Although, I tend to fill my schedule or to-do lists with more than could actually be accomplished in a day. Or in 9 months.
E arrived earlier than planned. At 36 weeks, my water broke and 13 hours later our little man arrived. The whole birth process was easy, thanks to an epidural. I was a little worried about how E might be affected by being almost 4 full weeks early.
When he was delivered the nurse, Becky, grabbed him from my chest after just a moment saying, "He's a little too limp" and commenting that she wanted him to make more noise. E was whisked away to the warmer where daddy went with the camera and I was left on the bed trying to pretend the doctor wasn't doing anything else in my nethers (placenta, stiches... uh!) I listened across the room as the nurses explained things to Tim the new dad. "His color is looking better already." "Do you see how his chest is moving? That's what we need to watch." After a few minutes, Becky swaddled E and carried him over for me to see.
See. Not to hold.
"We're taking him to the nursery. He's having a little trouble breathing," Becky explained. "A couple of breathing treatments and he should be just fine." When I asked how long he would be gone - I hadn't even held him yet - she said each treatment would only take 15 minutes. That seemed like both a short time and a long time. However, I wanted E to be able to breathe well and stay healthy, so away he went. Luckily, Tim snapped this photo of our little man before he left.
It was only 45 minutes before Becky wheeled E and his bassinet back into our room. I was in the middle of eating lunch, but quickly pushed the tray away to make room for my boy. (Food has no meaning when you finally get to hold your brand new baby for the first time.)
The rest of the day was a blur of visitors, adventures into breastfeeding, and poor attempts to grab a nap between interruptions.
The next day we had a new, unexpected adventure with E. The nurses informed us that E's bilirubin levels were high and the pediatrician wanted him placed on bili lights. For some reason, this brought on the tears. I hadn't cried when E was born, I didn't cry when he was taken straight to the nursery before I could really see him. I did cry when I saw a bassinet that had lights in the bottom where the padded mattress used to be. E was to be velcroed inside, up to his chin, except when we were feeding him. This meant we couldn't hold him or love on him like we wanted. Or, more importantly, like I wanted. My mother-in-law and husband gently reminded me that this was all to help E stay healthy and get rid of the little bit of jaundice he had. My mom's comment was that it was normal for many newborns. For me, the whole bili bed was just too much for my exhausted, emotional, hormonal brain. There was one benefit, beyond the medically obvious. We had ourselves a cute little glow worm.
Our hospital stay was extend by half a day so that E could have a full 24 hours under the bili lights. (Think of a tanning bed for babies that puts off light but doesn't give you a tan.) We were warned that he might need to go back under the bili lights, but that we could do this from home. Unfortunately, we found out yesterday that E did need the lights again. I'll get to that later. For today, I just wanted you meet the little boy who rearranged my end-of-the-school-year plans. Do I mind? Not one bit. Who could when the baby is this adorable?
Over and out,
Stephanie
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