Room 357

We got to our new room around 1 PM on Sunday. I was thrilled because the bed in this room felt like heaven compared to the labor and delivery bed. Paul was not as lucky... he had a firm upholstered pull out chair calling his name. Too bad we didn't time this to better align with the large rooms with the pull out couches being cleaned!

After settling in, Scarlett was still fast asleep. Her initial run in with the needles and eye cream really wore her out, so she ended up sleeping much of the rest of the day. Paul and I on the other hand were wide awake despite being sleep deprived. We were tired but the adrenaline was not going to let up long enough for a nap. We spent most of the day posting pictures and corresponding with loved ones. The reception in the labor and delivery room was virtually nonexistent but we were up to 2-3 bars of service in 357. Still touch and go, but definitely an improvement.

We had a lot of people coming in and out to check me and/or the baby. Mostly it was checking my bleeding and vitals and Scarlett's vitals. We let them take her to give her a bath. When she came back about an hour later, she was all clean and we could see the blonde highlights around her hairline. She smelled good and the swelling in her face was slowly starting to go down. We received instructions on logging all of her activities (e.g., breastfeeding attempts, which side and for how long, diaper changes) and they gave us the menu for our special "celebration meal."

We decided to have our celebration meal for dinner Sunday night. After a few breastfeeding attempts and more diaper changes than expected (our little over achiever :) ), they delivered a steak, baked potatoes, broccoli, vegetable lasagna, chocolate cake, and a bottle of sparkling cider. It far exceeded our expectations for hospital food and it was nice to be able to toast to our new little miracle.

As we settled in for the night, we prepared ourselves for being awake all night with her. From about midnight to 2 AM, it looked like that was going to come true. She was very upset. She was crying and crying with a variety of pathetic wails. Nothing we tried seemed to help. Finally, around 2 AM we tried feeding her again and she fell asleep on me. We let her stay against me until about 4 AM when we swaddled her up again and put her in the bassinet. She slept until 7 AM! All told we ended up with about 5 hours of sleep straight. Not bad for her first night out of the womb!

On Monday morning we got another string of guests -- the pediatrician, Dr. Crowther (my OB), nurses, patient care aides, patient rights advocates... Lots of people checking on us to make sure we had everything we needed. All reports were good. Scarlett is healthy and happy and I seem to be healing as expected. We continued feedings and a long stream of diaper changes interrupted by calls, emails, and text messages. We also managed to get in a couple of really nice family naps. The one in the afternoon involved the three of us squeezed into my hospital bed for a little over an hour Monday afternoon. It was such a good nap! Paul and I both felt like we had been drugged. The staff were doing their best to come in about every 15 minutes to check vitals or something but we could barely wake ourselves up. We were so tired and relaxed laying as a family and very, very happy. It was nice to have down time just to soak into the idea of our new family unit... this little person that Paul and I had been dreaming about for years. We figure since we've been together almost 7 years, Scarlett has been about 7 years in the making.

As the days have gone on, we have been fascinated by how quickly she changes. Although I completely understand that I am coming from a biased perspective, we think she gets cuter and prettier by the second. Not only that, but once the shock of the whole thing wore off, the intense feeling of love for this little creature has just gotten stronger and stronger and is overwhelming now. When they take her out of the room to be checked or give her a shot, we genuinely miss her. It's a strange phenomenon since she doesn't do too much other than sleep, eat, and poop, but somehow each of those activities is incredibly endearing when it is your own baby. We've started to get to know her likes and dislikes (swaddling is her favorite, she has ticklish feet and sides and isn't a fan of people messing with them!) and she is getting comfortable with us. She LOVES her daddy. She tends to calm quickly with him (he is good at shhh-ing) and loves sleeping on his chest. He lays her on her back on his chest bone and taps on her chest and she falls asleep or looks around the room calmly. She is constantly rooting -- trying to suck anything and everything within range, including daddy's nose, cheek, shirt... He may encourage it a bit because it is pretty funny.

The lactation consultant came in Monday afternoon and was INCREDIBLY helpful. She gave us a nipple shield and some cream and some tips for how to get Scarlett to stay awake long enough to feed. They encouraged us to "play with her" for 5-10 minutes before trying to feed and to put her skin to skin with me. Success! She is now over-achieving in the feeding department too and I'm seeing the effects (some blood, lots of stinging, and my milk is coming in). We took a walk around the floor and drove the staff crazy by setting off the alarm (causing the floor to go into lock down -- apparently they take baby stealing attempts very seriously here) and met a nice family who was waiting for the birth of their grand baby.