We were very lucky to have Nene in town to stay with Cooper during our hospital stay. It was our first time leaving Cooper overnight. It sounds like they had a fantastic time together and Cooper adjusted very nicely to doing his routine with Nene. Nene sent us updates on how things at home were going and this was my favorite one “He asked for you and I told him we would see you tomorrow, after bedtime, breakfast, and then a quick snooze. He did the cutest thing, he ran into his room and wanted to be put in bed. It was only a little after 6:00, but maybe he thought he would see you sooner if he went to bed right away. I don’t know if a child that age can figure out what tomorrow is but he seemed like he understood at least a little.” She did such a great job keeping him busy and happy while we were gone.
We wanted Cooper to be the first one to meet Nicholas so on Saturday Cooper came to the hospital with Nene. We were all so happy to see each other. Cooper was a little confused why Mama and Daddy were in this room together and not at home with him, but he quickly warmed up. Later that afternoon Grandpa and Grandma stopped by to meet their newest grandchild.
Nicholas had a handful of additional tests during the remainder of our hospital stay. They now do a heart test by comparing the oxygen saturation in his hand and foot which he passed. Rob held him during the hearing test which he also passed.
We had a visit from the on-call pediatrician who said everything is looking good with Nicholas. He recommended we start now to help Nicholas face left when he sleeps because that direction seemed a little tighter. The lactation specialists also came by. They had me start pumping in the hospital to see if that would help my milk supply come in faster. With a c-section it can be up to 7 days before it comes in where a delivery that includes labor is closer to 3 days. After pumping Rob would use a feeding tube in the end of a tiny syringe to pick up the drop or two pumped out of each side. He would then put his finger in Nicholas’s mouth along side the tube to feed him the pumped colostrum.
We were surrounded by fantastic nurses and only had one that was a bit odd. During a late night IV switch she typed in 200 instead of 20 setting off alarms and reacted with an “uh oh” and quickly tried to press buttons to reset it. Let’s just say it was nice when our primary night nurse returned and she was much more detail oriented. The nurses were very good at providing encouragement and being positive when the shrill cries from Nicholas were so difficult to hear and made us feel so helpless. Nicholas continued to scream with every diaper change, when waking wanting to be fed and other times when we think he was uncomfortable. He also kept with the trend of peeing and pooping in the middle or just after nearly every diaper change.
On Sunday we were so excited to head home. Our nurse was very helpful getting the final tests scheduled so that we could leave as soon as possible. Nicholas’s weight when we left was 8lbs, 15oz, a 9% loss. We did not have to schedule additional weight check appointments because his weight loss was less than the cutoff of 10%.
Rob had his own test which he passed by correctly installing Nicholas in the car seat allowing us to leave the hospital and head home.
