We Made It Home

When we last left off, Peyton had made it out and was doing fine. We Spent the next two nights recovering in the hospital. We had our own room with it’s own bathroom (with shower) and a TV with about 30 channels. Every 8 hours we got a new nurse and every time the shift changed they would check Jen’s blood pressure and temperature as well as the baby’s vitals. They also each wrote their name and a four digit number (on a dry erase board) that we could call on the hospital phone which would connect us directly to them via a device that was a mix of walkie talking and cell phone. Some of the nurses were fantastic, some were good, and a few weren’t great. They all knew what they were doing, but some were much better than others at being pleasant and connecting with us.

On our first night of recovery I got about 7 hours of sleep broken into 4 blocks and Jen got more like 5 or 6 hours about an hour at a time. The next day Dr. Gerdes came and checked out Jen’s progress about 1 in the afternoon. Up until that point Jen was stuck in bed with an IV and a catheter so she was thrilled to see the doctor, get rid of all that crap and take her first shower since before she’d started labor.

Jen and the baby were doing so well that we decided we were going to try to go home a day early. Dr. Gerdes cleared Jen, but it turned out that the pediatrician wanted to keep the baby (and as a result us) for one more night. Jen developed a temperature of 101 during labor and they thought there was a chance it was from an infection which could have been transmitted to Peyton (we’ve already said “Peyton with a P-E-Y about a hundred times!).

The initial tests looked good, but they wanted to be sure. Also about the time we were thinking about leaving he turned a little yellow from jaundice. This is very common for new babies because when they are in the womb, their mom’s organs and doing all the work. When their liver and kidneys have to take over they have a little trouble handling the load and the skin has to help (I think that’s why they turn yellow).

The second night was good in terms of sleep for me, but tough for Jen. After a big meal at about 10:15, both Peyton and Jen slept straight until 1:30. At about 2 I went to sleep and what felt like 10 minutes later Jen woke me up and said “You have to take him!” Happily it was actually 6 hours later and I was perfectly happy to take him so she could try to get some more sleep. She’d been trying to sleep with him in her bed and feed him periodically. Unfortunately he wanted to eat every 45 minutes so she didn’t get much more sleep and had a pretty frustrating, long night.

In general Jen’s breast feeding had been going as good as you could expect. She’d been producing some milk (which can take up to 5 days for some women) and after plenty of help from the nurses he’s latching on like a pro. She’s certainly feeling sore since he’s eating every 2 hours, but it’s great for the baby that she’s producing milk so early.

This morning we were finally ready to go home. We brought up the car seat to the room, put him in it and he slept until half an hour after we got home. Since then we’ve been hanging out at home getting used to being parents. Jen’s Mom, Dad and sister are here helping us and Chrissy and Jake made it over for a little while to formally meet our son (and give us a little gift).

After they were here for a while we thought he was getting a bit fussy. So far, if we fed him, changed him, or burped him it was enough to stop him from crying every time. But this time it wasn’t so simple. We thought maybe he was over stimulated, but it turned out he was just hot. At the hospital he was always cold. The nurses took his temperature, wrapped him in at least 2 and sometimes three blankets, and told us to use our body heat to keep him warm.

So for the first 48 hours of his life he’d been swaddled at all times when he wasn’t actively being changed or checked. But, now that we were home and not in an air conditioned hospital room he got hot. We checked his temperature and it came up 100.8. ACK! The nurses told us to call the doctor if he got over 100, so that’s just what we did. We started to worry that he might have a fever. After about 30 minutes we got the advice nurse on the line and she said if his temperature was really over 100 we should take him to the emergency room, but by then he we’d unwrapped him and he was down to 99.7.

We were taking his temperature by putting a thermometer in his armpit so we weren’t sure about the level of precision, but we kept getting temperatures in the 99+ range. Eventually we got the doctor on the phone and she said we should take his temperature rectally. Rectally? Yikes! The idea of taking him anywhere to get checked out sounded like as much fun as…well, a rectal temperature probe. So I decided to go for it.

Luckily he did a huge poop while we were on the phone so we had to strip him down anyway and the thermometer went in pretty smoothly. The armpit measurements took maybe 30-45 seconds for the reading to stablize and the thermometer to beep. When I went the rectal route it shot right to 98.6 and stayed there. YAY! Also he seemed happy as a clam when we let him stretch out and cool down.

All in all, he seems great. He’s been crying a little more than he was in the first 2 days, but still seems happy and healthy. Jen and I are getting the hang of being parents and already feel like we’re really bonding with our son.

Oh and by the way, I wanted to formally thank my Mom for giving birth to me because, man that shit is not easy!