Our hospital stay

Needless to say, we were in the hospital much longer than expected since I had a c-section. We checked in Saturday evening fully ready to be gone by Sunday, but after surgery I wasn't discharged until TUESDAY. Which meant having LESS sleep than I would have had at home, and the boys were left to fend for themselves the first part of the week. Poor Hayden, he just didn't understand why mommy and his new baby sister couldn't come home. Sunday was a blur of doctors, nurses, feeding, changing, sleeping, eating, visitors and the like. I remember being surprised that I wasn't in much pain. I think it was late Sunday evening before my incision finally started to hurt and I needed a pain pill.

By Monday, I was ready to go. My doctor came to visit; the attending doctor who delivered her came to visit; her pediatrician came to visit. Then there were the people who needed to record her information for the birth certificate, the nutritionist and for the love of God, the lactation consultants. Here's the thing. I breastfeed. I judge not people that bottle feed, but I choose to breast feed. I did it for six months with Hayden but am planning on going the full year with Lila. Is that enough for the lactation ladies? No. They want to hear all about her wet and soiled diapers, want to know how often and long I'm feeding, want to "score her latch" while she's feeding...here's an idea, how about "don't call us, we'll call you"? They drove me nuts. My favorite? Every time they checked her sheet and wrote down that she ate for 15 minutes an hour ago, they'd look over the list with pleasant smiles and nods. Then they'd get to the previous page and find out *GASP* what happened after she was born.

What happened is that her blood sugar was low. So low that they couldn't give her a bath because a drop in her temperature would cause it to go even lower. So while I was in recovery, they brought her to me to feed. She latched right on, but the poor kid was just too tired to eat. So they took her back and said we'd try again later. They called from the nursery and asked if they could give her a small amount of formula to try to get it back up. After six months of nursing Hayden, I'm not an expert. But I'm a lot more comfortable this time around, which means I'm not a purist. I'm not worried about "nipple confusion" or my c-section preventing us from "adequate bonding" or that the taste of formula will RUIN her for the milk I make. I let them give her a syringe of formula. I LET THEM FEED MY BABY FORMULA. Oh, the displeasure on their faces when they saw that! I feel like I could have told them I was a meth head and they would have been fine with it, as long as I was still planning to breastfeed exclusively.

 The great thing about Monday was that Emily was there to have baby Link, and I got to go see her! I was ready to be up and at 'em and dressed and walking on Monday, so I walked down to her L&D room. Which, as luck should have it, had been my L&D room! Emily was excited to see me alive, as they had just told her a c-section was a distinct possibility for her. Nothing like seeing another Salem sister to make you even MORE excited about the birth of your baby! All told, I believe four Salem babies were born that weekend.

I did rather enjoy the room service experience, and my nurses that went to every corner of the hospital to find my cranberry juice. I was an easy patient, never paging them (why would I? They were in every hour regardless!) and my only request was the cranberry juice I had become addicted to since I was allowed liquids again...so they obliged. They kept saying how easy I was and how they wanted to do more...all I wanted was sleep and my own house. And the juice.

On Tuesday I expected to be kicked out by "check out" time at 11. So I ordered my breakfast early, packed us up, did my hair, etc. Jay got there at 10. Car seat was ready to be inspected. Lila was dressed. The only problem? No one seemed interested in discharging me on time. We waited and waited, and finally someone showed up. Oh wait, she's the picture lady. It was well after 1pm before my discharge doc came in, asked two questions and left. Then we had to wait again, for them to write up my notes and discharge papers. A little after 2, we were in the car and headed home. Without any cranberry juice for the ride. But with a sweet new girl snuggled in her seat, ready to go to her new house!

Now what?

A baby story

So we've been a little busy. But I figured I should update so I can remember all the details later!

On Saturday, January 21st we had a pretty normal day to start. Hayden and I got up and watched cartoons, waited on Jay to get up, cleaned and did some laundry. We didn't have anything planned for the day and were just hanging out as a family, enjoying the relaxing day. We ate lunch in the living room, and as I went to get up from the loveseat I felt something funny. Then I realized...my water had broken! I said to Jay, "Um, my water just broke?" and he jumped up, running upstairs to change (and get me a towel). Once I felt like I could safely head upstairs it dawned on me that I wasn't yet having contractions. To me, this meant I had plenty of time so I decided to take a shower and get myself "ready". Jay was a little surprised at my calm, but I knew we had plenty of time.

I showered, blow dryed my hair, finished packing our bags and the like while Jay got himself, Oscar and Hayden ready for a night away from home. Hayden was super excited to be going to my brother's, as was Oscar. We stayed pretty calm so we wouldn't scare him, but all the while I kept thinking "I cannot believe this is happening". Once I was finally ready we headed over to Eric's. I called my OB's office to figure out who the doc on call was and as luck should have it, it was my least favorite doctor. Figures. We dropped off the little guys and headed to Women's Hospital to get all checked in, a process I had made a little faster by pre-registering when I found out I was pregnant. The nurses did a few things, and walked me down the hall to labor & delivery.

