Whew, that was the best, yet hardest, few days of our lives!
I should note before I write. This hospital does not have a nursery for babies. The parents have constant care of the baby and everything is done in the room, except any procedures that require a sterilized/surgical room.
Late Saturday night after everything settled down and we had our celebratory Braum's dinner (I just had a mint chocolate chip shake and it was Heaven!) they took us from the nice, huge birthing suit, up to one of the smallest, crappiest hospital rooms I've ever seen. Honestly. The bed looked and sounded like it was the first electric model of hospital bed, the thermostat didn't work, there was no room to even walk in there. It was AWFUL. But we were tired and, to be completely honest, I don't even remember much from that short little night in that room. I do, however, remember the nurse; she told me that she had never seen a woman so swollen and "painful looking" down there. Geez, thank you so much for that! She made up for it by bringing me lots of ice to sit on and pain pills... and helping with Elliott since I couldn't reach him because he was stuck at the foot of my bed due to the lack of space in the room.
Sunday morning the nurse was kind enough to switch us to a much nicer room... right next door. Honestly, WHY do they even have that room? It should be a storage closet. So, we got settled into our new room. Tony gave Elliott his first sponge bath! They both did so great. And it was so fun seeing all that handsome dark hair being washed and combed.... because, let's face it, it was kinda yucky and needed a good scrubbing. My mom helped me get a shower and then we had company. Elliott got to meet more family and his pediatrician!
A nurse came in and told us that Elliott was B+ (blood type) and had tested Coombs positive for ABO incompatibility [this happens when a mom is O and has a baby that is A, B, or AB]. My blood type is O+. Elliott's blood type was B+. But.... Tony's blood type is A+. There is absolutely no way genetically possible for us to make a baby that is B+. Of course, they don't test the father at the hospital so they were telling him maybe he was wrong, even though he was swearing up and down that he knew he was A+. Long story short, after lots of conversations trying to figure it out, me feeling like I was getting the "uh-huh, honey, you've been caught with another baby daddy" look from a nurse, and a pediatrician who was telling us that maybe the Marines had Tony's blood type wrong..... we found out that a nurse had written the wrong blood type down for Elliott! Whew, I was off the hook! Ha! By the way, Elliott, your dad still jokes about your B+ dad.
So, Elliott is A+ but still Coombs positive.... which led to him having to get blood drawn every 5 hours, high bilirubin levels, phototherapy lamps (he hated), lethargy, and weight loss which called for some donor breast milk.
Sunday night was so hard. I was exhausted and pain had really set in. Tony was exhausted from being at the hospital since Thursday and not getting much sleep. Elliott hated being naked under the bili-lights. The only thing I could do was drip some sugar water on his lips and try and get him to take a pacifier or take him out of the lights every once in a while to try and feed him milk I didn't have yet. At one point, Elliott was screaming, I couldn't get up out of bed and Tony was across the room snoring. After yelling Tony's name trying to get him to wake up, I laid my bed down flat and scooted up to the head of the bed so I could reach the side table, grabbed the giraffe wubbanub and chunked it across the room towards him trying to get his attention and wake him up.... but it didn't work. Haha! We laugh about it now.... I was in tears then. In hindsight, I don't know why I didn't hit the nurses button and ask for a little help.
Monday Elliott had to stay under the lights all day. The Lactation consultant came to help but stressed.us.out.! We had taken a breast feeding class so this was not foreign to us. We benefited from her help but could have done without some of her over-the-top "breast is best" antics against nipple confusion. The hospital does not give babies pacifiers but we brought our own from home, which turned out to be awesome because it helped soothe him. She was sooo against that. He was losing weight due to the Coombs and needed donor milk. We had to pour it in his mouth from a medicine cup, because, God forbid, he get a bottle or even a syringe (which would've greatly reduced the amount of air bubbles and tummy aches!)... Nipple confusion, shnipple confusion. The kid has been eating like a champ from day one and has never had a problem with pacifiers, breast milk in bottles, or anything else. Anyway, one good thing about having her there was that she helped confirm the need to have his frenulum clipped. I knew it right when I saw it, but it was good to have her talk with the pediatrician about it. In doing this, it would help him latch better and reduce risk of any speech problems down the road.
(TMI ALERT) Monday was also super rough on me. I was in pain, tired, still super swollen all over, and, due to my complications, before they would let me go home I had to go... umm... #2. Where was a heads-up in the birthing class or books about all this nonsense?!? All I have to say about that whole experience is: stupid.
