Day 17

Excitement/Disappointment

Excitement: Wyatt was born on 07-25-05. A healthy baby boy, 10lbs 12oz, 22in long. He is a big guy!! Katie and I went to the hospital to see him for the first time and to check on my sister Patti. While we were there visiting Wyatt did what babies do best; he slept. While he slept Katie and I unwrapped him so we could look at this hands and feet and feel his soft skin. I also took advantage of this situation to snap approximately 50 pictures. Katie and I took turns holding him and getting our pictures taken with him. It was all very exciting! It is amazing to me how incredible the miracle of birth is. The whole time we were there Wyatt was calm & cool, but Patti on the other hand was beginning to feel the pain of her C-section.

Disappointment: The birth of Wyatt went well. Patti did not experience any pain during the process except for the initial spinal that she was given to basically numb her bottom half. She told me that the pain meds she was given during the procedure contained some amount of morphine. The meds did their job...and then they began to wear off. (I should interject here and let you know that of my two sisters, Shelly received all of the genes for pain tolerance. Needless to say, Patti is not good with pain. Now I don't want you to think that I'm insinuating that what Patti went thru was not painful. I understand that a C-section is major surgery and is/can be extremely painful; I'm just saying that Patti doesn't handle pain well.) It is my understanding that after a C-section has been performed, the woman is supposed to be up and walking 6-8hrs into her recovery. This is supposed to be done to help with fluid removal, keeping the skin around the wound stretched out, and to reduce gas build-up. On this particular point, the nursing & doctorial staff dropped the ball. When we arrived at the hospital (around 7:30pm) one of the nurses came in the room and in passing, mentioned to Patti and my Mom that she [Patti] should have been up and walking by now. Due to the fact that she hadn't been cared for properly her belly (which is now void of the baby) is so full of gas bubbles that you would never know she had delivered the baby. Her doctor came to check on her yesterday and was pissed that the nursing staff hadn't cared for her properly. I guess he should have taken better care to keep track of his patient! Anyway, her doctor informed her that she will have to stay at the hospital for an extra 2 days due to the problems created by their lack of care.

See ya.