Takin' on Texas: The rest of the hospital stay...

The rest of the hospital visit was fantastic. I feel truly blessed to have been able to deliver at such a great facility as Baylor Medical Center Frisco. The nursing staff was all top notch. Everyone was so friendly, helpful, and gave such quality information to help us. Kimberly made the comment that I got more helpful information from one nurse at the start of her shift than she did the entire time she was in the hospital with either of her kids.

This is a video from right after Max was born and we were moved into the recovery room. (I must have been really worn out because my voice is extremely husky.)

Here's another video from the recovery room so you can enjoy his sweet newborn baby cry. The hissing you hear is my version of laughing since actual laughing really hurt at that point.

Max stayed in our room the entire first 24 hours. The nurse came to our room and gave him his first bath right there so we could watch and gave us great tips for when we bathe him at home.

Max getting his first bath

First bath - what a little body!

All calm after the first bath

Being calm while being burped

Peter changing his first diaper

I mentioned this in my previous post, but we kept Max with us that entire first night. I still had my epidural so Peter had to get up and give me the baby in order to nurse and then had to put him back in his bassinet to sleep as well as changed all his diapers.

This is Peter getting to put his swaddling skills to use. Not too bad for the first time. :) He's an expert now at the tight swaddle.

We didn't get much sleep that first night but I think I was still running on endorphins so I didn't feel too wiped out. Things still hadn't really set in. I couldn't believe that the pregnancy was over and we made it through labor and delivery! After one feeding that night we stayed awake when we should have been sleeping talking about all the things we wanted for our son, the things we were going to teach him, and what kind of man we were going to help him become.

Swaddled and sleeping

All the stats - this is before we officially decided on his name on Saturday

We made it through the first night

Max

You'll see I have many pictures of Peter and Max. I absolutely love seeing Peter holding Max and helping take care of him. From the moment Max was born, Peter was in love with Max. He doted over his baby and how cute he was. He told Max how much he loved him. He kissed him and held him. He did skin-to-skin with Max as well. He immediately was a dad - a great dad!

Chubby cheeks

Pulling faces while being burped

Burping was one of my favorite times because Max would be wide awake.

We had a few visitors at the hospital - Kimberly, Brittany, and Joe of course. On Saturday, my old boss and friend from work, Lori, came to visit with her daughter and also brought me flowers. Then on Sunday my co-worker Jana and her husband visited and Peter's co-worker Andrea and her husband and daughter visited. It was nice to have our friends want to come visit us at the hospital and be excited for us.

Uncle Joe with Max

Joe got a chance to practice his shhhhhing skills with Max and saw that it works!

Uncle Joe, Aunt Brittany, and Max

They were going to take my epidural out around noon on the morning following the delivery but I was still feeling some pain so I asked if it could be left in a little longer. They let me have it until 5 that evening. I wish I could have had it even longer. :) Getting up and moving around was tough. I thought I'd be able to move quicker than I really could. Between showering that night and getting up to use the restroom, I pushed myself too hard and really paid the price with soreness that night.

The next morning Kimberly and I took Max and made my first venture out of my hospital room. We made it up and down the hallway once. I had to basically shuffle my feet and move at the pace of a turtle. I know I had major surgery just 36 hours earlier but man, I wasn't prepared for how limited my movements were or how sore my incision was. I was on top of exactly when I took my pain meds so that I would know exactly when I could request having the next round of them.

Ready to go on our first (very slow) walk into the hallways

I was on a liquid only diet for what seemed like forever. It stunk to watch Peter eat these great meals provided for the hospital, which had great food! I had my first "solid" meal on Saturday night before I technically had my nurses approval. I was so hungry for something real, so Kimberly picked up In-n-Out burgers and brought it to us for a late night snack. :)

Daddy Peter and his son

Some awesome things about the hospital:

They had a video camera set up in each room so that the nurses could monitor how we were doing. This came in really handy the second night. Kimberly stayed with me that night so that Peter could go home and get a full nights sleep (the night I went into labor he only had 1 hr sleep and then the night after I delivered he probably only had 4 hrs). We were both pretty tired and the nurses could tell. We sent Max to the nursery that night so we could get some sleep and then the nurses would bring Max to me when it was time to feed. One of the times, they noticed that I had finally fallen into a deep sleep via the camera so they held off on bringing Max to me for an extra hour in order to let me get some more sleep.

We could have used that same system as a web cam to allow family members to see us in the hospital room. I kept thinking how much my mom would have loved that. We didn't end up using the system but we did Skype with Brittany and Joe on Saturday night.

They gave us an embroidered receiving blanket (very soft) for Max.
They had an extra meal that second day that they gave to Kimberly even though they should have only had 1 for Peter.
There was a snack room with snacks and drinks that Peter could access whenever he wanted.
We were visited by a lactation specialist everyday and when I had a bunch of questions and wanted some feedback, the specialist watched the entire feeding and was so helpful! (This is a service that continues after I leave the hospital - complimentary access to the lactation specialists.)
I never felt judged, only felt helped and supported by the nursing staff.
They provided a "celebration dinner" of lobster and steak, and an amazing slice of chocolate cake for Peter and I the night before we went home. I opted for steak and chicken instead. We had the nursery take the baby while we ate so that Peter and I could have a "date" and reconnect, just the two of us. It was great to be able to take an hour without being interrupted by nurses or nursing or visitors and just talk to my husband.

My awesome celebration dinner (steak and chicken)

Peter with his steak and lobster

I love the pictures that show how little Max is compared to Peter. :)

Aw, my baby

We had planned on going home Monday morning. When my doctor came to visit that morning, she said that I could stay an extra night if I liked. I LOVED my stay at the hospital and really didn't want to go home but I couldn't see any point in delaying the inevitable so I said that the extra night wasn't needed. I now regret that decision, I should have taken every last minute at the hospital that I could. :)

It was a busy morning that Monday. Max got a visit for the first time from the Dr who would be his actual pediatrician. We hadn't decided on a pediatrician and had set up an appt with this Dr. to meet her in her office for a consultation on Monday. Well, when Max decided to show up early that changed our plans so instead we just had our consultation in the hospital with the baby already here. :)

Max was supposed to be circumcised this morning however when he was born someone thought he might have a condition called hypospadias. My doctor would have normally performed the circ. but because of this potential condition she wouldn't do it and said we would need to take him to a pediatric urologist.

Max had a hearing test and did great. The hearing test was really interesting. They monitored his brainwaves to determine how good his hearing was. He did great and got 100% - my smart boy Ace'd his first test. :)