From the Very Beginning (Part 5)

At 9:01 p.m. weighing in at 7 lb 7-1/2 oz and measuring 19 in you, Zachary Ray Smith, were born. Daddy was there and went with you down to the nursery, while they took finished things up with the surgery and took mommy to the recovery room.

Let Mommy tell you that not all people in the hospital are very nice at all. As I was coming out of the anesthesia in the recovery room, I was having a nightmare and couldn't breath. Mommy had something similar happen when she had her tonsils out in High School. Mommy pulled at the oxygen mask and the nurse yelled at me. Here is how it kind of went.

Nurse: "Tricia stop. Tricia stop that. Do you know where you are?"
Mommy: "Yes, I am at the Hospital in Oroville."
Nurse: "Do you know why you are here?"
Mommy: "Yes, I am having a baby."
Nurse: "That's right. Now do you want to die and leave that beautiful baby all alone? Stop pulling at that mask."
Mommy: "But it is so cold, I can't breath, get this thing off my face."
Nurse: "fine if you want to die, what do I care."

I am not sure how much longer it was before I was taken back to our room. Daddy got to hold you and rock you and give you a bottle of sugar water. This was nice for thing for Daddy, bonding that he needed with you, but it was also the next step of messing things up for Mommy being able to breast feed you. Once I was in our room, I did try to nurse you but they were concerned about some sort of levels were off. So off they wisked you to the nursery to feed you while Mommy had to use a pump. You stayed in the room with me the rest of the time. Mommy just wishes that someone would have told me that you needed to be fed every 2 hrs and that if you were sleeping to wake you up.

We had a few visitors while we were in the hospital. Daddy came every day, but didn't stay very long because Mommy was tired a lot and kept falling asleep while he was talking. Grandma C, Teresa B, Auntie S, and Cousin C all came to visit. Grandpa C tried to come to see you, but unfortunately the incision site (from his appendectomy the week before you were born) opened and was bleeding and oozing. Poor Grandpa.

The Dr. did try to send us home on Friday, but Mommy just wasn't ready. We did go home on Saturday. That day Mommy and Daddy got to have our celebration steak dinner, after Mommy finally got to have a shower. The beautiful little outfit Mommy and Daddy picked out to take you home was waaaaaaay to big, but you wore it anyway. After we left the hospital we went straight to the Pharmacy to pick up Mommy's pain medicine. When we pulled up outside, Daddy didn't think to help Mommy out of the car (bad Daddy), but 1 of Grandma C's friends, Alice, was outside (thank goodness) and helped Mommy out of the car. We all went inside. Your first stop out of the hospital and Yes at 4 days old you were in public. Then we went to visit Grandma S and Marvin at Grandma's house. We were there for several hours. Oh Mommy was so tired. We finally went home.

Mommy was having problems getting in and out of bed, so she slept sitting up on the couch. Oh was this ever a big mistake. She did not think about propping her legs up and boy did she pay for it. Mommy woke up in the middle of the night with her legs hurting and swollen. Mommy called the nurseline from the health insurance company and the recommended calling the Dr. right away. So at 2 a.m. Sunday morning Mommy was calling the Dr.'s exchange. They woke him up, poor guy. He said get those legs up, drink lots of water, and not to worry. At about 11 a.m. he called to check on Mommy and she was doing much better.

You had your first Dr. visit on Tuesday. You were doing okay but your weight was down, but at this point she was not too concerned about it. She was a little concerned about your billirubin count and had us go over to the hospital to have your blood checked. You were feeling so out of it that you didn't even cry when they clipped your heal. Then we went home. Later Mommy got the phone call saying that you had jaundice (high levels of billirubin) so they wanted you in the hospital under special billilights to help. You had to stay in the hospital overnight. While there you had to stay under this special light. Nothing on but a diaper and a special eye protector. The hospital had so many babies with jaundice that they had to call other hospitals to try to get extra units in. There were so many ladies there having babies that they did not have a place for Mommy to stay while you were there. Mommy and Daddy went reluctently home but were back first thing in the morning. Luckily that was all it took and we were able to take you home shortly after we arrived to visit you in the morning. At some point between when we went home from the hospital on Saturday and you went back into the hospital on Tuesday, we did go to visit Grandpa and Grandma C at their house.