Month: July 2014

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**Part 2**
**Part 3**
**Part 4**

Since the nurse came in and said that we needed to get breakfast ordered by a certain time I woke hubby up and asked him to call in our order. We both looked at the menu. I ordered Biscuits and Gravy with a side of bacon and peaches with orange juice to drink, he ordered a ham omlet with bacon with orange juice to drink. Our hospital is awesome because they make it so the father’s (and kids) can order off the same menu and it’s one flat price.

Once they brought breakfast and hubby and I ate, the nurse came in to check on baby girl and me and to bring me pain meds and a prenatal vitamin. After that they let us be. Hubby and I started watching Friends and I had baby girl in the bed with me. After my nap with her, hubby took her so I could get up and go to the bathroom and they took a nap together.

At one point that morning a social worker came in to visit with us. Apparently that’s the new common standard, everyone has to talk to a social worker, that’s what she told us anyway. It seems strange to me because none of my friends have experienced this. Anyway she asked us questions and I upset her… note to self, never tell a social worker the carseat is in the trunk. I must clarify that we packed everything for the hospital 2 weeks prior to needing it, just in case so I put it there so I had use of my back seat. She asked if we had a carseat for baby and I said, yes it’s in the trunk. She got on to me for that. I clarified for her that the carseat base was in the back seat, but I carried the carseat in the trunk until it was needed. She yelled at me prior to my clarification and told me Babies NEVER ride in the trunk and I should never tell a social worker that. 

Between naps we had visitors come to see us. We had the preacher, Deb, Michelle & Shaye (they brought cupcakes!!),

my mom and Tbug, my MIL, my FIL and so many more I kind of lost track. It was fun because they came between naps so we got to nap on Friday. Around 4pm just before Doug and Rachele got there to see her the nurse came to take her away and do some testing as well as the hospital photos of her.

We had exceptional nurses our whole stay at the hospital. The last night there though (Friday night) we had nurse Nazi as we affectionately referred to her. There was a standing rule that we were only allowed 5 people in the room, including hubby (guests, not Peanut or me in that 5). All during our stay there were a few times we had a few more but people came and left so it wasn’t like I was over the limit long. That night though Earl and her mom walked in on 5 people already in the room and nurse Nazi kicked them out. Told them they were not allowed in until 2 people left.

Okay that was the rules but dang, the director of obstetrics never got on to us about that… but okay. Then that night she yelled at hubby for dozing off with baby girl in his arms. If he was going to sleep, she had to be in the bassinet. Again, we’d taken naps with her all day but okay. I was in the shower when that happened. Then later in the night hubby was asking the nurse about feedings and it took forever to get an answer out of her. Oy! Luckily that was the only night we had to deal with nurse Nazi.

So there is no nursery. The babies stay in the room with the parents at all times unless the nurses take the baby out to the nurses station. They offered that night to take her but I figured she’d be okay with us. Then around 2am when she wouldn’t quit crying and hubby and I were exhausted, we asked the nurses if they’d be able to watch her for a couple hours so we could get some sleep. They came in and took her so they could give her a bath and kept her until around 5am when they brought her back in the room. They took my vitals and we all went back to sleep.

**Part 1**
**Part 2** 
**Part 3**

After they had her all cleaned up and gave her to hubby and me, they asked if we planned on bottle feeding or breast feeding. Said that if we planned on breast feeding we needed to try within 1 hour after birth. Finally once the nurse had all of her information/procedure done including removing the IV’s and the catheter from my epidural, she said we were allowed to have 5 (including hubby) visitors in the room. I honestly can’t tell you the order anyone came in. And I was having a hay day because I still couldn’t feel my legs.

They told us that they had a bet going on in the waiting room on how much she would weigh. Tbug came in with the most accurate at 7lb 9oz. Then Memaw, Grandma J and Earl guessed 8lb 2oz. Mom guessed 8lb 1oz, my FIL guessed 8lb 6oz and my dad guessed 11lb 2oz so that when she came out at 6lb 9oz we could laugh.

Earlier that morning I woke up sooooo thirsty but watching all the tv shows where people have babies, you’re not supposed to drink anything so when this was all said and done the first thing I requested was water. Yup, water. I could have had anything I wanted to drink (obviously within reason… lol), the nurse offered and all I wanted was water. Then we also ordered suckers that said It’s a Girl for everyone since it’s no longer cool to give out cigars… lol :).

We chose to use the pediatrician that Earl uses for her kids which just so happens to be one of the two who comes into the hospital and also happened to be the on call pediatrician this week. She came in to check on Peanut and said all looked well. Yey :).

We had lots of visitors. In fact later on the next couple of days I started listing the visitors and can’t remember them all I’m afraid. I have a huge list though!

Then our nurse came back in to give Peanut her bath. She wasn’t so crazy about the sponge bath.

Finally they released me to eat. Thank goodness! I was hungry. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. YUM! I woofed my food down. Mom and dad went home to do chores and eat dinner and then came back to pick up Tbug since she wanted to eat dinner with us.

The nurse got tickled at me because as my legs were waking up I kept commenting on how they felt. For the most part my right leg was completely back awake other than a few spots here and there still felt asleep but my left leg… that was another story. I could feel from my knee down but from my knee to my hip still was out of it come around 7-8pm. I had asked at 4 how long it would take to come back and they said about an hour. By the 7-8 time I really needed to go to the bathroom. The nurse was afraid to let me walk to the bathroom though because she figured since my leg was still like it was I would wind up on the floor.

She wound up changing the bedding so she agreed to let me move from the bed to a chair she sat next to the bed. Since I did so well moving there she grabbed my left side and made hubby grab my right side and they walked me to the bathroom in case my leg gave out. I had no problems though :).

Earl had gone home earlier that evening but somehow (whether she offered or hubby asked) she went to our house to pick up some things we left earlier that morning. One of the things hubby had her pick up for us were seasons of Friends since that’s what we normally go to sleep watching anyway. We were trying to create a sense of normalcy in all this chaoticness.

Everyone left us around 11pm that night. Hubby and I were exhausted.

The nurses came in around 2am (Friday morning) or so and took the Peanut off for a bath and to run the hearing test on her which she passed with flying colors. Then when they brought her back, they took my vitals and asked when the last time she had been fed was. The funny thing about these nurses were they were the same ones that checked me in at 2am (Thursday morning). I told them we’d tried feeding her but I was afraid that she wasn’t getting anything so we decided to give her a bottle to make sure she was at least getting something in her tummy. So we had our first of many of 3am feedings.

Then we went back to sleep. Hubby kept the bassinet next to him since he was able to get up easier than I was. She would make noises in her sleep so I’d wake him up, he’d check on her and we’d go back to sleep. Around 7am Becca came in to check on us and take my vitals. She asked how I was feeling and I replied, Exhausted. She said, okay well I’ll come back later to do more. Just to let you know it’s almost 7 and if you want breakfast you need to order it by 8am or so to get it down here.