Your Friend, the Epidural?

I keep getting these pregnancy e-mails from babycenter.com and parents.com, etc, and this is the one that arrived in my inbox today. Perfect timing! The wonderful epidural that I received on Thursday has had a wonderful side effect...let me explain (oh, and I also thought about naming this blog post "Jeremiah's First Trip to the ER", but I didn't want to freak out any of my loyal readers).

So apparently, between 1% and 5% of people who receive an epidural can get something called a "spinal headache" as a result of fluid being taken out of the spinal area when the epidural is removed. SOOOOO, lucky me! That is what I was dealing with since Saturday. Let me just say.... I have never had a headache like that before, and hope I never experience it again! It was throbbing in my head and in the back of my neck, and I could only "function" if I was laying down! Can't do much that way! So we decided to call the Dr. Saturday evening (the day of our discharge) and he suggested going to the ER. Great. So we packed up our little bundle and headed BACK to the hospital (so the trip to the ER was for me, not Jeremiah), where they diagnosed a spinal headache, gave me 2 bags of fluids and pain meds through an IV and a prescription for Vicodin. By later that night I was feeling fine, obviously! However, I woke up with a worse headache Sunday morning. The only other option to get rid of this spinal headache was to do what is called a "blood patch," and let me tell you, that is just about as fun as it sounds! :) So we ended up back at Mercy hospital Sunday evening (thankfully Grandma Wiers was able to stay home with Jeremiah), and I had the blood patch preocedure done (this involved having an epidural put BACK in, then having blood taken from my arm and put into my back. This apparently replaces the fluid lost when the original epidural was removed). Anyway, I'm not sure about how all that works, but it made me feel 100% better, so I am glad I did it! And those of you who know me well, know that I HATE all things medical (hospitals, IV's, gurneys, you name it!), so this has been QUITE a week for me. :)

So, now that we are all back on our feet and doing well, I figured it was time for another post with some pictures of Jeremiah (Grandpa Wiers has been requesting more pics!). Jeremiah is doing well! We went to the Dr. for a weight check today. He was 8 lbs 3 oz at birth, 7 lbs 11 oz when we were discharged, and 7 lbs 13 oz today. So he is gaining! It is hard for me to believe that this teeny little guy is STILL smaller than he was when he actually came OUT. Crazy. He is a good eater and pretty content (so far). We are enjoying having Grandma Wiers here to help out for the week (and I think she is enjoying being here as well...), and also cook some meals while she is here. On the menu tonight-- cauliflower soup! Yum! :) We're looking forward to Grandpa Wiers coming back this weekend, and hopefully Aunt Abby will be coming the NEXT weekend. I'll leave you with some more recent Jeremiah pics:



All bundled up and ready to head home from the hospital!



Snuggling with Grandma Wiers before leaving the hospital.



Jeremiah and Mommy!