Byrdhouse: Sophia's Birth Story

I think I was discharged a day or two after I had Sophia, but I was able to "room in" another day. When they first told me I would be able to room in with Sophia (keep my things/food in a hospital room, and sleep there at night) I was thrilled. How cool is that?! They made it seem like I'd be able to stay as long as Sophia was in the NICU, but really, I guess it just meant one more day. There is a room for parents to stay in by the nursery that I was told I could stay in if it was available, but when I asked about it, I never really got an answer, and I guess there's a long process to go through before you can start staying there. It was all confusing... So we just made a million trips to and from the hospital those two weeks, spending as much time as we could with Sophia.

The two weeks Sophia was in the NICU were so stressful. I just wanted her to be home.

They nurses had her on a very strict feeding schedule, and I wanted to be there for every feeding that I could be. Usually, I was there for all from 8:00am-8:00pm. Sometimes we'd make it to the 11:00pm feeding, too.

Feeding Schedule:
5:00am
8:00am
11:00am
2:00pm
5:00pm
8:00pm
11:00pm
2:00am

So during the night, the nurses would feed Sophia, and I would pump at home. I'm so glad we lived so close to Shannon Hospital. Even though I fed her every three hours, it really took much longer. It was such a challenge to keep her awake, and get her to take a bottle. Sometimes it took an hour just for her to eat an ounce or two!

The nurses were great. I feel like every single one of them cared so, so much. No matter how many questions I asked, or help I needed, they were always there. And they were so sweet to Sophia. They made a name tag for her crib, and would leave us little notes when we'd come in.

Before every feeding, I was also pumping to make sure I didn't lose my milk supply. Actually, I guess I was pumping to help my body start producing. It took about a week and a half before it really came in. I'd store it it milk bags at home, then bring it to the hospital each day so they could mix it with formula (formula for extra calories).

I'm just going to take a minute here to vent about how much I hate pumping. I think that's why my whole breastfeeding experience started off so horribly. It wasn't natural, so it hurt like nothing I've ever experienced! Plus, washing a million little pump parts got reeeeeally old, really fast. Thank goodness I had a double electric pump. Although, I wish we would have spent a little more money and bought one that was less complicated, with fewer pieces. And did I mention that we didn't have a dish washer? Putting it all together, pumping for 20-30 minutes, putting milk in freezer bag with date, taking it apart, washing each part, setting out to dry, only to do it all again in another couple of hours. Phew! But, I'm so glad I stuck with it. It's amazing what you'll do for your sweet baby. :) I ended up pumping every day until Sophia was about eight months old. Talk about having an awesome stash of breastmilk built up. Our freezer was stocked full! Bottles if I was away, and used to add to foods once she started eating solids.

Anyway, back to the schedule.

With the amount of time it took to pump, get to the hospital, get Sophia out of her isolette, and drink her bottle, the three hours between feedings quickly disappeared.

When I arrived in the NICU for each feeding, it went a little something like this...

-Wash hands.
-Put new frozen milk in freezer.
-Make bottle (nurses sometimes had it ready, but I got the hang of it and liked to do it myself).
-Change Spohie's pulse oximeter, and occasionally the other sticky monitor things.
-Turn off isolette and get her out.
-Give bottle.
-Change diaper, hold and love on her.
-Back in isolette and turn back on. Turning it on always made me so nervous. Even though I knew what I was doing, I was always afraid I'd put it on the wrong settings.
-Change diaper.

Sometimes I'd bring the pump, and stay between feedings. Aaron, mom and dad would also come any time they could.

In the middle of the second week, I was able to try nursing Sophia. And hey, I'm just gonna say it.. It was totally weird. And I laughed really hard. Ha ha, makes me laugh thinking about it. I mean, how are you supposed to handle something like that? I hadn't really given breastfeeding much thought, only that I was going to do it, and then there I was, breastfeeding. I probably didn't get that "bonding" experience until she was a few months old. But after we got the hang of it, I fell in love with it all. I'm amazed at the human body and how God designed it to work.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty open about this subject. Trying to help normalize breastfeeding again. ;)

Dr. Herbert, Sophia's periatrician, would check up on her every few days to make sure she was doing OK.

The only real problem she had was trying to keep her body temperature up, so she stayed in an isolette for a while.

She was born on a Friday, and two weeks later on a Friday we got to take her home. Before she got the OK to come home, she had to pass the car seat test. She had to stay in her car seat for an hour without any of her monitors going off.

Cool story about the car seat... Since she was under five pounds, they required us to have a 4-30lbs carseat. Which, no one in San Angelo sells. We hadn't bought one yet because we were pretty sure we're get one at her baby shower. Since she came early, we had no car seat. My mom looked everywhere for one that met the hospitals requirements, and the only one she found was at Target, and was completely hot pink and $80.00. For those of you that know me, hot pink is not my color. Well, now that I have a little girl, I like dressing her in pink things, but a hot pink car seat, for $80.00... boo. So mom kept looking and felt like she was supposed to check at Goodwill. And guess what? That same, exact, car seat from Target, was still in the box, completely packaged, brand new, and only $30.00. God thing? I think so.