Blissfully Brown: Mason's Birth Story Part 3: Mason's 1st Days

Once all of the visitors were gone & I had all of my IV lines removed I could barely keep my eyes open. I know there is all kinds of controversy as to send your baby to the nursery at night, keep the baby in your room at night for bonding. However, I was so exhausted from not sleeping, the exhaustion of labor & the dose of pain medicine they had just given me that I knew I needed to rest & take care of myself in order to be able to take care of Mason. So off to the nursery he went. They brought him in throughout the night to nurse when he needed to be nursed & took him back to the nursery when we finished. Mason's night nurse was amazing while we were there. She had 2 girls of her own & was pregnant with her 3rd she was very helpful to us if we needed help with something & very comforting when we faced a hiccup with Mason in the coming days. However the best thing about her was every time she brought our son in she talked about how much she just loved him & how he loved to be held & her & the nurses were just eating him up. It was so nice to know that he was in the best place while I rested & recovered.
Friday Mason has several family and friends come to visit. So sad we didn't get a picture of everyone who came to visit but here are a few.

He also had his first visit from his pediatrician Dr. Sood. She gave him a quick look over & let us know he looked perfect, but that he was tongue tied so would need to come into the office on Monday to have his tongue clipped. While he had a good latch, he was having a difficult time staying latched on because he couldn't stick his little tongue out. That day he also had his circumcision. This was a process I knew needed to happen but as a mommy I feared it for him because it just sounded so painful. Luckily they took him to the nursery for that & when they brought him back he was happily still asleep. The nurse said they put some stuff on it to numb it before the process & our little Mason didn't even wake up for his. That made me feel so much better! Later that evening he had to have some routine blood work done mainly to check for jaundice & things like that. We weren't really concerned because his color looked great. Mason's amazing night nurse, Kelsie, was back again & assured us that she felt the same way. It took quite a while so Blake & I decided to get me out of the bed & go for a short walk around the floor. We met Kelsie at the door with Mason & she let us know that she was shocked but that he did have jaundice & would need to be under a bilirubin light that night & have his blood work checked the next morning. Remember in the birth story when I said he wouldn't drop down into the birth canal? He formed a little capet on his head that was where the majority of the jaundice was.

She brought a light in the room & we tried our best to make him happy in there. It seriously broke my heart! As his mom, I felt so guilty, like somehow it was my fault even though I knew that wasn't a rational though. I was teary most of that evening however, I was hopeful that it would just be an overnight thing. Mom had been with us all day & at that point she was heading home for the evening & we were turning into bed so back to the nursery he went. That evening Kelise brought us back Mason when it was time for him to eat & assured us that he wasn't upset being stuck under the light, he actually enjoyed being on his tummy.
Saturday morning we woke up when Mason was brought back into our room & they began shift change. Kelsie let us know that while Mason's jaundice levels had lowered, they still weren't low enough to be discharged. She assured me that I wouldn't have to go home without my baby though so if Dr. Sood didn't release him then I would get to stay with him. She got him set up under the light for us & then it was time for her to go home. After she left my sister Lisa & cousin Katie came for a quick visit. While they were there both Mason & my day nurses came in. Let me just add that up to this point we had the absolute very best experience at our hospital. I couldn't say enough good about every person that took care of us. So back to our nurses entrance. The first thing out of my nurses mouth was "so your going home today" to which I replied "well I'm not sure our pediatrician is coming in later to check on his jaundice levels." She replied with "well he might not be going home today but you are. The insurance doesn't cover another day for you." Mason's nurse then joined in the conversation as to why I would be going home & why we may be leaving him. I'm not sure if they realized that I was a first time mom, or were just insensitive, but 2 people telling an hormonal, emotional, first time mother (not just first time I'm sure any mother) that she is going to have to leave here baby is just awful. The whole conversation was just not a good conversation. I told Mason's nurse we were finishing feeding & then could she please help us get him situated under the lights because he had been in the nursery all night & the nurses had done it. To which she replied, "you just put him under there if you want him on his stomach put him on his stomach." Next I asked my nurse if I could have my pain medicine. Her reply was "why? Take a sitz bath, its better anyway." I was thinking well lets see ma'am I've just had a baby & been stitched up & I'm in pain! I haven't had anything all night long. I was in shock at how insensitive and rude the nurses were. Because of Mason being jaundice & tongue tied he had lost almost 10% of his weight so we were having to supplement feed him along with nursing. While the nurses were talking to Blake & I my sister took Mason to give him some of the supplement he needed. As soon as the nurses walked out the door I took Mason from my sister, sat down on the couch and held my baby & cried harder than I had cried since I can't remember when. All I could think about was this is my baby & I can't leave him, he needs his mom! My sister & cousin left & I asked her to call & let people know we just weren't having any visitors that day. It was too hard. I was exhausted, too emotional, Mason hated being under the lights so once he fell asleep we tried to be so quiet & we weren't allowed to hold him except to feed him every 3 hours. While the whole situation was so sad & we hated telling people to stay away, that time in the hospital where it was just us 3 napping, caring for our son & spending quality time together was my favorite.

That afternoon, the dr. on call at my ob office came in to discharge me & Dr. Sood came to check on Mason. I asked both ladies about the situations that I had encountered that morning & they assured me that I would not leave the hospital without my son. They said if he had to stay then they would find a room where I could stay in as a guest not a patient & he could stay in the room with us. Dr. Sood said that we didn't have to leave the hospital until midnight so we had that long to get his levels under control. Her plan was for us to spend the day there with him under the light & have his blood work checked that evening. She said if it had dropped a little more she would let us take him home & have us come to the hospital to do more blood work to check his levels again. I could tell after both Mason & my dr. left they had stopped by the nurses station because she came in not too long after to see if I was in pain or needed anything at all & when discharged me she made sure I left with a replenished stock of whatever I might need & the kindest advice on going home.

At 7:30 that evening they came & got Mason for his blood work & brought him back. We ate our dinner & anxiously awaited the results. Shortly after they called at let us know we could start packing up to go home. While we were so excited to all be going home together it also was a little scary. These people had been taking amazing care of all 3 of us for the past 72 hours and now we were being sent home to figure it out on our own. At 9:30 that night the 3 of us left the hospital to begin our adventure of a family of 3.

Side note: The drive home was the slowest we have ever taken. Blake says he was going 5 under the speed limit when I piped up from the backseat & told him he was flying & needed to slow down!