Because it's Saturday...a Labor Story: Part Two

Our post-delivery story - see Part One for the 5:30-10:35 AM saga!

After our beautiful baby girl was born, Hubster, baby girl and I got our hour to get to know each other.  Hospitals more and more are pushing this first hour of quiet family time, which is very different from labor and delivery a generation ago.  The nurses made sure we were comfortable, then quietly and efficiently cleared out to give us space to catch our breath. Researchers recommend skin-to-skin time in this "magical hour" as being beneficial for baby and mother so we snuggled up with a blankie and no diaper (a mistake). Hubster got to cut her cord, and I was able to donate cord/blood and placenta, which was something I was excited to do.

Our five-year-old godson in Wisconsin expressed the desire last month that we should name our baby "Lego Annie"  while his older sister told us we should name her "Hermione." I've been debating between the two names as her social media moniker; "Lego Annie" is super cute but a bit of a mouthful, so we'll call our littles Spartacus and Hermione online.

Little Hermione figured out right away how to nurse. Her latch was nearly perfect from try #1, which is AWESOME. For those of you without breastfeeding experience, getting the latch right from the beginning is essential to breastfeeding success.  If a baby doesn't do well right away, it can cause momma a ton of pain during and after nursing, plus it might result in baby not getting as much milk as she needs.  It's a primary cause of moms giving up on BFing. I was thrilled she figured this out so early - in fact, she nursed so well she pooped on my stomach TWICE in that first hour. Spartacus struggled with all of these things in his first days, so it was a relief to Hubster and me that we wouldn't have issues here.

My parents came to visit while we were still in our labor and delivery room; this is such a special treat, because when Spartacus was born early in Texas no one was able to visit us in the hours or days after his birth.

Gramma and Boobah with their second grandbaby

Since we're still staying with my parents during bathroom renovations, I had left them a note that morning when we left reporting it was baby day. Unfortunately, no one saw it on the counter until about 11 o'clock. My dad was doing chapel at a local retirement home, and my mom texted him. He left right after the service and they arrived at the hospital less than two hours after our new Hermione surfaced. My mother brought a lunchbox with my very important first post-baby request: beer.

I'm a sucky instagrammer but
look at my hospital chicken cordon bleu!

Once they moved us to a postpartum room (I had to say goodbye to my unused giant tub - I seriously will write an entire blog post about the next time I get to take a bath), my parents left and Hubster and I ordered our "celebration meal" from hospital room service.  It came with a little birthday cake from the Waynedale Bakery (from our end of town - soo good).

Yay local birthday cake!

I experienced an odd euphoria in those first hours; because I had had a full night's sleep, breakfast, and a super-fast, drug-free labor, I felt great. Yes, I was bleeding copiously as all post-labor mommas do, and yes, I had stitches that I would begin to feel very soon, but with a Motrin and good lunch, I almost felt like I could take my baby home right then and go back to work in the fields, Little House on the Prairie-style. This was SO different from Spartacus' birth after 24 hours of labor stuff and lots of drugs. I think after getting myself so psyched up for all the things I needed to do to have a baby, I was so relieved for labor to have gone smoothly that I had an odd energy I didn't know what to do with. I accidentally bumped into my nurse when she came in to do a newborn check because she didn't expect me to be there; Hubster was the one in bed with the baby!

Generally most mommas and babies stay in the hospital at least 48 hours; the state-mandated newborn screen occurs then before discharge. My pediatrician agreed that we could leave after 24 hours if everything still looked good in the morning.  Because our baby girl was born on a Friday and Hubster was off Saturday and Sunday, I really didn't want him to spend his weekend in a hospital, so we very much wanted to go home early if possible.

My husband's parents and sisters came after lunch with Spartacus, who couldn't wait to tell us all about going to circus Thursday night and to show us his new Big Brother shirt Grammy and Aunt B picked out.  He also brought his big brother cupcakes; a book my MIL got him has a line about how "Babies drink from bottles. Big brothers eat cupcakes!" We've been talking up the cupcakes ever since.  I'll write more soon about the budding sibling relationship. :)

They got to be present for Hermione's first sponge bath.  I helped the nurse wash her hair, which she really seemed to enjoy; this was such a change from the hellacious screaming Spartacus emits when we try to shampoo his hair.

Hubster left after dinner to spend some time with Spartacus, planning to return in the morning to take us home.  Hermione and I hung out, nursing intermittently and catching up on House Hunters.  In the morning Hubster came to enjoy breakfast with us and brought some full-strength Starbucks coffee (I've seriously missed my Americanos).  We received a visit from one of Hubster's seminary pastors, which was very kind, and Spartacus came by with my MIL, planning to join us after we got the baby home.  After Hermione cleared a blood draw and a hearing test, we were given leave to go home!

Somehow they can measure hearing in a newborn with electrodes and baby headphones...

Leaving hospital with a pink ball of fluff

There are going to be a lot of differences with this baby compared with our first, but one is the fact that Hermione was born in January in Indiana, and Spartacus was born in July in Texas.  This adds a few more layers of things we have to remember - sorry for the pun!

Leaving hospital with Spartacus