The Hospital

Well I'm a little late with posting this, but figured I'd give you all a little info on the 48 hour greatness of being at the hospital after you have a baby.

First of all it sucks. You're in pain, you have a brand new baby that's crying, and people keep walking into your room non-stop. Basically good luck getting any rest. It's pretty much impossible.

Let's talk about pain. Make sure you ask for ibuprofen and oxycodone. You'll need both. The worst part about the meds is the fact that you have to continue to ask for it. Wake up in pain at 2am? Yep you need to call the nurse in and hope her walking in doesn't wake your sleeping 1 day old.

Be sure you use all the products they give you. My hospital had these ice packs that were also pads. They don't last very long obviously since that area is very warm, but the coldness on your lady parts feels amazing. Basically you take the ice pack pad and stick it to the normal huge pad, then put this loveliness into your disposable underwear. You are seriously styling now. By the way disposable underwear sucks. They aren't very tight and they aren't really shaped like underwear. They look more like two triangle pieces of fabric sewed together at the crotch. Also they don't really keep everything nice and tight so chances are the mess will probably leak out the side. Meaning you'll probably get blood on your disposable underwear, the pee pads they make you sit on in bed, and you're stylish hospital gown. My advice, don't wear your own clothes. I wore the hospital gown, disposable underwear, and hospital socks almost the entire time I was there. I didn't want my own clothes or items getting ruined.

On to another hospital stay topic, your baby. Your baby still probably won't be breast feeding that much. Especially if you have a boy and get them circumcised. Boy babies tend to shut down for a full 12 hours after being circumcised. The pain is so much that they just decide to sleep through it. Anyway your baby, your cute adorable oh my god what do I do with this thing baby. Luckily while your in the hospital your baby should be sleeping a lot. Also you shouldn't be doing much of the daily tasks with your baby, leave that to your husband, partner, whatever. Your job is to focus on getting better and making sure you get the hang of breastfeeding. Have your partner do majority of the changing, swaddling, etc. You just sit in that hospital bed and try to enjoy your pain meds. Another good thing about being in the hospital is having the nurses to help. The nurses are also great because they can take your baby away to the nursery for awhile. Awhile meaning a max 3 hours. So there's your sleep, 3 whole hours. Then they will bring your baby back to you and he or she will probably be wide awake when it's 2am in the morning. Take advantage of your 3 hours, it's glorious.

Speaking of your baby make sure you buy some actual newborn clothes. Everyone will buy you 0-3 month clothes that are all super cute. You'll think you have enough clothes, but trust me you don't. Go to Babies R Us and buy the newborn onesies in a pack. Nothing on a hanger, the stuff on hangers is too big. Buy the pack of 4 that's covered in cardboard and tape. Also be sure to grab some of Babies R Us footy pants for newborns. There's your outfits for the first 2 weeks. Newborn onesies and footy pants. If it's warm out maybe just the onesies. Then you'll need to find some socks. Try to find premie socks. Regular socks won't fit yet. I remember folding all the 0-3 month clothes thinking they were so small. They definitely are NOT! Trust me on this one, buy the boring onesies in the pack.

There's some of my advice on your hospital stay. Most of it is grueling, but at least now you have an adorable baby instead of a huge stomach? It's the little things in life.