Hospital Stay Part II

After we were out of surgery, Kate and Daddy P took care of the baby matters in the nursery, and they wheeled me off to recovery. I was joined by my family soon thereafter. (Daddy P will have to fill you in on his version of this story later.) We got to spend a little time together in the recovery room and not long thereafter they got me into our room upstairs. Kate stayed for a little bit, and we tried our hand at breastfeeding. It was a largely unsuccessful endeavor, and then they took her off to the nursery for more sticks and pokes. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see her for quite some time after that.

Kate stayed most of the evening in the nursery at that point because she was breathing too rapidly. We were told later that this is pretty normal for pre-mature babies (which is what they were considering her at 36 wks 5 days) because their lungs still have fluid in them so they work extra hard to get them dried out. Daddy P spent time in the nursery with her checking on her and making the nurse there feel really bad for me that I wasn't getting to see her. He was so effective at this, in fact, that the nurse brought her down to the room at 3am even though she wasn't "supposed" to. I got a chance to feed her before they wheeled her back upstairs and it went better than the first try. Oh, I forgot to mention that Daddy P was an *awesome* advocate for baby Kate, including making sure they didn't give her a bottle. Instead they fed her some formula via a little tube tied to the nurses' pinkie finger.

That night was pretty painful for me and I took advantage of the Percocet. I accomplished the goal of sitting up, which my brother-in-law told us was step #1.
We finally got her for good early that morning, and she spent the rest of the day with us.

Friday she met her Texas grandparents and her auntie Pam came by to see her and check on me. The lactation consultant came to visit and gave me some help (yay for lactation consultants!). Kate is very good at nursing though and pretty much taught me what I needed to know. Daddy P ran home for a shower and to take a nap but missed us so much he ended up coming right back as soon as he was clean. (He's so cute with her it just kills me.) I made my first small walk (to the bathroom, woo hooo!) and by the end of the day got all my tubes unhooked (sweet freedom). Even better, I got to take a shower!! The most amazing feeling! I saw my stitches in the mirror and got a little woozy, but other than that I was managing well.

That night we decided to have her room-in with us (which I felt was a brave move, but Daddy P strongly advocated for it and was willing to get up and bring her to me to feed her). Our doc encouraged us to take advantage of the nursery which would keep her but bring her to us to nurse, but we both felt that it was a little over-stimulating in that room for an early baby. We decided her little brain needed the dark and quiet of our little room to do some last minute development it was getting cheated out of.

For one reason or another (jaundice or her small size) she wasn't waking up to eat enough, so we were told to wake her up every three hours to eat. This I was not expecting. I thought that *I* would be the one she'd have to force awake to feed her. But nooooo. Every three hours we engaged in a crazy routine to try to wake her up. We tried turning the light on. Changing her diaper. Tickling her foot. Stroking her cheek, her back, her leg, her foot. Taking her clothes off. Putting a damp cloth across her cheek. She is a heavy heavy sleeper. It went much better than I had expected, largely due to Daddy P's wonderfulness and his ability to annoy Kate awake.

Little did I know that we would be getting less sleep that "normal" because one nurse or another would be poking in every hour. Daddy P was awesome in getting up to bring the baby to me, and managed to semi-sleep through most of the nurses' visits. I had brought ear-plugs (the one thing I would not be there without) so I was able to sleep through hall-noise and the nurses' checking on the baby.

Saturday we started supplementing my feedings with some formula. The nurse also had me pump to keep everything going, which was a fun activity to figure out. Between having a tube taped to my lady parts and then squeezing them I was feeling very much like a science experiment. Despite all these attempts, her bilirubin levels were going up and the doctor said we needed to keep monitoring her jaundice. I took a slightly longer walk down the hall (yay!) and was feeling a bit more mobile.

By Saturday night I was tired enough that with my ear plugs in I was sleeping through the nurses' visits throughout the night, including the visits when they were trying to check on me. Daddy P said that at one point the clinical assistant came over and began to pick up my arm to take my blood pressure and I didn't stir at all. Daddy P didn't think this boded well for Kate being able to wake me up. I was tapering of the heavy meds and just relying on Motrin, so things were looking good.

Sunday her bilirubin levels still went up a bit, but the doc was hopeful that they were topping out, and gave us the okay to go home. Every nurse and doc that day kept asking if we wanted to go home, to the point that I started questioning the decision. Were we ready? Did they know something we didn't?? I do want to go home. Please? Can I? So we went. :)

Kate's bilirubin is still high. She got poked again today, and we head back tomorrow. The doc has her on formula for every other feeding at this point, so Daddy P has been helping with some of the feedings graciously to let me sleep a little more. His pinkie finger is getting mighty sore I think. He said he had a new appreciation for what I go through.