Well our first night was long, but fairly uneventful. We all slept in the same room, with Jay in the other bed and Hayden in his little nursery crib. They took him away for a few minutes to check his vitals and whatnot, but for the most part he hung out with us. Since it was Sunday when we woke up, we were guaranteed a pretty relaxing day as the Germans don't do anything on Sundays. We hung out mostly, trying to rest and get the hang of nursing, and Jay left for a bit to take Oscar to the farm and get stuff from the house. He came back to hang out with us, and I took what was probably the best shower of my life while Jay held Hayden and read one of my baby books. All in all, our first full day of being parents went by pretty quickly and without much going on.
Monday came early, because the nurses wanted to change my bed at 6am. While I was still in it. Nothing if not efficient, those ladies! They kept coming to check my belly with their very cold hands, and taking Hayden every once in awhile to check on him. Possibly the hardest thing to get used to is German food, or more accurately, the meals. Germans eat a light breakfast (bread, coffee, a little cheese), lunch is the main cooked meal, and dinner is usually more bread and cheese. No one told me how hungry I'd be after having a baby, so Jay was in charge of bringing me extra food and lots of water. I was also very thirsty, and luckily the hospital had a water dispenser with normal (non-bubbly) mineral water.
That morning around 10am, they came to take Hayden for his circumcision. It was quick and painless (so they say) but I still felt pretty bad for my little guy. The nurses said I needed to let them know when Hayden peed, so they knew everything was still in working order. So we waited and waited, but nothing was happening. By that evening, I was getting a little worried. They told me if he didn't pee, we'd have to give him some tea (from a bottle) which I was very leery of. They say if you're nursing, not to introduce any pacifiers or bottles until you both have the hang of it, to avoid confusion for the baby. But pee he did not, so they brought him a tiny bit of water to get things moving, and gave him a suppository. Boy did he not like that! A little bit later I checked his diaper and there was plenty of poop, but the nurse said no, he hasn't peed yet. I was way stressed at this point, and started to change his diaper with a million thoughts whirling about, hoping my little man was okay. As I was changing him, he decided now was the time to pee, and proceeded to pee all over EVERYTHING. Luckily, most of it missed me but hit the bed, his clothes, the wipes case, the whole 9. I called the nurse back in (who was surely irritated at this point) and she walked in to me up to my elbows in urine, changing him. I said "He peed", and she took a look at the bed and everything around us. She chuckled, and said "He is fine", and walked out still laughing. By Monday night, Jay was going a little stir crazy in this empty house. No me, no Oscar, pretty boring apparently. He now has a new appreciation for what I did for 15 months while he was in Afghanistan. But we had one more day to go, since the pediatrician wanted to check Hayden out the day after his circumcision, which couldn't be done on Sunday. One last night, and we'd be homeward bound!
