The Most Popular Boy in the NICU

So after I had sufficiently "stressed Gage out," I was wheeled to my new home, up on the second floor of the hospital. There's a lot of construction going on right now, and there were about ten billion babies born during that week, so the second floor was acting as an overflow for mommies. It was soooo quiet up there, and my room was bigger than the mommy recovery rooms downstairs. So that was pretty sweet. What wasn't sweet was that the NICU was down on the first floor, through a very confusing maze of hallways and elevators. I got lots of exercise in during my time in the hospital.

Ben hung out with me in my room for just a little while, and then he felt badly for Lex and her boyfriend and went home to relieve them for the night. It was so weird to be in my room, alone, at ten o'clock at night, wayyyy too buzzed to sleep. But no baby or husband in sight. I decided to try to relish this time, though, so I settled in to my beddy-poo.

I couldn't believe how amazing I felt. The second that baby left my body, so did the nausea, heartburn, restless legs, excess spit, my Pet Loogie, and a zillion other things that had been plagueing me for eight months. I kept smiling to myself. And I kept catching myself sighing in contentment as I snuggled on my side with my pillows tucked all around me.

I woke up at two and was ready to party. I decided to go down and visit my little man. I was allowed to touch him in the incubator through these round little windows. I was careful to just touch him and leave my hands there, not to do any tickling or rubbing. I didn't want to "stress him out" more. :) The nurses asked me if I wanted to sit and still touch him, but the chair was too low, and if I couldn't hold him, why sit, you know? So I left after only a little while and went back up to bed.

A phlebotomist and her trainee came in at like six in the morning to take my blood. I still have the bruise from it. And it wasn't even the trainee who took my blood!! It was the phlebotomist herself!! What a butcher! I missed my favorite phlebotomist at my gynie's office. She's a genius.

I woke up again at 7:45 and again was ready and raring to go. So I went down to the NICU again. I was coldly informed that, between seven and eight in the morning and at night, the nurses are reporting to each other when they change shifts. I was told to sit on this cold chair while they finished. I felt so dumb. And so mad. This was MY baby, dammit. I should be able to see him when I want! I was very emotional and still hormonal, obviously. I just wish they had said it nicer. Again, I wasn't allowed to hold Gage. Just touch him through the windows. I was aching to cuddle him. I went back upstairs and sat dejectedly on my bed, and then was served a disgusting breakfast.

The rest of the day went much, much better. Gage kept pulling his oxygen out of his nose, so they gave it a go without it, and he was breathing just fine. They still had a little tube taped to his face that was going up his nose and down to his lung to ventilate it until all of the liquid was absorbed. And he still had billions of IV's and heart monitors sticking out everywhere. But they finally let me hold him. Bliss.

The daytime nurses were way nicer. They would call me when it was time for Gage to eat so that I could go down and get practice feeding him on his side. I loved every visit. This was my very first time feeding him - before I realized that he practically drowns when you feed him like this:

I was allowed to bring my visitors down to the NICU one at a time and let them hold Gage, too, which was so much fun. The daytime nurses were very nice to let so many people in and out.

Megs:

Em:

Lex:

Lex's main man, Chris:

Ben brought the kids over, and even though they were allowed to hold Gage, Ben wouldn't let them. :) He made them just touch Gage through the incubator holes. Ben is funny sometimes.

That second day was bath day for Gage, and Ben just adores giving our babies their first baths in the hospital. So I volunteered to keep the kids in my hospital room while Ben did that. Oh, what a nightmare. Micah went into my bathroom and found the little spray bottle that you use to clean yourself after you pee, and he sprayed it all over the floor, then came out and announced, "Potty! Potty on floor!" So I had to clean up all the water. My friend, Em, brought me some chocolate, so I offered it to the kids, hoping it would shut them up. Nope. It didn't. And Micah got chocolate all over my bedding. Sadie was stressed out that she couldn't find the light switch that went to a certain light in my room. And Dylan was changing the channels on my TV and mad that he couldn't find Disney XD. My poor friend, Megs, came to visit right then, and she probably thinks my kids are the Spawn of Satan. I was really embarrassed. And ready for the kids to go home. When Ben finally came back upstairs, I informed them that the kids were not invited to come to the hospital again.

I went upstairs to visit my daddy-o, who was still in the hospital that day. (He had this thing called pancreatitis, where your pancreas just needs to "rest." It was very random. But he ended up being discharged the same day I was.) It was weird that we were the Hospital Family at that time. Three of us on three different floors. Dad came down to the NICU to visit, but they wouldn't let him in, so I had to show Gage to him through the windows. He mouthed that Gage looked "just like Micah." Poor Dad, standing there with his IV bag, wearing his hospital gown, looking through the window. Nat's kids had to look through the window. They only let siblings in to hold the babies. They all gave me thumbs-up signs and smooshed their cute little noses against the glass to make me laugh. Jake was disappointed not to be able to hold Gage, but I told him that, when Gage got home, Jake could be my Gage Holder. He smiled, muttering, "I'm the Gage Holder. I'm the Gage Holder."

And I felt fantastic all day, running up and down between my room and the NICU. My nurse (my own personal nurse, who was absolutely adorable - she yelled at the mean nighttime NICU nurse that made me feel dumb, which made me feel better, and she has this adorable lisp) was worried that I was exhausting myself, but I assured her that I felt like a million bucks compared to the last eight months.

The hospital does this thing called the Stork Dinner the night after you give birth - it's kind of fancy-ish, like a celebration. They bring you Martinelli's sparkling apple cider and stuff. It's cute. So Mom watched the munchkins while Ben and I had our Really Romantic Dinner, as I kept jokingly calling it. My baked potato was good, but the London Broil.... meh...

Ben went home pretty soon after the Really Romantic Dinner. Too soon, I felt. But we didn't want to take advantage of Mom, and she needed to be with Dad sometimes, too.

That second night, I slept like a ROCK. It really is nice to turn over the feedings to the nursery ladies. With my other three, I was breastfeeding, and I mainly kept my babies in my room with me, which means I got very little rest. This bottle-from-the-get-go thing was so awesome in the hospital.