Johnny's 1st day: Follow up from yesterdays post

As the kids came in the room to meet their baby brother, I couldn't help by cry as I looked at the excitement in their faces. Phil was actually shaking from the anticipation of meeting his brother, he had prayed years for a baby brother. The girls beamed with proud smiles and eyes as they looked at him. This was they day they too had waited excitedly for the last nine months.


I was still a bit nervous about Johnny's breathing, and he hadn't been fed yet so the kids didn't stay long. We needed some time to get settled and moved to the recovery room, it seemed like forever before they got us moved over. Finally 5 hours after Johnny was born we were getting settled in a new room and getting acquainted with one another.


Jake had gone home and brought the kids back to spend some time with Johnny, and hold him for the first time. It was after visiting hours that evening and everyone was tired, but we had a wonderful time together. The kids each took turns holding him, although none of them wanted to give him up. They just smiled and enjoyed their time getting to know him. We sang Happy Birthday to him, just like we had with every passing week of the pregnancy, we could tell he knew the song well. It was sweet to have all of us together, suddenly a family of 6, it was so wonderful. It was 10pm at that point and time to say goodnight. If I had known what I know now, I would have never let Jake go home, the precious time we had with him was limited, but we could not have known.

After they all left, the nurses came to take Johnny for his first bath. This seemed strange to me that they waited so long to bathe him after he was born. Our experience was that they don't like to wait longer than a couple hours to give a newborn a bath, but, I didn't question it. Through the evening and night, Johnny continued to have intermittent labored breathing, I asked the nurses about this, they weren't concerned. His cry through the day when he was touched was a little shocking to me, like nothing I heard before, but he would calm down as soon as he wasn't being messed with. It was also something that would be overlooked during our stay in the hospital, something that was a warning of what was to come. All through the night he seemed to be doing everything he needed to do, except the breathing and cry that sporadically worried me.


There was very little sleep to be had through the night. The nurses were bugging me all night that I wasn't going to the bathroom enough, they kept making me drink more and more, so I was up more and more. I think I may have managed an hour of sleep, but I was content to sit and listen to my newborn son as he breathed in the bassinet next to me.


The sun was up, and I waited for Jake to come and spend some time with us. At this point the little guy is 20 hours old, and the pediatrician came to meet us for the first time, and then took a quick look at John, then told us he would be back later to do his circumcision. Throughout our time in the hospital besides the breathing and strange cry, Johnny's hands, feet, and around his mouth were turning blue, off and on, this was another of the things that was brought up, and then overlooked. He was quiet, but just when he wasn't being messed with, then it was a scream. Jake asked me if the other kids had cried like this, we were both very uneasy about it. So many nurses and paper pushers were in and out of the room all day, there was no rest and it was beginning to wear on me. Through the afternoon the feedings were becoming less frequent, but he seemed to be content to sleep as long as we would let him. I finally got a nap late in the afternoon, until the next shift came on, we both slept. When the nurse asked when the baby had last nursed I actually couldn't remember, it had been that long, but it seemed like it wasn't a big deal at the time. At 7pm the doctor arrived to do the circ, and sign release forms so we could go home.


I could hear Johnny's scream from the nursery after the doctor took him back, I welled up with tears, it broke my heart to hear such a painful cry.


After the procedure when the pediatrician returned to the room, he sat down to tell us how things went. He said the procedure had gone really well and told us how to care for him while he healed. He then told us that our baby was a screamer. We knew what he was referring too, but couldn't believe he would say it like he did. We then heard a long list of things to watch for that would show a sick baby. UGH! Some of those things we were seeing, so I brought them up. Specifically that he was having the blue moments around his mouth, and on his hands and feet. I brought up that my sisters baby had a heart problem that was overlooked, that she had to have surgery to correct it. That, along with the breathing issues. He said nothing was wrong with him, but never did check him after I asked these questions. He then said we were free to go home after a couple hours of observation from the circumcision.


When Johnny was brought back from the nursery, the nurse mentioned that he had thrown up a little, but he was fine. I could hear it rattling around in his nose and throat, and was very annoyed that the doctor didn't tell me about this. We waited for instructions and paperwork so we could go home, and we waited, and waited.


9pm I sat down to nurse him, it was really beginning to hurt terribly, he was having trouble latching on, and was biting down. He nursed for about 5 minutes, I could tell he was upset, and thought it was from his circumcision. Finally, at 10:45 we were given the go ahead to go home, but, at that point just wanted to stay through the night. We kept asking if they were sure he was okay to go home, we could tell he was feeling bad, but I guess the nurses didn't see it.


Once again we were reassured that he was okay, and we loaded up the car to head home.