Monday night Elliott's blood levels were looking better so the pediatrician went ahead with the procedures (clip here/clip there) that Elliott needed before we went home. Then around midnight we were finally discharged!!!
So glad to have the hospital days behind us and welcome Elliott to his new home!
I should note before I write. This hospital does not have a nursery for babies. The parents have constant care of the baby and everything is done in the room, except any procedures that require a sterilized/surgical room.
Late Saturday night after everything settled down and we had our celebratory Braum's dinner (I just had a mint chocolate chip shake and it was Heaven!) they took us from the nice, huge birthing suit, up to one of the smallest, crappiest hospital rooms I've ever seen. Honestly. The bed looked and sounded like it was the first electric model of hospital bed, the thermostat didn't work, there was no room to even walk in there. It was AWFUL. But we were tired and, to be completely honest, I don't even remember much from that short little night in that room. I do, however, remember the nurse; she told me that she had never seen a woman so swollen and "painful looking" down there. Geez, thank you so much for that! She made up for it by bringing me lots of ice to sit on and pain pills... and helping with Elliott since I couldn't reach him because he was stuck at the foot of my bed due to the lack of space in the room.
A nurse came in and told us that Elliott was B+ (blood type) and had tested Coombs positive for ABO incompatibility [this happens when a mom is O and has a baby that is A, B, or AB]. My blood type is O+. Elliott's blood type was B+. But.... Tony's blood type is A+. There is absolutely no way genetically possible for us to make a baby that is B+. Of course, they don't test the father at the hospital so they were telling him maybe he was wrong, even though he was swearing up and down that he knew he was A+. Long story short, after lots of conversations trying to figure it out, me feeling like I was getting the "uh-huh, honey, you've been caught with another baby daddy" look from a nurse, and a pediatrician who was telling us that maybe the Marines had Tony's blood type wrong..... we found out that a nurse had written the wrong blood type down for Elliott! Whew, I was off the hook! Ha! By the way, Elliott, your dad still jokes about your B+ dad.
So, Elliott is A+ but still Coombs positive.... which led to him having to get blood drawn every 5 hours, high bilirubin levels, phototherapy lamps (he hated), lethargy, and weight loss which called for some donor breast milk.
Sunday night was so hard. I was exhausted and pain had really set in. Tony was exhausted from being at the hospital since Thursday and not getting much sleep. Elliott hated being naked under the bili-lights. The only thing I could do was drip some sugar water on his lips and try and get him to take a pacifier or take him out of the lights every once in a while to try and feed him milk I didn't have yet. At one point, Elliott was screaming, I couldn't get up out of bed and Tony was across the room snoring. After yelling Tony's name trying to get him to wake up, I laid my bed down flat and scooted up to the head of the bed so I could reach the side table, grabbed the giraffe wubbanub and chunked it across the room towards him trying to get his attention and wake him up.... but it didn't work. Haha! We laugh about it now.... I was in tears then. In hindsight, I don't know why I didn't hit the nurses button and ask for a little help.
Monday Elliott had to stay under the lights all day. The Lactation consultant came to help but stressed.us.out.! We had taken a breast feeding class so this was not foreign to us. We benefited from her help but could have done without some of her over-the-top "breast is best" antics against nipple confusion. The hospital does not give babies pacifiers but we brought our own from home, which turned out to be awesome because it helped soothe him. She was sooo against that. He was losing weight due to the Coombs and needed donor milk. We had to pour it in his mouth from a medicine cup, because, God forbid, he get a bottle or even a syringe (which would've greatly reduced the amount of air bubbles and tummy aches!)... Nipple confusion, shnipple confusion. The kid has been eating like a champ from day one and has never had a problem with pacifiers, breast milk in bottles, or anything else. Anyway, one good thing about having her there was that she helped confirm the need to have his frenulum clipped. I knew it right when I saw it, but it was good to have her talk with the pediatrician about it. In doing this, it would help him latch better and reduce risk of any speech problems down the road.
(TMI ALERT) Monday was also super rough on me. I was in pain, tired, still super swollen all over, and, due to my complications, before they would let me go home I had to go... umm... #2. Where was a heads-up in the birthing class or books about all this nonsense?!? All I have to say about that whole experience is: stupid.
Monday night Elliott's blood levels were looking better so the pediatrician went ahead with the procedures (clip here/clip there) that Elliott needed before we went home. Then around midnight we were finally discharged!!!
So glad to have the hospital days behind us and welcome Elliott to his new home!
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