Elliott's Birth Story; Part Three

Since I was away from Elliott for so long the nurses had me start pumping right away. I was able to get small amounts. Since I was still hooked up to the epidural I couldn't walk or even stand. We had a few visitors come and go and Adam was able to take them in two by two to visit with Elliott. It was hard being forced to stay behind and not being able to see everyone's reactions to meeting him. I was a little bummed out. Also, he didn't even take the camera with him so there are no pictures.



Later that afternoon they took him off the extra oxygen but he had to stay on the CPAP. He did great on room air though and it wasn't too long before he was off the CPAP as well. As soon as he was off all of that nonsense, the nurses helped me into a wheelchair and I was able to go down to Special Care and hold and attempt to nurse him. He still had to stay on the IV for a little while since they had to slowly wean him off the sugar (otherwise his blood sugar level would plummet). Every couple of hours they would wheel me down to nurse him and after every nursing session they'd lower the amount of sugar he was getting. The nurses knew how anxious I was to get him back in the room with me so they were trying to push things along as quickly as they safely could.



At some point during the night they took me off the epidural and I was able to stand up on my own. Later on that morning I was woken up by the nurse but instead of them wheeling me down to him they had wheeled him to me! What a wonderful wake up call that was! They brought him back to the Special Care nursery after the feeding to keep an eye on him until his next blood sugar test. By 10:30 he was in my room with me permanently.



Also, I would like to end this post with a shout-out to the most amazing best friend on Earth! Adam was unable to spend that first night at the hospital with me so Nicole filled in. She was AMAZING! Anything and everything that either I or nurses needed she was there to do it. I don't know what I'd do without her.
Thank you Auntie Nicole!!