Memories of leaving the hospital

I never expected to stay so long and feel so entwined with Kaiser Permanente on Geary. First, I must say that I am 110% satisfied with the quality and personal care I received. I had high expectations based on my prenatal care, but the labor, delivery, OR, and recovery teams were just amazing. We went through rounds of shifts with all the variety of teams and personalities, but I ALWAYS felt my needs and desires were considered first. I felt like I was at some luxury facility and I was a special celebrity. I would happily be one of those cheesy "these guys are great" gushing candidates to put on an advertisement.

In addition to everything being explained to us, and our wishes respected, once in recovery, we got one-on-one nursing/swaddling/diaper advice from the staff each day and night. That's one advantage of having to stay longer in the hospital; we got a lot of lessons to take home (nevertheless, breastfeeding IS quite hard...and I'm still astounded at how challenging it is).

I actually had a slight complication with my c-section incision and could have stayed longer. Well, I shouldn't say slight. I haven't had the courage to actually look at "the complication," but judging from the reactions of Dav and my mom who have seen it, it's pretty significant. Basically I have a seroma. A blood clot prevented my incision from healing between the layer that keeps my guts in and the fat/skin layer. At this point, the best is to let it heal inside out, slowly. So I have a big open wound. I'm on vicodin, and as long as I'm on schedule, I can move around and deal with the twice daily cleaning that Dav does (Dav is so good). Luckily (and this is my MAIN concern), this all doesn't affect breastfeeding, so lovely Tesla has not had a drop of anything else but my milk. I would have been beside myself if this complication forced us to use formula for Tes. So, I keep focusing on the bright side.

Leaving the hospital was emotional for sure. Being wheeled down in a chair, holding Tesla while daddy was weighed down with all our stuff, seeing others smile at us for our new beginning...all underlined the marking of this new chapter. I felt like I was coming out of a cave. As I waited in the lobby as Dav to get our car, I had a few moments to sit with myself and appreciate the trust Tesla had in us. We were about to take Tesla out into SF, a world that was going about its business as usual. For Tesla, it's another layer of "outside" to experience. So many more firsts to come...