Week 1 Postpartum: Hospital stay and bringing the baby home

Tuesday, July 9th

The day after I gave birth I woke up well rested as the midwives took care of the baby during the night. 

I was not happy that she probably got fed formula during the night (I wanted her to be exclusively breastfed), but at least I was able to sleep and recover from the delivery.

Breakfast was brought to me at 8am and after I finished eating I was hoping to see my baby. I waited in the room, but since no one came I went outside to go get her on my own. She was getting bathed when I went to the nursery. I waited until they were finished and took her with me to my room.

The midwive came and showed me how to change diapers and how to breastfeed her correctly. It took some time to figure out how to get her to latch on correctly (The first days of  breastfeeding really really hurt).

My day then consisted of feeding the baby, changing the diaper and holding her when she was crying (which she did a lot!). She usually calmed down when I put her on my chest, so most of the time I had to hold her.

The first day I was still rested from a good sleep the night before, so holding her wasn't a problem.
My mother-in-law came to visit again that day and brought me fresh fruit and yoghurt. My husband went to the city hall to register the birth, so he could not make it, which I was very sad about.

The day after giving birth I got a celebratory meal for lunch, which was a bit better than what I usually got (the hospital food was very bland and tasteless, especially the bread in the morning).

The day went by with the doctor and nurses cane a couple of times a day to check on me and the baby.

Wednesday, July 10th

The first night with the baby was scary. I constantly had to check whether she was still breathing. Since breastfeeding didn't work that great yet (my milk didn't come in yet), I was still supplementing with formula every three hours. My goal was to get a way from formula as soon as possible, so I tried to get her to latch on as often as possible. 
The first night I mainly spent feeding or holding her, I hardly got any sleep.

The following days went by in a similar pattern. 

The third day in the hospital my milk finally came in, but my breasts hurt so bad feeding my baby was a torture every time. I wasn't sure whether I could continue if it stays like this. I looked up various ways to get a better latch, but in the end nothing helped. The only thing that gave some relief was lanolin nipple cream. 

I pushed through the pain of breast feeding, but on the second night with the baby I had a minor mental breakdown. Every time I tried to out the baby down she would scream and not stop. I eventually called the nurse to see if there is something wrong with her, but I was told that she is fine. I was asked if I want to take her to the nursery, but I refused. I wanted to take care of my baby by myself.

I survived the night and managed to get some sleep when the midwife took her for some testings. Taking a shower also helped with my mental state. I was still bleeding a lot and the constant sitting down to breastfeed was still hurting quite a bit.

Thursday, July 11th

On the third day after giving birth a blood and urine test was done and I was shown by a midwife how to bath the baby.
My in-laws also came to visit again since my husband had to go to work that day.

I also started to feel confident enough that I was producing enough breastmilk to skip the formula bottles the midwives gave me to supplement with. Unfortunately this also meant less sleep at night, but I was willing to take that over feeding my baby formula.

Friday, July 12th

On the day before going home the midwive weighed the baby before and after feeding to see if she got enough milk. She had gained over 60 grams in one feed, so I got the ok to officially skip the formula! Overall her weight gain was pretty good and she was back to her birth weight again already.
Some other tests were done with the baby in the morning, which gave me some time to shower and catch up on sleep.
In the afternoon I got instructions on life with a baby at home. My husband, my mother-in-law and my husband's nephew also came to visit again.

At night the doctor did an exam again to see if everything was healing well (it was!) and like this my last full day in the hospital ended.
I was looking forward so much to finally go home. Everyone in the hospital was super nice, but my room felt like a prison to me. I also couldn't get the rest I needed during the day, since constantly the cleaning lady or the midwives came into my room. I was ready to finally go home.

Saturday, July 13th

The last day in the morning I got some more instructions and the baby had a final check up.
At 10:30 am my husband came with my father-in-law to pick us up and finally I was going home!

The same day at night my in-laws had ordered Sushi for all of us (I was craving sushi the whole pregnancy).
I used the breast pump to get some milk (around 50ml) so I could take the baby with us to my in-laws house. I was surprised at how well everything went. The baby slept almost the whole time we were out.
It felt so nice to be back home again and have some normalcy. It was way easier for me to relax at home and my husband took care of all of my needs!

Breastfeeding still hurt really bad, but I managed to push through it. I was telling myself that it will get easier eventually.

Sunday, July 14th

The first night at home was not much better than at the hospital. The baby woke up constantly and I wasn't able to get much sleep. Thankfully my husband took care of changing the diapers etc., which gave me some rest. All in all I was very grateful for my husband just being there with me. It made me feel less alone like I felt in the hospital. It is a lot of pressure to feel responsible for a human being on your own and ir took a lot of this pressure away from me to have my husband with me.

From this day on we slowly started to settle into a daily routine.