We are all home and doing well. We were released from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. Oliver is having some jaundice issues but was deemed healthy enough to head home. We are all adjusting slowly but surely to our new lives with no sleep and we are very very grateful to have my mother here with us. She saved us last night when Oliver would not stop fussing by taking him in the other room and letting Brian and I get a few hours of sleep. We are erecting the monument to her this weekend since that is the longest stretch of sleep that I have had since we got home. Grandmothers are amazing things.
The stay in the hospital was a little rough. The first night I got absolutely no sleep because I could not stop staring at Oliver. Every time he moved I jumped and when he was still I had to check to make sure he was breathing. The second night Oliver entered full meltdown mode. He was eating so voraciously after he was born that he drained me of colostrum (the first milk) within twelve hours and my body never recovered enough to make more. By the second night he was so hungry that he wouldn’t sleep. He cried for hours and hours and Brian and I felt pretty close to melting down ourselves. In our delirium Brian called Oliver “she” or “her” about three times and called him Miles (our dog’s name) a couple of times. I called him Lydia and both of us told him he was a “good dog.” We were so tired.
We finally called for the nurse who proceeded to tell us that Oliver was hungry (well, duh) and that we would need to give him formula to get him to sleep. That made me burst into tears since I wanted so badly to avoid giving him a bottle so that we could breastfeed exclusively and he wouldn’t get any nipple confusion. Plus, I felt like a failure since I couldn’t feed my son. I finally broke down and consented to the bottle because I felt it was the only way we were going to get any sleep. The nurse brought the bottle in and Oliver point blank refused to take it when Brian offered it to him. I finally ended up dipping my finger in the formula and letting Oliver suck it off. We did this for about twenty minutes and then he finally fell asleep.
The next morning the pediatrician came in to check Oliver out and I told her about the night we had and how upset I had been about having to offer him a bottle. The doctor wrote us an order for a supplemental nutrition system that lets Oliver get the formula while he is at my breast (it’s kind of a cool set up). She recommended we supplement with the formula for awhile since I wasn’t producing enough for him and she thought he looked a little jaundiced. I was so glad that she respected my wishes to keep him away from artificial nipples and came up with a solution that would allow me to keep breastfeeding while making sure he is getting what he needs.
In order to get rid of the jaundice, Oliver needs to eat and poop a lot. We took him in to the doctor’s yesterday and he is putting on more weight which means he’s eating well but his jaundice is still a concern. His bilirubin levels were higher today than they were in the hospital but still not so high that he needs to be treated for it. The doctor also said she expected the levels to rise once we left the hospital. We take him in tomorrow morning to get him checked out again.
There is a lot more going on but since Oliver is taking a nap right now I’m going to take the opportunity to take one, too. I will try to update more soon.
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