It's been two weeks since I had surgery and Baby I entered the world. I'm planning to go back and describe some of what happened in leading up to his arrival and the days following, but it will take some time. I didn't realize how all consuming newborns could be!
We are both home now. Baby I was discharged from the hospital's NICU on Tuesday, May 5th and we joyfully came home to a clean and organized home (courtesy of C, my parents, and C's mom). It was exhausting. I suddenly didn't have NICU nurses to take over one of Baby I's early morning hour feedings so that I could get more sleep (yes, they told me to take advantage of this opportunity while we were there, so I did). And I (we) was now responsible for all of his care, which is overwhelming. Per his dr and the nurses and the lactation consultant, I was to keep breast feeding (my choice), then supplement with 22-30ml of breast milk from a bottle, and finally pump - all of this every 2-3 hours. I know a lot of you have done it, but when there isn't any help, that's a substantial amount of time and dishes, especially at 3 or 4am. We're still figuring it out. I don't sleep much, but I hear that's typical.
My dr's appointment was this morning and it went well. C and Baby I came with me and the dr just reminded me to take it easy and to remember to eat and drink enough. She noted my feeding/bottle/pump schedule and asked me how long I could keep it up and I honestly answered that I'd already dropped some of the late/early pump times in exchange for better, longer sleep. She approved of this tactic. I also found that if Baby I eats well from me, I can get away with pumping less frequently and for a longer duration and get approximately the same amount of milk. It will all work out. Dr said my ankles looked great (i.e. I have ankles again instead of cankles - they still surprise me) and my blood pressure was back on the low side of normal. My scar is healing great and we had a brief conversation about birth control - that's probably another post altogether, but I'll just note for now that the idea of birth control after everything we've experienced makes me (as in a personal, closely held feeling) very uncomfortable.
Baby I's appointment was this afternoon and we were holding our breath for two reasons: weight gain and vaccines. The bottle supplement is specifically to encourage Baby I to gain weight and I was almost closing my eyes as C put him on the scale at the dr's office (after cleaning up a colossal dirty diaper that surely would have added a few ounces). He was born at 4'6, dropped to 3'12, and was at least 4'7 when we left on Tuesday, so I was delighted that he had gained 6oz and is now at 4lbs, 13oz! He's also grown an inch to 18in, or they were able to stretch him out a little better. We opted not to circumcise him after I did quite a bit of research, so we didn't have that to worry about. The green crusty eyes are just immature tear ducts. Everything else looked great. We were concerned about vaccination, but I haven't had time to research them as well as I would like to, but my (so far) uninformed, common sense thoughts are these: vaccines are, for the most part, good, but more recently, more vaccines that could be considered unnecessary or misrepresented have been introduced - some for diseases that are rare, difficult to contract, or even moral reasons - and as his parents, we want to dictate what gets put into his body (especially after all the recent decisions that were made for us/him in his best interest). We also do not want him getting 4-6 shots in a single visit, as that cannot be beneficial, nor do we know how a vaccine intended for a 6-8lb newborn can affect a baby under 5lbs. So really, we aren't even declining vaccination, we would just like to wait a bit, do some research, and maybe visit the vaccination thing when Baby I is bigger. But the HepB is right around the corner, which is one of the reasons we've been looking for a dr who will delay vaccination - might have found one in my own GP.
So, we're all good and well and tired, even though we've had tons of help (moms and sister) and even meals delivered (courtesy of my work pals - wow!). And at two weeks, we're as healthy as anything!
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