Scarlett's First Few Days

I mentioned in Scarlett's birth post that everything was really complicated after she was born. Here is some of the happenings.

The morning she was born, we were supposed to get transferred to our recovery room but the hospital (which is humongous) was completely full. They took a small wing of labor rooms and moved us there. It was nice and big so Miller had lots of running space. The funny thing is that we had a security guard parked across from the room since the monitoring anklets that the babies wear did not work on that floor.  We joked that she had her own personal body guard.

We took a small nap and I finally got her to nurse and then I hopped in the shower and got ready for visitors. Daddy and Bobbie came to visit and then mom arrived with Miller.

I was sitting in the bed and Ben was in the chair next to me. He saw Ben and yelled, ”Daddy” and ran in his arms. As soon as he got to Ben, he saw me and screamed, “Mommy” and jumped in the bed with me. He wrapped his arms around me and snuggled in for a few minutes. We just soaked each other up because we had never been apart that long before. Finally, we pointed out the baby. He started reaching for her like he wanted to hold her. I held her and he immediately laid his head down on her and snuggled. During the whole visit he constantly kissed her and snuggled her. He is in LOVE!!! We tried to get him to say her name but he kept calling her baby. 

Daddy and Bobbie left that morning to head back to Knoxville and Heather came to visit us on her lunch break. We got moved to our real room that afternoon. Our nurse was quite pushy getting us out of her section. She was trying to pack up our stuff for us and knocked everything out of Ben's wallet in the process.

The next morning they told us that her bilirubin levels were a little high and wanted to keep an eye on her. Of course I tried not to worry and we just hung out that day. Mom and Miller spent most of the afternoon and evening with us.

We had a nice view of my doctor's office and the Christmas tree. Miller had a vantage point to watch the helicopter and ambulances. He even saw a blimp (so random!).

The next morning, we were supposed to be leaving but her bilirubin levels went up so they wanted to put her on lights and keep her another day. There was the possibility that they might discharge me and keep her there but Ben and I vowed that we would not be leaving. They ended up letting us stay an extra night so I could be there to nurse her.

The doctor was concerned about her getting enough milk and kept insisting that I supplement with formula but I knew my body and knew she was getting enough. I ended up pumping and giving that to her after she would eat. I just wanted to shut them up so they would leave us alone. Plus I could prove to them that I had enough milk when I could show them the bottles that I was outputting after she was having a full feeding.

She looked absolutely pitiful in the eye masks but it was to protect her little eyes from the harsh lights. She was a trooper and did so well.  With these lights, they were just pads that she laid between so I could still hold her and nurse her, but it was just awkward. Our friend Lauren came to visit and could not hold the cuddly newborn like she expected.

The worst part was that I was already upset at having to stay there another night and hoping that my baby was okay but when Miller left that evening, he started crying when he realized that we were not going with them. That broke my heart and of course I started bawling. We got him calmed down and him and mom left but I was determined to get home to him the next day.

That evening her levels had not improved so she had to go to the heavy duty light bed. It was awful because with this we were not able to hold her and she could not be swaddled. The poor girl just wanted to be held and cuddled. She had gone from being snuggled inside of me for 9 months to flat on her back and uncovered in days.

I stole her out and let her nap with me. I felt guilty the whole time but I just wanted my baby to be content.

The next day was the bigger ordeal. 4AM they ran her blood test. 6AM the results came back. 6:30AM Ben finally hunted someone down to tell the results to us. 8AM the doctor came in and said that she had slightly improved and we could go home, but he wanted to have us get a light bed at home and check her out the next day. So we waited. Finally at 1PM a case manager came to get our information from the nursery. 4PM the case manager called us to say that they got our information and would start looking for a bed. She said that there were two places that would work with our insurance but one of them would probably be out this late in the day.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! We started this ordeal at the beginning of the day so there is no reason we should have to stay there because they just now got around to us. I know that it was not the case managers fault and probably just bureaucratic crap that happened but when it comes to my newborn babies health and wanting to get home to my toddler baby, I was majorly angry and frustrated. We were not going to stay there another night, even if it took sneaking out of there.

Fortunately, she worked quick and within an hour, she came in at the same time the medical supply company was calling us to arrange delivery. They told us that they could get it to us at the hospital in a couple of hours but we wanted out so Ben got them to deliver it to our house.

It was so nice to get her dressed and in her carseat and drive home.

When we got home, I leaped out of the car and ran into the house to see Miller. Ben grabbed a few things and was right behind me. Miller was so excited to see us until he noticed that it was just the two of us and started asking for the baby with a very concerned look on his face. He was relieved to see her and started introducing her to his cars.

My awesome friends put together this basket of goodies for us. It is so nice to have snacks and meals to come home to.

The poor girl on the light bed. Thank goodness that she is easy going because this could have been horrible. My mom was awesome and stayed up with her that night so we could sleep, except when I had to feed the baby.

The next day we took her to  the pediatrician and they checked her out. All was good and the doctor was very pleased with her weight gain. They finally told us that her bilirubin has gone to an 11 so we could take her off the lights. I cried because I could finally just hold my baby without the lights or feeling guilty that I took her off of the lights. I went home, got in comfy clothes, nursed her and then let her nap on me for 3 hours. It was heaven!

They checked her again two days later and she was down slightly which was good that she did not rebound. While we were in Knoxville for Christmas, we checked her out a few times and her numbers when drastically down. Although we knew that she would be fine, it was still comforting to see her improve.