Bella's 1st Thanksgiving

As of 11:00 AM I was released from the hospital :)  Of course, Miles and I ended up physically leaving at 1:30.  Before actually checking out we went to be with baby Bella. 

Dr. Buehner (my OB/GYN) came into my room first this morning.  The nurse knew I was anxious to go see my baby, so she requested that he make the trip to my room first.  Upon his entering, I greeted him with quite a chipper presence.  He looked shocked and smiled, shaking my hand and telling me how good I was doing and looking.  I certainly feel a lot better than the previous day, and it was nice to have washed up, put on some make-up and re-do my hair... even in a hospital gown!  The chipper presence came from, of course, knowing I could go see my baby soon, haha. 

We discussed my medications that I'll be on.  The list seems so long!  I thought post-partum meant no pills (other than anti-depressants in case of PPD) but that is very untrue.  A part of my new medication regimen will include iron, as he stated that I've become very anemic.  That kind of shocked me.  He said once I begin taking my iron again (I stopped the day I came in to deliver Bella) I will feel so much better; that a lot of my weariness, tiredness and such are from the anemia.  Yay!

I really appreciated his sitting in there and chatting, even if it was for only about 5 minutes.  He seemed genuinely concerned, or at least cared to really know, how I was feeling about my baby being in NICU and her condition at the moment.  He related a story of his own about his son when he was born having terrible jaundice, and it was really nice to hear your doctor try to relate to you -- even if he did say that the experience Miles and I are going through is nothing like his and he can't even fathom how that'd be.  It's a shame I'll probably be pregnant in another state by the time we're ready for kiddo #2.  Dr. Buehner is an excellent doctor.

After checking my incision, he said he'd go do the paperwork so I could be released immediately.  Yay!  One of the NICU nurses was extremely surprised I was already released having had a C-section, lol.  I don't know what you'd call typical, but she very dramatically said, "You must be doing VERY well."  Hopefully some of my insane healing powers were passed onto Bella.

Of course, as soon as I saw him move from his position to leave, I about lept to the NICU door.  Handily enough, it was only about 50 feet from my own door.

Before Miles came I was able to spend about 3-4 hours with Bella.  Neither of the times was I allowed to hold her, as she was hooked up to a breathing tube (basically).  The pediatrician, Dr. Benn, showed me some of her numbers this morning.  Her white blood cell count, which previously was very high, and her platelet numbers went down.  In fact, all of her numbers decreased!  This is a good thing, so I was so happy and sent some thanks to God.

Once the shift change came, I had to leave and so then called Miles and had him come pick me up.  As I waited I gathered my things that were dispersed throughout the room and waited by the window.  When he came we went directly to the NICU and spent some more time with Bella.  This time, however, we got to hold her.  They were testing how she'd do off of the breathing tube and instead be either in a hood or have a thicker tube of oxygen blowing directly at her nose.

After a while we left for home.  It was about time for my Percocet and Motrin, and shortly after popping them I conked out on the loveseat until about 4 PM.  What was the first thing I said to my hubby?  "You want to go see Bella now?"  Hehehee.

We just came back from seeing Bella.  Apparently she did fine with her breathing when we held her, but after she was put down did not do well on her own and had to be put back on the breathing tube.  The nurse that is watching her now (Nurse Renee) was slightly unprofessional and just plain rude.   When Miles asked her a serious question, she didn't know the answer and instead of saying as much snapped at him.  She also told us that we needed to start doing what we were briefed on earlier.  Well, to be honest, no one told us anything about what she did... we were told to wash our hands, come in, see the baby and be.  We didn't know we weren't, supposedly, allowed to touch our child.  Or rub her arms.  Or that we had to sign in and state what we did with the baby when we were there.  No one showed us that, and everyone let us either hold her or always watched and saw us touching her.  She acted like we were hurting our own baby, and even though I didn't appreciate her attitude, Miles just about blew his top.

My mom and dad should be flying in Rapid City in about an hour.  I'm going to take a crash nap and hopefully dream  about Bella.  I miss her and wish I could hold her.