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Friday, July 30, 2010

Our Hospital Stay

I'd like to say our stay in the hospital was completely uneventful, I delivered, we got them to breastfeed right away and were released three days later. Unfortunately, things did not happen this way. I should start by staying it wasn't horribly scary either, just not as smooth as I'd hoped.

After the delivery we were wheeled back to the recovery area where the girls and I were monitored for an hour. Most of the monitoring was for me to make sure I didn't have any issues immediately following the surgery. While we were there we attempted breast feeding for the first time since the girls were rooting around. We didn't have any immediate luck and we were told a lactation consultant would be available for us in our room when we were moved so I didn't panic too much. While all of this was going on Greg went ahead and called our families to give them the exciting news.

From there we were moved to our room which was fairly uneventful. The girls got their first baths and screamed their little heads off. We tried to breast feed again without much luck and I saw a lactation consultant who helped a little and showed me how to use my pump. She also gave us a method to feed the girls some formula using a cup that we deemed useless the first time we tried on our own after she left because it took about 20 minutes to feed them 20 mLs and we had two babies after all. When would we sleep? We requested some formula until we could get going further. I was able to pump some colostrum which we gave the girls.

The next morning we had our first visit with our pediatrician. He came in and examined the girls and said they were very developed for 37 weekers. I was happy to hear this. I think those painful steroid shots a few weeks prior had most likely done what they were intended to do. After he examined them he spoke with us regarding his findings and he said he thought L had a little bit of jaundice. He said that they'd be drawing standard blood work on the girls later so we would find out when it was done. He also asked how breastfeeding was going and said that he was not going to push it on us too much since they were a little early and I'd had c-section. I told him I was going to give it a try and he said that was good. He asked if we had any other questions and I drew a total blank (which was rare for me throughout the pregnancy) and he said he'd see us soon.

That morning the nurse drew the blood from the girls. Now if you don't have kids let me explain how this works. The nurse basically clips the bottom of the baby's foot and squeezes it to collect the blood as it comes out. Well neither girl decided she liked this process and it took forever and they screamed and screamed, it was miserable.

That afternoon we had their hospital pictures taken. Hospital portraits are much different from when most of us were kids where it was just a shot of the baby laying down. They are actually posed. I brought clothes for the girls however, the outfits I'd brought for the girls didn't fit because they were on the small end of newborn clothes, so I changed them into a couple of onesies I'd brought along. The pictures came out great and Greg and I bought the CD and a package that included announcements (less work for us later on!).

L Under The Lights
After the pictures one of the nurses came in and asked if we'd been told yet that L did in fact have a high bilirubin level and needed to go to the NICU to be placed under the lights. Her approach was just awful as I was holding L at that moment and admiring her. I burst into tears as she told me to say good bye and took her away. I sent Greg to the NICU with her to get more details. He met the nurses down there and they explained exactly what would be happening. She would be under the lights most of the time and only come out to be changed and eat every three hours. So we planned to go down and feed her as much as we could. It was quite scary.

The next morning when we were down there feeding the girls the pediatrician came in and examined them both. He said he anticipated her levels going down and her being with us by that evening or the next morning and this was what ended up occurring, she was back with us Sunday morning.

We were glad to have her back with N because little Nat did not sleep well without her sister next to her. I did not plan to co-sleep them but I was amazed to see how well they slept when they were together.

On Monday, we were discharged by the physician who'd sent us over to Good Samaritan Hospital at 32 weeks when I had the premature labor scare. She was very happy to get to be the one to send me home with my girls and I was happy for this as well. Greg and I are very grateful to her for being so aggressive with my care and we loved having the opportunity to thank her for what she did for us.

Note: This isn't as complete as I'd like but I'm having a hard time finding time to complete it so I'm throwing it out there. I hope you understand.

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