for breast milk. What I am going to share is my experience and thoughts because of my experience. I did EVERYTHING I was told to do. I wouldn't even let them bring formula around Sam for fear that he might get the idea that he wanted some. The point when I realized that maybe there was a happy medium between their "truths" and my previous convictions was when I had a hysterical baby in my arms while 2 women I didn't know "milked my ducts." There was a line that I thought could not be crossed in losing my modesty with child rearing and I mean to tell you we did the tango right on over that line and about mile down the other side of the beach! The memory of that moment still makes me laugh and then seriously doubt my sanity! The fact is, Sam is not the most patient of babies, and he cares absolutely NOTHING about breastfeeding. When he is hungry, he wants his milk YESTERDAY! He would get so worked up and suck down so much air that he would have horrible gas pain. All for what?! I would be in tears and so would he. There was nothing natural or nurturing about the experience. So I pumped and fed him the nutrient-rich milk in a bottle.

In the middle all of the craziness going on with numb legs and feeling like a dairy cow, they came to get him for his circumcisim and I totally lost it. Here I had done nothing but frustrate him with feeding, I couldn't even change his diaper, and now I was sending him away to be cut on. It was not a pretty moment for this Mommy. When he got back they came to do his pictures and I thought there was no way they would turn out good, boy was I wrong. Hospital pictures have sure come a long way in a short time since Allie was born!

 Ok.... tell me what you think.... Picture on the left is Allie and the right is Sam. Minus Sam's frown, I'm thinking they look almost identical. Though I totally did not think it at the time.