Revolving Door Ward

If you clock the time I spent in the hospital from the moment I gave birth it rounds up to 31 hours. I was offered another day but decided to go home. Why rush it? I wasn't trying to prove anything, I just felt there was more support at home than in the hospital.
A recent Daily Beast article makes me think I should have spent another day but then again the reason I went home was based on support.
It would be easy to blame it on insurance companies, but I think the issue comes from shrinking hospital staff and trying to fill many women's need of being in control of their delivery experience.
I for one was a little surprised to hear the baby would be with me from the moment I delivered. Couldn't someone else watch the baby that first night to let me get a full night of sleep?
Nope! There little Peter slept in his crisper while I tried to sleep off the drugs and the pain I was starting to feel.
I changed every diaper myself and I fed him without instruction from the first moment. I got some bang up meals delivered to my bed, but otherwise it was me, the baby and below basic TV.
So I headed home to the care of my mother and husband.
But I pushed it too much there too. Some how I figured I had to be a trooper and do SOMETHING other than lay in bed if the hospital was sending me home. Hindsight I should have taken a shower and curled into bed. Instead we took family pictures and sat around talking. The next day we were out to the pediatrician for a check up where I once the feeling of manning up was reinforced. If the doctors want the baby in the office they expect you should be bringing him.
So when a client called with a gig 4 days after delivery I said yes. It wasn't heavy lifting, why turn it down? Well if I had known I would faint 6 hours later I maybe would have reconsidered.
I have a feeling that will be the mantra of motherhood for me "If I had known, I would have reconsidered".