Birth Story, Part Three

I don't actually remember meeting Julia until the next day.

I spent the rest of the day that she was born in bed and still on the magnesium which meant I couldn't move. I was brought a breast pump and tried to pump every few hours.

On Sunday, I basically asked to be taken off of the magnesium when it stopped rather than have another dose hooked up. They said since it was just four hours shy of the 48 hours it would be okay. So, I was able to have the catheter, the epidural and the IV removed.

I've never had such a hard time getting to a bathroom in my life. I felt like I was made of wood and hard such a hard time even putting a shirt on, not to mention pants!

But, I was finally able to be wheeled down to the NICU to meet my little one.

At this point, the bean didn't have a name. I knew I needed to see her before we could decide on a name for her. The nurses where very accommodating and removed her little helmet and CPAP mask so I could see her face. Of course, her little face was pretty distorted from the mask, but at least I could say I'd seen it.

I do recall my husband saying to me on the way back to my room that in regards to finalizing her name there was no wrong answer. So, we chose Julia Marie.

I cannot say enough how grateful we were for the NICU nurses. They were so kind and so gently with her. One nurse even decorated her crib with a Rangers pennant. 

She was born on September 24th and we finally got to bring her home on October 8th, two and a half weeks later. There was a point we thought we could bring her home earlier, but it got delayed for more tests.

My husband went back to work after I was released from the hospital on the following Tuesday since he wanted to save his time off for when she came home. You would not believe how many hoops we had to jump through for this to happen. The hospital social worker was so kind and patient with us in getting the paperwork done so that could happen.

I was released to drive about ten days post-surgery which made it much easier to get to the hospital to see her during the day. It was about this time we started working with the Occupational Therapist for her to learn how to nurse.See my post on breastfeeding for more on that.Every time I came up to visit I brought whatever I'd pumped the hours before and she was given breastmilk first at every feeding she could be while in the NICU.

I was also able to finally get things washed and ready for her while I was at home. Was it easy, post surgery? No, but I'm pretty sure it was easier than post surgery with a newborn.

We were very surprised we didn't need to room in the night before she came home, since we had been told that's the normal procedure, but we were just happy to get her home with us.  But, of course, that's when we learned just how much our lives had changed!

It's so true that the days are long and the months are short! I look back at these photos and they seem so long ago, but really it wasn't.

So, that's Julia's birth story. I know it's long, but I really did condense it the best I could so that it wasn't a novel, I promise.