At The Hospital

First, to wrap up the arrival... Mia Torin was born at 4:22 am on February 5th. She was 19.5 inches long and weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces. Interestingly, February 5th was her exact original due date, it was only after the first sonogram that the docs changed it to February 10th. Thankfully, she gets her punctuality from me or she may not have been born until March ;)

Following the birth, we spent the next 2 days at the hospital in a room significantly smaller than the spacious delivery room. Lots of people came by to visit, which was great (you know who you are... thank you again), and we got a complimentary Stork menu meal through some family friends (again, you know who you are... and thank you very much), and several people sent or brought flowers and candy. We were also lucky enough to have great parents that took care of everything outside of the hospital for those two days so I could stay with Ashlei and Mia. As uncomfortable as the hospital was, I couldn't imagine having to leave Ashlei and Mia there to go take care of the dog, or pick up some clothes we forgot. So, to our parents, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

When not showing off our new bundle to visitors, we spent most of the time learning our way around a baby, including breastfeeding, changing a diaper, dressing a squirming baby, and the art of the swaddle. We're still perfecting that last one. All in all it was a very smooth first few days, which was apparently the exception in the Maternity Care Unit of Howard County General for that week, as apparently they had a run of c-sections that were keeping the nurses busy.

The much talked about sleep deprivation that comes along with a baby wasted no time in making itself known to us... but interestingly not always due to the baby. Mia's clock was backwards, so she actually slept most of the day when not feeding, but was much more active at night. To avoid a total lack of sleep, we simply tried to napped when the baby napped. This would have been a perfect solution if the routine checks by the nurses had coincided with Mia's bizarro schedule. Since they didn't, our morning and evening naps were regularly interrupted. Don't get me wrong, the nurses were great. They helped us a lot in the first few days when we had stupid questions (you mean you're actually going to let us just walk out of here with a baby...just like that?), but the regular checks definitely left us a little worse for wear.

After 2 days, Mia had passed her hearing test, been given her first vaccine shot (Hep B), and both her and Ashlei were discharged with clean bills of health. We were excited to finally take our baby home. We got everything packed and ready to go, put Mia in the car seat and she promptly wailed like a banshee. After a short delay so that Ashlei could feed Mia, we were finally on our way home.

Oh, and as for all of those preparations I mentioned in my previous post:

(1) the phone list - I left it in the car and never used it. I had to wing it with stealth inquiries into my cell phones phone book (cell phones are supposed to always be turned off in the delivery room).
(2) bags - we packed several bags: snacks, entertainment, and clothes. We barely touched the snacks, and never required much entertainment. It sure would have been a lot less to lug around if we had just bought clothes... rookie mistake.
(3) Ashlei off of work - this was one we timed perfectly.