Firsts

On Friday afternoon at our department's faculty meeting two of us received baby shower cards that had been signed by everyone in the department as well as a $25 gift card to Walmart. It hit me that this was the first baby card and/or baby gift I had received during this pregnancy. The other recipient was Pam, an adjunct in our department. She is scheduled to be induced on the 17th (her due date). Pam and her husband already have two girls, and she was also carrying a boy. When I sat there in the faculty meeting, I didn't think that I'd give birth before she did although I really didn't expect to make it anywhere near January 13th. Here are some other recent firsts that come to mind:

1. Paul was the first one to hold Ian (aside from the doctors and nurses).

2. I was the first one to give Ian a kiss (yesterday morning after I had held him for quite awhile).
3. Sharon, a colleague of mine from work, was the first one to visit Ian aside from Paul & I (see 1st photo).

4. The first baby gift we received after having Ian was from Sharon. She gave us a beautiful pointsetta plant, crayons that are meant to be used in the bathtub for Nadia, and two sleepers for Ian - one in newborn size (football themed) for use in the near future, and one (size 3-6 months) in a dinosaur theme for farther down the road.

5. The first extended family members to visit Ian were Paul's parents who saw Ian briefly last evening. They also brought some clothing they had purchased since I didn't have any small stuff for Ian. He now has some adorable onesies and outfits in size newborn as well as a blue pram (size 0-3 months) for him to wear when we need to take him outside. They also picked up the crib mattress at Walmart on Saturday so Paul can now put Ian's crib together sometime before Ian comes home.

6. I was very happy to take my first shower this morning (first since Friday morning). The doctor removed the bandages that were over my incision this morning. The incision is of course very painful, but I know it won't last forever, and at least this time I knew what to expect. I know I'm supposed to be drinking a lot of water so that my milk will come in, but knowing how painful it is to get up and go to the bathroom makes me not want to drink very much. My legs and feet have swollen a little more than yesterday, but it's still FAR, FAR, FAR less than last time. I am VERY grateful for that! My heartburn has gone away again. It's nice to know I can have a cup of hot chocolate without my throat feeling like it's on fire. My blood sugar levels have been fine even though I've been off the gestational diabetes diet. It seems the diabetes is a thing of the past. YAY! My anemia has gotten much worse. They are giving me LOTS of iron.

I've definitely been more relaxed this time around than I was when Nadia was in the NICU. Of course I am still hoping he'll be discharged as soon as possible, but I am trying to set more reasonable expectations than I did after having her as far as when we'll be able to go home. I am hoping that maybe by tomorrow he can come off the CPAP so that I can start nursing him. Last night his calcium was really low so they gave him some by IV. He had one bad episode with this SAT levels so they put in an arterial line, but mostly he hasn't gotten better or worse - he's still breathing very rapidly, but thankfully hasn't needed to go on a ventilator. I haven't heard of his bilirubin count from this morning yet. As of yesterday he hadn't been diagnosed with jaundice. They started giving him some formula through a tube yesterday. I'm hoping my milk will come in soon so that the nurses can put that in his tube instead of formula.

Two times I wasn't exactly relaxed both related to what I was given for breakfast. On Saturday morning I was really hungry because I had been up since 3:15 and also was eating 3 hours later than I usually eat breakfast. Additionally, I had a very small dinner on Friday night. All of this added up to one hungry woman. Because of the GD, they gave me a tiny container of Cheerios and one slice of white bread. I just about flipped out as I saw my roommate had eggs and such. I don't even like white bread, but I at least would like it toasted. Plus this just wasn't enough food. Thankfully Paul and a nurse were able to get me some more food from the family pantry in this ward and also toast my slice of bread. Well the situation was actually worse on Sunday morning. They thought I was on a liquid clear diet so all they brought me for breakfast was a container of jello and a diet soda. I don't drink soda (ever), and although I like jello, I think jello for breakfast sounds disgusting. I again was starving - this time because I hadn't eaten for about 20 hours. Thankfully my nurse intervened and got me a regular breakfast tray. I was about to send Paul to Dunkin Donuts to get me a breakfast bagel. Jello doesn't cut it when you haven't eaten anything for 20 hours! Thankfully now I am receiving regular meals. :-)

Last night I added pictures to the previous three posts; so you might want to look back at those if you haven't already. As soon as Paul gets out of the shower, I want to head down to the NICU to see Ian. I am hoping to get a chance to hold him again today. I went down to see him 4 times yesterday but was only allowed to hold him once.