Hospital stay and more

Don’t worry, everyone’s fine….just taking a few minutes to write about our stay in the hospital over the weekend since Jake and Noah are snoozing on the couch.

Ok. So we already know that they were doing a shitty job with keeping me informed on certain aspects of my labor. Well. My mom got pissed because while Dr. Paige (one of the other OB’s from my practice; my actual doctor wasn’t on call) was stitching me up (and yes, I am stitched, not stapled), she nearly passed out. Dr. Paige, that is. Weird.

Let’s see here….one thing that bothered me was I kept getting asked the same things over and over again. Things that were WRITTEN IN MY CHART. The one that bothered me the most? It was in my chart that I smoked before I knew I was pregnant….not exactly a big secret, right? Well, for some reason, a bunch of the nurses got the impression that I STILL smoked and kept talking to me about it in really snotty tones until I had a chance to tell them that I do NOT smoke anymore, thankyouverymuch.

I kept getting conflicting information. Like, his hearing test. They took him Saturday night to do it, but ended up not being able to. So they took him Sunday night, and they also did his car seat test (since he’s so small). Brought him back with a little sheet saying "I passed my hearing screening! Love, Noah".

Monday night, one of the nurses tries to tell me that she has to take him to do his hearing test. Uh, no you don’t, he already did it and he passed. She tried to tell me it wasn’t in his chart. I showed her the paper I got and she STILL didn’t believe me, had to go check with someone else.

The one that REALLY upset me…..oh man. This woman had me in tears. When Noah was born, he was 5 lbs, 5 oz. He dropped down to 4 lbs, 13 oz….so this nurse – her name is Candy – is talking to me about that, and explaining that they recommend I supplement breastfeeding with this special formula that’s designed to help small babies gain weight. She’s sitting there making it sound like I wouldn’t be able to take Noah home unless he gained some more weight – even Jake got that impression from her, so I know it wasn’t just me being stressed and misunderstanding. Anyway, so I said fine, because I want my little boy to be healthy. But then she starts harping on me about breastfeeding, trying to tell me that I’m doing it wrong and trying to make it sound like my milk was never going to come in and I was going to just have to keep feeding him formula anyway.

Yeah, lady, that’s why every single lactation consultant that saw us while we were there (they checked on us every day) said he was doing wonderful, and when I talked to the last consultant yesterday (I’ll be seeing her again on Friday, actually, because she works with the pediatrician we picked out and all babies and moms that are breastfeeding see her first), I told her how frustrated Candy had made me, and she took one look at me and said "Honey, your milk is coming in beautifully…look at those Dolly Parton boobs!". And seriously…..my boobs are enormous. And since Noah can’t eat a whole heck of a lot in one feeding, I’ve had to start pumping out the excess, otherwise I leak all over the place. And I know he’s getting enough to eat because he’s peeing and pooping just the way he should be, as often as he should be.

What really stressed me out though was after we agreed to the formula, Candy insisted that she give him the first feeding because "I know how first time parents are…"Oh, he’s not interested so I’m not going to feed him any more"…well, I’ll make sure he eats enough." Uh, yeah…..I think if we were agreeable to the formula in the first place in order to HELP OUR SON, we’d be ok with making him eat as much as they said he should!! But then, she fed him more than he absolutely had to have – twice as much, actually – and started burping him, and I wanted to smack the shit out of her because she was practically beating my son. Now, I know that in order for burping to be effective, you have to pat them with a little force….but she was just going totally overboard. So it was no surprise when he spit up pretty much everything she had just fed him and then some.

So I was upset about that already, right? Next feeding time comes around, and Noah’s a little fussy about taking the boob. Not a huge deal, right?

Well, it became a huge deal when he outright refused to nurse the next time around. Would not even take a nipple into his mouth. I started bawling. I was so upset, thinking that Noah was going to prefer the bottle over me and I’d have no choice but to feed him formula. Not only was I upset thinking about missing out on the chance to nourish my son with my own body, and the bonding that would bring, but I was also thinking about the fact that we cannot afford formula. And Jake makes too much money for me to qualify for WIC.

Luckily, that was a one time deal, and he is still breastfeeding like a champ.

Oh. And Candy also tried to tell me that I CANNOT let him nurse for just five minutes. Excuse me? Whose child is this again? Oh, and that’s right….you’re not even one of the lactation consultants, you dumb cow. Every single one of them also told me that it is just fine to feed him for as little or as long as HE wants to, as long as he is eating at least once every three hours. So what if it makes my nipples a little more sore? He’s a tiny guy, he can’t hold much in his little stomach. Therefore, he WILL nurse when HE wants to, for as long as HE wants to, and as long as he’s happy, I’m happy.

And his circumcision. They did a poor job of keeping me informed about that. They told me on Sunday that Dr. Berkowitz would evaluate him on Monday about that. No one said anything to me all day on Monday until late in the afternoon, when they finally inform me that oh, Dr. Berkowitz didn’t come in at all and he’d check him out Tuesday morning.

Uh, yeah. Scratch that one. No one said a word until I said something about it. THEN they decide to inform me that Dr. Berkowitz didn’t want to do it since Noah’s so tiny, and that they were referring me to a pediatric urologist to have it done in a couple of weeks, when he’s back up to at least 5 1/2 or 6 pounds. Eh, whatever. I’ve been told that it’s better to have it done by a pediatric urologist, anyway. But, still. Would have been nice to have been told that, rather than me having to ask for that information.

I know there were some other small things that bothered all of us, but those are the things that really stand out in my mind still. Despite all of that, though, I did have one nurse that was absolutely wonderful, I couldn’t have asked for a better nurse than her, and I made Jake bring me a thank you card to leave for her.

Other than all of that…..we’re doing alright. Noah eats like a champ and is already quite fond of keeping us awake….last night was miserable, he just would NOT stay asleep….FINALLY at some point early this morning, he fell asleep after eating, and I ended up falling asleep right there while holding him. We didn’t want to do the co sleeping thing, Jake’s too nervous about rolling over onto Noah, but he seems to do better with one of us right there with him, so we’ll see.

I’m SO glad Jake was able to take time off of work. He’s actually using his

sick days rather than his vacation time, so he doesn’t have to go back to work till Tuesday. I’d be lost if he weren’t around, because thanks to my incision, there’s a lot of stuff I can’t do by myself. And not only do I have the incision to deal with, I am still majorly swollen – feet, ankles, calves, AND my thighs now, too. I can’t even really bend my legs, and it’s hard for me to move around and stuff. For some reason, my mom decided to leave last night…something upset her but she wouldn’t tell me what. Though, she did take me to the store so that we could get Noah a few preemie outfits ’cause all of his 0-3 months stuff swallows him up, and she bought us a bassinet to keep downstairs, too.

Cool thing? My brother is taking some leave and he and Marissa are gonna come spend like, a whole week here to help me out.

Oh, and Cass, I forgot to mention this earlier, but we did get your package – thank you! The bib and burp cloth match one of the hooded towels we have!

That’s about all for tonight…time to go cuddle up with my boys.

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