Things are Good

Things are good. I wish I could write more, and I wish I could blame the lack of writing on the holidays or the newborn. The truth is that I am having trouble reconciling the way I feel with the way things are. I feel like I've been through some trauma and I'm not quite done with it yet, but the only traces of anything bad are the almost-healed IV spots on my arms and the hospital bills. Isaac is up to 9 lbs. and eating like a pro. Natalie is loving her new baby brother. We had a great holiday- It was the Christmas in which we learned that the "Mega" in the Dora Mega Tent is not a figure of speach.

When I try to go any deeper than that, what I say all seems overly sugar coated or so far in the opposite direction that it misses the part where we had a happy ending. I'm workng on writing Isaac's birth story in hope of sorting through it all, and in the meantime I suspect this blog will be limited to cute pictures and links. So enjoy the pictures, make a new year's resolution you have no intention of keeping, and pour yourself an extra glass of whatever you are drinking at midnight tonight for me.

Homecoming- Wordless Wednesday

Because I just don't know what to say...

Five Things...

…I wish I knew then, or that I didn’t know now…

1 - It’s a good idea to ask your pediatrician (while you are pregnant) what level of NICU babies he or she will see, and who she defers to for the higher levels. Then it’s a good idea to find out about/meet that person so you don’t end up with a doctor that you CAN’T STAND.

2- The pediatric community has a love/hate relationship with breastfeeding. They all agree it’s best, but if they can’t weigh, measure and quantify it, they don’t know what to do.

3- Every nurse has a different idea about how everything should be done with a baby. My hospital has 12 hour shifts, and the nurses work 2 or 3 a week. That means there are 5-7 different nurses every week, assuming that the same nurses take your baby each time they are on duty - which they don’t.

4 - It’s important to ask the nurses to do what you want. There are many things they can and will do upon request, but they won’t always offer. Sometimes it is because they just don’t want to do it, but usually it’s because this is every day them and they forget that it’s new to you and you might not know how everything is supposed to work.

5 - 65 mL looks like a whole lot of milk, but it is possible for a 7 lb baby to suck it down in 15 minutes - when he is ready to do it.

*Also, I added “pumping milk while going through a drive-thru” to my list of lactation experiences today. I was totally covered up, but the attendant did look a little surprised at the blanket piled up in my lap. Still, this is Houston and it was under 60 degrees today, so I’m sure she just assumed that my heater was broken.

Isaac is here!

Baby Isaac came yesterday at 8:50 a.m. He weighed a remarkable 7lb 4 oz at 35 weeks gestation, and he's doing well. He was on an oxygen hood for half a day or so but is breathing room air now. He has a IV for feeding, and the main problem for now is that I was on magnesium sulfate for almost a week prior to birth to keep him in there. He is having trouble getting it out of his system now, and he can't be fed until that is clear.

I just miss him now- it was only him and me here in the hospital room for 9 days, and now we are separated. I can see him as much as I want, but I have to be back in my room for all the post-op care etc. and it's just not enough. We don't really have a great idea about when he will be able to go home, but we are hoping for early next week.