The first few hours after delivery were a bit of a blur filled with people moving me cuz my legs are still numb, changing rooms, getting Jonah from the nursery, trying to breast feed, and saying hi to everyone. Jonah had to be whisked off to the nursery at first for sugar checks because he was so small and then had them every 3 hrs for the first 24hrs. That first night wasn't too bad because I wasn't afraid to send him to the nursery while we slept in between his feedings. It was still pretty odd to feel my stomach and it not be hard! After all those contractions I was hoping to have a nice six pack forming but instead just got a nice little pudge.
That first morning was filled with several different nurses and doctors coming in. I was still trying to breast feed at this time but having a hard time with it. So, while waiting to hear from the lactation nurse, we started supplementing with formula since we didn't want him to lose too much weight. Families started trickling in around 11am, wanting a glimpse and a chance to hold our handsome boy. This was all fine and good till around 4pm. Thats when I really started to feel the sleep deprivation and stress of all the newness. So, I did my best to say in a polite way, "get out!", which I believe everyone understood. We still hadn't heard from the lactation nurse and I was getting pretty stressed about making sure Jonah was getting enough food. After having everyone page her and talking to a nursing instructor (who happened to be a lactation nurse on the side), we finally got some help. She worked out an interesting supplemental drip tube to go along with breast feeding until my milk came in. I also started manually pumping to encourage things to get started. With all this, the idea of sleep was starting to fade-- 40min breast feeding + 40min pumping + 15min cleaning supplies + random vital and blood draws throughout the day = leaving me about 45min-1hr of sleep.
Day 2-- Alan had to leave to take an exam for getting hired with the police dept, leaving me by myself. I quickly called mom to just come and help. Also, they rolled Jonah in with a bili blanket that morning saying his levels were too high. The ob/gyn doc said everything was looking great with me and would be discharging me home. However, the pedi doc said that Jonah was going to have to stay in the hospital due to his high bili levels and his low weight (he had dropped to 4.14 at this time). So they worked it out at that I could stay as the parent taking care of Jonah, instead of them putting him in the nursery. This morning, a new lactation nurse came in and helped some more. She ended up being such a stress relief and an amazing support for the rest of our stay (she definitely made me consider a career change)!
I discovered this day how amazing a shower can be! I just kept singing to myself "To be human again, to be human again" from Beauty and the Beast.
The next few days blur together of Jonah getting poked and the doctor saying he needs to stay longer. It worked out nice because we were able to get more help from the lactation nurse and had plenty of people to ask all the new parent questions that came to mind! It was interesting, but I believe my favorite nurses throughout our stay would be those on night shift. I'm really not partial to one shift or another (even though I work nights), but I believe the nurses that work nights tend to be a little more realistic and down to earth. One was sweet enough that she brought Jonah a blanket and a teddy bear cuz she felt bad that she had called him a girl by accident!
Random side note: I find that almost everyone calls new babies girls. All the books I've read and several people that see Jonah all refer to him as a girl. Not sure why, but just noticed that!
When we finally got to go home, we were basically racing for the door! We still had to get Jonah checked by the doctor for his bili levels, but it was nice to sleep in our own bed.
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