We got settled in and found out I was only dilated to 3 cm. Nurses kept coming in and asking the same questions, I had monitors on me and an IV and was just sort of hanging out for a long time. We watched Duke lose to Florida State, and shortly after I asked for the doc to check me so I could make my decision on the epidural. He came in and found that while I was fully dilated, our Lila Bean was still fully breech, and informed me that they just don't deliver breech babies naturally anymore. Lots of stress on the mother and the baby, so we would need a c-section. As I had never even read that chapter in my baby books, I told the doc to get comfortable as I had questions.

He and the nurses walked me through the procedure, and everything started to happen really fast. I had a hairnet and Jay had a too-small gown, I was signing things while being wheeled down the hall, and then they took me into the operating room. Jay had to wait outside a bit while they prepped me. My anesthesiologist came in, talked me through the spinal block and all of a sudden I was laying down, losing feeling from the chest down and trying not to worry. Jay came in, and really wanted to watch the whole surgery but the nurses wouldn't let him. Bogus! I literally could not feel a thing, but then heard the nurse say, "Ok dad, I see a butt...stand up." He stood up, I heard a strong cry and felt the most enormous sense of relief. She was okay! In uncharacteristic fashion, I started to cry like a baby. It wasn't long before I got to see her in Jay's arms and she was just beautiful, with a head full of dark hair. My water broke at 1:30pm, we got to the hospital at 3:30pm, she was born at 8:21pm. Another quick delivery!

Jay watched as they cleaned and measured while I got stitched up and wheeled to recovery. I hung out there for about an hour and they brought my sweet baby to visit. At three weeks early she was a healthy 7 lbs, 8 oz and 20 inches. She looked so much like Hayden, and I couldn't wait for them to meet. I fell in love with my little girl immediately, this little eager beaver who just couldn't wait til her due date to meet us!

Doctor's Appointment, 32 weeks, 5 days

What an exciting appointment! We did the usual pee-in-a-cup, weight, check blood for iron, blood pressure. Everything was fine. My blood pressure was a little low but the doctor wasn't concerned so we aren't either.

He spent a lot of time on the ultrasound, measuring and whatnot. Hayden is already 5 lbs! Hard to believe because for so long he was just a wee little thing and now he's almost a real baby! Well, you know what I mean :-) Our doctor said he's a little bigger than average, by about a half pound (I blame Jay) and is measuring about a week ahead of my due date. So he may come a little earlier than November 30th. It was hard to get a good 3D visual this time, but it was fun for Jay and I to see him in there.

After we finished up, we headed to the hospital. The hospital where I'll give birth, St. Joseph's, is about a 3-5 minute walk from my doctor's office. That's good news, because if it's in the middle of the day my doctor can just walk right over when Hayden's ready to make his entrance. He showed us where to go in and where to park, where to check in and into the maternity ward. It's a lot different than I thought it would be! The ceilings are high and lofty, so the whole section of the hospital seems very roomy. He showed us the two rooms where I can hang out when I'm still a bit away from delivery, to relax and listen to music or watch tv. The maternity unit is staffed by nurses and midwives, who will examine me to check dilation, contractions, etc. But the whole thing seems pretty laid back. He showed us a delivery room, which is very un-hospital like to me. It's not white and sterile looking, but has dimming lights, a bathtub (not for birthing, but just relaxing) and a bed, monitors and a scale. He said after delivery I'll spend about 2 hours there to make sure the baby and I are okay.

After that, there are the rooms I'll spend the rest of my hospital stay in. The rooms are set up for single or double occupancy. We have the option to reserve a single room when we get there, for a small fee that our insurance doesn't cover. In addition, we can also pay out of pocket to have Jay stay the night. We discussed it, and think we'll reserve a private room, and have Jay stay the first night. After that, we figure he can be at home with Oscar and getting us the things we need and visiting us, but sleeping in our bed. Basically they prefer to have the baby in the room with the mother for 24 hours a day, unless mom needs a break! Then the midwives will take them to the nursery and bring them for feedings.

The midwives are also staffed to help assist mothers with nursing and other new-baby things. Typically, if everything goes well with the baby and the mother we'll spend about 2-3 days in the hospital and then head home. If we have an unscheduled C-section we'll be there about 4-5 days. Europeans do not favor the c-section or the epidural, and seem pretty laid back about birth in general. Now that we've seen everything, it's even more exciting, and definitely more "real" as Jay pointed out.

We have another appointment in two weeks, where we'll continue to see how Hayden is growing and where we stand. It's getting close!