Home!

We finally got discharged yesterday afternoon, although the doctor was trying to keep us another day because Henry still sounded raspy.  Well, while he's standing there telling us this, Henry is nursing, and the oxygen saturation monitor is showing 99%, and my husband points to that, and the doctor says, "ok, you're right."   So, we're finally home with instructions to keep suctioning the nose and give breathing treatments as needed.

Now that he's home, he is so much more like himself and is doing great.  It feels even more fantastic to hold my sweet baby; no wires, no beeping machines, no nasal canulas.  Just a sweet baby in a cheesy "my first Christmas" fleece sleep n play.  The best Christmas present ever!

Still stuck in isolation

Well, we're not going home today as we had hoped.  They put Henry on supplemental oxygen last night because is saturation kept dipping a little bit.  We'll be here until at least tomorrow, and I'm wondering if we even get to go home then.  They'll try to wean him off the oxygen today and see how he does.  Poor baby has so many freaking tubes hanging off of him.  It makes holding him and handling him so much harder.  I just want to hold and cuddle my baby without worrying about pulling out an IV or kinking his oxygen line.  

It sure stinks to be stunk here watching your baby suffer on Christmas Eve.  It just breaks my heart.  He makes the saddest faces and cries so sadly.  I want to punch in the face whoever he caught this from!  

On the bright side, at least we are Catholic.  For us, Christmas doesn't end tomorrow; it is just beginning.  Here's to hoping we'll be celebrating Henry's good health soon.  Merry Christmas everyone.  

Poor Henry

We are in the hospital with Henry.  He came down with a cough on Thursday afternoon and it turns out he has RSV.  He was admitted last night and is getting breathing treatments every 6 hours and super duper nose suctioning.  It is so sad seeing him struggle like this.  My heart breaks for him.  Hoping he is well enough to go home tomorrow with a nebulizer for home use and hopefully we'll have a white Christmas to look forward to.   Right now they're predicting at least an inch of snow.  That would be a nice end to this harrowing experience.  St. Henry and St. Gerard, pray for us. 

Growing like a weed

Henry turned 2 weeks yesterday, and had already surpassed his birth weight by 4 oz, and grew half an inch. Oh my!  Before I know it, he will be a full grown kid!  

I guess the boobies are doing their job.  :)  It's definitely difficult, though, being on call 24/7.  I read really good breastfeeding books before he was born, and I know the first 40 days are hard, and after that, is the reward period.  I have to just keep reminding myself of that.  Aside from being up about every 2 hours during the night, my main issue is I want to be able to transition off of the nipple shield that I have been using due to inverted nipples, and he is having a hard time with it.  He latches right away with the shield, without me having to struggle with positions or anything like that.  I met with the lactation consultant yesterday, and we worked for about an hour with him, and he can, with a lot of prodding, and me constantly holding the boob in a "sandwich", get a latch on the real thing, but keeps popping off after a few swallows.  

I tried what she showed me at home, and it just ended in frustration for both of us, so back on with the shield.  Maybe he will get better at taking the real thing when he is a little bigger.  For now, I am not going to push the issue more than once a day, or I will spend the afternoon in tears like I did yesterday. At least I can rest assured in knowing he is definitely getting enough with the shield, so it is not a big deal to keep using it.  I would just like to be free of having to search for it in the middle of the night, reattach it when he accidentally knocks it off, or carry it with me whenever we go anywhere.   

Cloth diapering is finally in full swing and is going well.  We have been using cotton prefolds so far, but I think I will see if his b.um.gen.ius aios fit when he wakes up from this nap he's taking.  We have found that he has inherited my dairy issues.  I indulged the other night and had a chicken quesadilla, which was super duper cheesy.  Two hours later, the poor baby had an allergy ring diaper rash.  Luckily, we had his pediatrician appointment the next day, and he confirmed it was a food sensitivity and to discontinue dairy.  He also said to use a diaper cream with zinc oxide (which is a big no-no for cloth diapers), and we have been doing that with each diaper change, making sure to put a liner in the diaper to keep that stuff off the diapers.  The rash seems to be fading, so I am glad for that and hope to never let that happen again.  

Oh, I hear him stirring.  So, I better go.  Hope you all are having a great week!

Go boobs!

Henry had his first pediatrician appointment today, and he is gaining like a champ!  He was born weighing 6 lbs, 15 oz and got down to 6 lbs, 6 oz in the hospital.  He weighed in today at 6 lbs, 11 oz, which apparently is great.  According to the doctor, it normally takes 2 weeks to gain back that much.  So, you go, boobs!  :)

His cord stump also fell off today at the appointment . . .  and stuck to my shirt as I was carrying him to the scale to be weighed.  Yuck!  So, tonight will be his first bath.  I hope he likes it!  

My family centered c-section

I just wanted to share with everyone that I had a wonderful "family centered" c-section with the birth of Henry.  A c-section was so not what I wanted, but given my prior myomectomy, all the physicians I met with felt that I was too great of a risk of uterine rupture to be able to have a natural birth.  So, to be able to get as much of that natural birth experience as I could, I lobbied for a "family centered" aka "natural" c-section.  Here is an article that explains what it is: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2613254/

Armed with this article, I first approached my OB with it somewhere in our 2nd trimester.  At first, he refused to read the article, lectured me about how long he has been practicing and how many babies he has delivered, and claimed I couldn't change hospital policies.  In the end, he agreed to read the article, then arranged for me to meet with anesthesia, and helped me find out who the pediatrician would be on call the day of our birth.  I met with the head guy in anesthesia and showed him the article, and he was totally cool with it as long as the OB was fine with it.  I then met with the pediatrician who would be on call, and and he was ok with it, as long as baby was breathing fine.  

When the time came, I got everything I wanted: immediate skin to skin, arms unrestrained, saw the baby coming out of the incision (didn't think I wanted that, so didn't include it in my birth plan, but my Dr. in the middle of the procedure asked the nurse to lower the drape, and they did, and I saw baby being born), able to discover the sex on our own, baby stayed with me for three hours before being taken for his assessments, no grief over us not wanting the hep b vaccine or the eye drops. Anesthesiologist was also fantastic at what he did. I had no nausea, no headache, no arm heaviness. The whole process could not have gone better. I am pretty sure this was their first time doing any of this. It was a lot of work on the front end to get everyone on board, but it all came together in the end. 

And, miracles of all miracles, Henry came out pink and crying, which I think is unusual for c-section babies.  I chalk it up to the St. Gerard relic I had in the pocket of my hospital gown during surgery.  St. Gerard was with us this entire pregnancy and of course, that's where Henry's middle name comes from.  :)

I hope that if any of you have to go through a c-section, you will be able to experience the "natural" c-section.  And, if it helps, I can email anyone a copy of my birth plan if you are interested.

I was also so pleased to hear the doctor tell me that my insides looked fantastic.  No adhesions!  Thank you, Dr. Hilgers!  And, after quite a bit of argument from my OB, I was able to get him to agree to use Sep.rafilm on my uterus.  When I brought up the subject, he said it was not standard of care and did not make a difference.  I countered that in order to get FDA approval, they had to show it was safe and effective.  I also argued that if it could prevent even one adhesion, I wanted it used.  So, he said he would review the literature again and reconsider.  The morning of my procedure, he told me he would use it, and agreed that if even one adhesion was prevented, it was worth it.  

All in all, a wonderful experience, despite being a terrifying medical procedure.  Glory be to God!

Henry's Thanksgiving outfit, and now his game day fight clothes. :)