Rough First Week

We only stayed in the hospital just over 24 hours after Ben was born. I wanted to sleep in my own bed!! We had to stop by the store on the way home because we wanted to get some diaper rash cream and a few other little things. I didn't feel too bad for just having a baby.. however, the meds i was on probably helped a lot in that respect. We got home and introduced Ben to his new home. He pretty much slept when he wasn't eating so it wasn't a bad first afternoon.
The first night we kept him in our room in a bassinet. i didn't get much sleep because Ben is a noisy sleeper and i woke at every little whine and coo. (he now sleeps in his crib in his own room)
Saturday we noticed he was a little yellow so we took him outside to get some sun. When we left the hospital, we were told that his bilicount was a little high. Sunday morning i noticed that he was REALLY yellow and also that his eyes were yellowish. So we took him back to the hospital to get him checked out. We were gonna take him in for his 5 day check up but he was only 4 days old. We decided that even if we couldn't get his check up then we still wanted him checked for jaundice. We were admitted to the ER where they took his blood and check his biliruben count. It was a 22, where as 0-8 is the normal. Ben was then admitted to the hospital for aggressive phototherapy treatment to help his blood count come down. The put and IV in him and covered his little eyes with protective gauze that had to stay there the entire hospital stay so the ultraviolet light wouldn't hurt his eyes. he looked so helpless lying there. He had to lay in this light that looked like a tanning bed while this light paddle was placed on his stomach and covered so it wouldn't fall off. Thankfully, Ben was relatively calm and quiet; he slept most of the day. At night, however was a different story. he tried to sleep but was kind of wiggly. I gave him a pacifier but he couldn't hold it in his mouth for very long. Once he accidentally spit it out, he would cry! I wasn't allowed to hold him or take him out of the bassinet he was in; i couldn't even feed him, i had to pump so he could eat from a bottle and even then we had to supplement with formula because i wasn't producing enough.
Our friends came to visit us!! Seth and Katrina, Marcus and Haley, and Dave and Tavia came with their two kids, Brennan and Jr. It really helped boost my spirits!!
That night was the hardest because i couldn't hold him or comfort him except to hold his hand and put his pacifier back in. Basically, i was exhausted by 2 in the morning. toby took over comforting Ben while i tried to sleep in the recliner chair. When Ben wouldn't stay quiet, I went back over to help and almost collapsed trying to get up.. i was that tired and worn out. The nurse came in to check Ben's vitals and IV and offered to watch in the nursery. I didn't want to leave my baby, but Toby threatened to take me home if i didn't let the nurse watch him so i could get some sleep. (even though i still had to get up every few hours to pump for Ben.

The next day Ben was calmer and more relaxed. We didn't do much except eat and sleep. I watched some TV and mostly read. Toby went home to clean up the house because my mom was flying in to help out. She would be staying for a little over 2 weeks!!! Ben's bilicount was coming down nicely so the Dr. let us go around the time that mom was due to get into town. We were a little late picking her up because we were getting discharged form the hospital and the nurse was being a little slow.
In order to take Ben home again, we had to get what is called a biliblanket. It is the same paddle that was on Ben's stomach in the hospital. We had to keep it on his bare skin as much at possible, for the whole week!! It wasn't the funnest thing to deal with as the cord only reached about 3 feet, so it was hard to cart him around different places!!
Every morning we had to go to the hospital to get his blood drawn to make sure his count was returning to normal. He did not like having his foot pricked every morning and by Wednesday would start to whimper when we walked into the Lab room. It was really hard for me to listen to him cry all the time.. i thought that he would start to hate me for making go through all that pain.
Thursday brought great news when we learned that our best friends had their little baby that morning!! It was a BOY!! They named him Nathan James Johnson!! We had a good visit with them when we went to the hospital with Ben. Our sons are only a week apart, and Nathan was born on Ben's due date!!
The rest of the week was pretty much the same with feedings every 3 hours and sometimes more often when he hit a growth spurt and wanted to eat every hour. Everything was normal except for the fact that i got sick with bronchitis. Yeah, it was not fun recovering from giving birth, not getting any real sleep and dealing with a sickness that makes you tired and groggy and pretty much lousy 24/7. I could not have gotten through it without my momma. (I love you momma!!)