The Watts Spot: Our First Few Days

We were able to come home with Hannah on Thursday (2/16) afternoon. We were all happy to be home! Thursday night around dinner time I started to develop a headache. I've had about two headaches in my life and they were nothing to speak of, so I definitely noticed when my head started hurting. I still didn't think too much about it though. I talked to Bert and my mom about it and we all agreed that we were sure it wasn't the spinal headache that the anesthesiologist warned me of b/c it had been almost 60 hours since I had delivered (they said if I were to develop the spinal headache it would most likely be within the first 48 hours after delivery). By the next morning the headache was much worse. I took Motrin and it literally didn't touch the headache. I waited a little while and tried some Tylenol and the headache just kept getting worse. Friday afternoon we had our first doctors appointment for Hannah. My friend Jen came over to watch Emily and my mom went with me to Hannah's appointment. She got a great check-up, but as we were leaving I found myself wanting to hold my head. My entire head was throbbing....it wasn't just one area of my head. We decided it was probably time to call my OB and talk to them about the possibility of it being a spinal headache. The office closes early on Friday, so I spoke with the doctor on call. Once I described my symptoms she was absolutely positive it was a spinal headache...she said it was a "classic spinal headache." She told me that I needed to treat it exactly as I would a hangover. Ha! Thankfully she went on to tell me how to treat a hangover, because if she hadn't I was going to have to ask.:) She said that I needed to drink a glass of water, then a glass of Gatorade, and then a glass of some kind of caffeine. I asked her how often I should drink these three drinks. She paused and then said "No, you don't understand. You DON'T stop drinking. As soon as you finish one glass you start the next." She went on to say that drinking these liquids continually cures the spinal headache for a lot of people, but that if it doesn't then I would need to go to the ER in the morning so that I could meet with the anesthesiologist about getting a blood patch. I started praying right then that drinking these liquids would take my headache away and that I wouldn't have to go back to the hospital.

Once we got back to the house after Hannah's appointment (about 3:30) I started drinking water, Gatorade, coke, water, Gatorade, coke, etc. etc. My sweet mom just kept bringing me drinks and reminding me to drink. I laughed and told her she was being bossy, but I really appreciated her so much. I wanted that headache gone!! By about 8pm and who knows how many glasses of liquids later my headache was sooooooo much better. By about 11pm it was completely gone, praise the Lord!! We were so so thankful that my headache was responding to drinking these liquids.

Friday night was a bit of a crazy night. Poor Hannah was feeling the effects of my drinking caffeine all afternoon and night. I spoke to the pediatrician about me drinking caffeine to try to get rid of my headache (because I was breastfeeding), and she said that it wouldn't hurt her but that it would probably maker her fussy and uncomfortable. Well it sure did. We couldn't calm our sweet girl down. While I was so thankful to have my headache gone, I felt terrible for making Hannah so uncomfortable. She ended up crying most of the night. About 2 am I was rocking her in our new glider and it broke. Talk about bad timing! (The company ended up sending us a brand new glider...great customer service.) Not long after the chair incident (maybe 3am) Bert started to change her diaper and she literally peed all over our bed spread. Once we put everything on to wash I was sitting on the bed holding our 4 day old baby and I couldn't help but start laughing. It was definitely a night to remember!! About 4:30 we decided it was time to call for Mimi, who was asleep in the living room. We didn't want to wake her up so early, but we needed to get a couple of hours sleep. Mimi jumped up and was happy to help!!

I was awake most of the night Friday night so you would think I would have done a good job of continuing to drink liquids. Wrong. I guess I was too preoccupied with my crying Hannah to worry about drinking anything. Plus, my resident nurse was asleep so I didn't have anyone encouraging me to drink.:) Anyway, I woke up Saturday morning with another headache. I quickly started drinking again and after two rounds of liquids it was almost completely gone again. Woohoo! That was the last of the headaches, praise the Lord!!

Sweet Hannah....4 days old.

I love my little girl!

Bert really is the best Daddy! He is so happy to help with anything and everything. As I type this he's in the kitchen washing Emily's sippy cups. He's so quick to help with middle of the night feedings and he jumps at the chance to hold either of his little girls. I love him so so much!!

These photo shoots are thanks to Mimi. She kept pulling out her camera and snapping pictures of her grandbabies. I'll try to keep the pictures coming now that she has gone home to GA, but I'm sure there won't be quite as many.:)

Hannah snuggling with Daddy while he studies.

I L.O.V.E. this picture.

Stephen and Alison came by on Sunday so Stephen could meet Hannah. She just kept looking up at him....so sweet.

My cousin, Kristi, and her husband, Jay, came by to meet little Hannah and bring us dinner. They live in Durham and just got married on January 7th. It was great to see them and the soup Kristi made was amazing! I'll definitely be adding it into our meal rotation.:)

My Aunt Kathy (Kristi's mom) gave Emily a baby doll called "Baby Stella" for us to give to her after we got home from the hospital. Emily LOVES baby Stella. She carries her around and all the time and loves feeding her and taking care of her. So sweet.