Jon and Cat's Adventures: Days 1,2,3 & 4

Life as new parents is so much fun. I really never knew that so much love could come from such a small little person. Jon and I had a blast in the hospital while we were there. We had no idea how our hospital stay would be like and we were pleasantly surprised. The nursing staff was very attentive, supportive, patient and caring. They took great care of me! Our room was really big which allowed for a lot of visitors to come see us. There was a pull out couch for Jon to sleep on which was perfect and he actually slept great! The first night we had the option to keep Beau in our room or send him to the nursery. Jon wanted to try him in our room so we put his little carrier in between our beds and after about 30 minutes of us trying to sleep Jon said “nope, he has to go!” Who knew that something so small could make so much noise! He grunted and moved around so much! Sounded just like a little piglet. I pushed the call button for the nurse and she came to get him. Once he was gone we got to sleep for about 3 hours before he was back for a feeding. I fed him for about 30 minutes and then he want wheeled off back to the nursery. All through the night I would get woken up by either a nursing coming to take my vitals or Beau coming to feed. You would think I would get upset with getting woken up so much but I never did. I was just so happy to finally have our little boy with us! Every morning we would get up around 7 and Jon would go get us Starbucks from downstairs. Oh how I loved the convenience of that! I ate hospital food for every meal but Jon always ate with either my family or his. The food was actually not too bad! I really was not in the mood for anything other than bland food because honestly I was terrified to go to the bathroom (#2). That was a huge fear of mine b/c I heard how horribly painful it is.

We had some great visitors come see us! Our days went by really fast and we loved every minute with Beau. He was a great eater, only cried when he was hungry or had a dirty diaper, good sleeper and was just precious. We spent a long time trying to figure out who he looks like. We think he has my eyes and nose, Jon’s mouth and cheeks. He has really long toes and fingers which are so cute. Overall he is a doll!

I was feeling pretty good after the delivery. I was very sore and in some pain but I had some medicine to help with that. I was so excited to take a shower that first night. I felt so dirty and the warm water just felt awesome! I was also really excited about putting on my own pj’s to sleep in. That hospital gown was not very comfortable and I felt very exposed, especially when people would come visit.

On day 3, Beau had to get his bilirubin test which was going to see if he had Jaundice. This test was the indicator if we were going home the next day or not. Jon and I did not think anything about the test because we were totally convinced that our baby was perfect. Well the nurse came in our room and said that Beau did have jaundice and his level was a 12.7. This is actually a borderline number because the cut off was an 11 so he barely had it. The pediatrician that was on call came and talked to us about staying one more night and having Beau sit under the billi lights overnight.

I guess my hormones were out of whack b/c I cried when she said he had to sit under the lights and only could come out to eat. I called my family and the minute my dad answered the phone I started to cry when I told him that Beau had Jaundice. He was really calm and reminded me that I had it as a baby and that everything would be fine. Beau went under the lights around 5pm that night and it was so sad to see him in there. He had to be totally undressed except for his diaper and he hated that! We could walk up to the window and see him in the little tent and he was just shaking and screaming. Ugh, I would tear up every time I would see him like that. The next morning they check his levels and they had gone down so we were free to go home. So, Saturday evening at 5pm we were headed home!

We called our family and told them that we were all free to leave and we quickly packed our things. My brother came up to the hospital to help us get home with all our stuff. My parents were staying at our house so mom had a great meal ready for us when we got there. Oh how I missed real food!