I've got baby on my mind

Last night I pre-registered for the hospital and found out that there are no open tour dates before my due date. I quickly sent them an email and pleaded my case, we'll see what happens. I am not holding out too much hope, if worse comes to worse, I'll just go and walk around by myself and ask my doctor a lot of questions! I don't even know if I labor, deliver, recover and stay in the same room or if I get moved. With Sage, it was all in one room and with Kolby, I was moved after delivery to a different floor even!

During Kolby's tour, we learned that if they pick up the red phone, that is a bad sign. Guess what? They called on the red phone right after Kolby was delivered. He had some fluid or something, he wasn't breathing the greatest. And then he was. And then they wanted to keep him in the nursery to keep an eye on him. I cried. And then he got sent to the NICU. I cried some more. It ended up not being that big of a deal, although it delayed his circumcision to literally right before we were discharged.

Thinking back to Kolby's birth and then care afterwards. It is no wonder I was so depressed. I didn't even think through things, just went through the motions.

So, Kolby was in the NICU, they told me I couldn't go down between the hours of 7 and 11 am because that is when the doctors do their rounds. But I needed to speak to the doctor because Kolby was born with clubfoot and we were very clueless as to what that meant and how or where to begin with treatment. You learn fast as a parent, huh? So, he was in the NICU, I was in the recovery room one floor up, we still hadn't lived in New Haven for a year and guess how many visitors I got? One. The young marrieds pastor from our church. I was pretty lonely. And Drew wasn't able to hang out with me much because we had a 20 month old that needed to be looked after.

During this, they weren't too clear (read: never discussed) on how I was to nurse him. I think they gave him a bottle once and then I asked about nursing and pumping. Then they brought me a pump and them told me that I could just go down to nurse him. He wasn't too thrilled with the idea by then. But the next time, while sitting with a lactation consultant, he was perfect.

Then, I had to take Kolby in for his couple day old check up and of course they wanted to weigh him again in a couple days. It worked out as I had to take him that same day to get his first set of cast for his clubfeet. At first the doctor was like, oh just pop over right after he gets his casts on. I looked at them confused and said but then, you won't know how much weight he gained because his casts will add weight for sure. Right. Wow. And this was at Yale Hospital!

And I don't even want to get in to the details of the clubfoot appointment. It was one of the worst doctor experiences I've had. Let's just say, we didn't go back and recommended others not to either. I am convinced that if we had stayed with that doctor, Kolby's feet would be in worse shape because of it, he might not even be able to walk normally.

Maybe I will tell the tale of Kolby and his club feet. I don't think I've done that yet. Keep coming back for more exciting posts from me!