I loooooove the hospital, and after Clarissa was born I settled into my room and focused on enjoying my stay to the fullest. I celebrated by ordering meals every two to three hours. Everything tasted delicious. I love hospital room service so much.
The nurses were so kind and uniformly helpful, and I remembered some of them from Ammon’s birth. One of them, Katie, told me her horrible birth experience, and I felt so sorry for what she had been through. Her second child was a VBAC, and part way through the birth she was begging for a c-section for the pain. They refused to give her one and she ended up with massive tearing. The recovery from her birth AND having a two year old at home sent her into a depression, and she has been on antidepressants ever since. She is now a grandmother. I felt so bad hearing her story.
Before Abe went home on Friday night, we spent the last several hours together in the room with Clarissa. It was so sweet to just be together and rest after all of the excitement of the day.
I loved my first night in the hospital and spent most of it with Clarissa right next to me. At one point I did send her to the nursery for a couple of hours and tried to sleep, but for the most part we were together.
On Saturday Abe came over in the morning and spent some time with us before everyone came over to greet Clarissa again. Every time he came through the door during my stay at the hospital, I felt like it was Christmas or something. It was just so great to have him around.
At home, Suzanne arranged a treasure hunt for the kids. They were SO excited by it! Again, the pictures are with Abe, so I will put them up when I get his pictures. But this was a huge highlight for the kids.
Around lunch time, Tom, Suzanne, my mom and the kids came by to see Clarissa again. Ammon was, once again, elated to see her and got really sad whenever he wasn’t in a place where he could see her, point to her, and yell, “Baby!!”
Saturday evening was our stake luau. Abe accidentally arrived after it ended, so he and the kids ended up just playing in the park with some neighbors.
After he got the kids to bed, Abe made my day again by coming over. He arrived after the kitchen closed, and I was hungry again. After all the meals I ordered and ate, you’d think hunger would be impossible, but I guess it wasn’t impossible for me. So Abe got me some food from the hospital cafeteria and we ate, talked, and rested together before he went home for the night.
I slept a lot more on Saturday night, which was sooooo nice. The nurses were really concerned that Clarissa follow a strict feeding schedule and eat every two to three hours. I tried to be as compliant as possible, but at some point I started to put my foot down and expressed my opinion that she would eat when she was hungry. It was pointless trying to get her to eat when she was not.
After I expressed my opinion a couple of times, they relented a little and let me feed Clarissa on Clarissa’s schedule. At that point, feeding became much more natural and more successful–all at once. I remember with Lydia setting a timer and waking her every two to three hours to try to get her to eat around the clock, and if I hadn’t done that, she might have been a terrific sleeper from the get-go. As it was, I think I conditioned her to nighttime wakings, and I learned my lesson for my other kids.