It seemed like a second went by and there was my sweet little boy! 5lbs 10oz and 18 1/2 inches long! They let me see him for a brief minute before taking him to the PCN which is a step down from NICU but a step up from the regular nursery. As my OB was sewing me up I heard her talking to the other OB in the room about 2 cords this and 2 cords that, my mom and I were so confused. I kept thinking oh my goodness he has 2 belly buttons or was deformed in some way! Finally the anesthesiologist told me it meant the cord had been wrapped around his neck twice.
While I was in recovery my doctor came in and explained to me that Hudson had been taken to the PCN because of his breathing and he would be assessed there. I wasn't really sure what to think or expect because I was still really out of it. The nurses had told me that before I left recover I would get a matching hospital bracelet as H and that if M wasn't there that would mean he couldn't go see him...to say I begged and pleaded would be an understatement! M made it with less than a minute to spare!
By now it was almost 10am, H was born at 4:18am, and I had yet to hold my baby. We had a bunch of visitors once I got to my room but they didn't stay long because M would have to take them 1 floor down to see H and they would usually leave from there. While I'm glad M and my parents were able to be with Hudson it was very hard not being able to go see my own baby. Finally around 10pm M basically demanded that I be allowed to go see Hudson after I had a mini breakdown about not being able to. So roughly 18 hours after giving birth I finally got to hold my son.
We learned that Hudson needed an NG tube to help him eat since he was a lazy eater. The lactation consultant there was not helpful at all and you had to schedule an appointment M-F to see her, well H was born on Friday so I was out of luck! While in the hospital M and I spent every waking minute in the nursery with Hudson.
On my discharge day the nurses were nice enough to wait until very late in the day so I could stay with Hudson as long as possible. No one tells you how to handle yourself when you don't take your child home with you. My milk came in that night and boy was that painful! For the next 3 weeks I went to the hospital all day everyday, major thank yous to all the people that drove me to and from for the first 2 weeks!
Hudson was a wimpy white boy and did not want to eat, because he was being monitored his weight never went below 5lbs but he never went above 5lbs either. On the morning he was supposed to come home I made a quick phone call up to the PCN just to let them know I was on my way, I got the shock of a lifetime when the nurse told me he wasn't coming home! My mom said she thought someone had died because of my reaction! When my dad I got to the hospital I went off on the nurse, bless her heart! She then told me that the resident should have been the 1 to call me the night before when they discovered he had blood in his stools, she didn't and she barely took the time to explain anything to me!
Hudson stayed for 3 more days before being able to come home. The whole time he was in the hospital I had tried to nurse and was getting up to pump every time he was fed. Our pediatricians office had 2 lactation consultants on staff that you could go to anytime for no charge, I saw her almost daily for 3 weeks! We were also in the doctor's office almost every other day b/c of bloody stools and soon deduced that he had a cow's milk protein allergy. I was supplementing with dry formula at this point until he was diagnosed with a corn startch allergy, thus forcing us to buy $10 a bottle ready to feed Alimentum formula! I pumped for 6 months out of sheer stupidity until finally giving up!
So there you have it! It was a crazy birth and there are a lot of things I would want to do differently next time around!
Happy Friday!
my little angel!
meeting mommy
in the PCN
meeting daddy
holding my sweet Hudson for the 1st time
our 1st family photo on my discharge day
rooming in with Hudson 2 nights before he was originally supposed to come home
on his way home!
sleeping in his bassinet for the 1st time
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