Part 3 of our saga. (Part 1 | Part 2)

Daughter in the Nursery, Wife in Recovery - April 18th, 7AM to 7:30 AM
Once the kid was out, weighed, and cleaned off, the nurses moved her up to the Nursery while they finished closing up Dodi's abdomen and moved her to Recovery. I decided to follow my daughter up to the second floor Nursery. They put her in this little wheeled bassinet that would be hers for the rest of our stay at the hospital. When we got to the Nursery, they put her under a warmer lamp, gave her shots, and put Vitamin K goop in her eyes. I took a bunch of pictures and even some video:

The first thing I noticed once I got a good look at her is her nose. She has Dodi's nose, in perfect miniature. She also has our eyebrows, which is no surprise since we have very similar brows.  Other than that, she kinda looks like a chubby little china man. She may have blue eyes, but I guess that changes over time. Right now they are so very dark.

I stood there, petting her and taking pictures for five or ten minutes. She sort of lay there and squirmed. Babies are so squirmy. Finally I went over to the nurses and said "So . . . what do I do now?" They suggested I see my wife in recovery, so I decided to head down to see Dodi.  I stopped back by our old delivery room to grab the cell phone, then I went into recovery.  Dodi was there for observation after her Surgery.  They were keeping her for at least an hour to make sure her stats were up, that her stitches/staples were holding, and that she was not bleeding too much.  She surprised the nurse by being able to move her legs fairly soon after the operation.

I called my folks to tell them the good news, but couldn't get through to Dodi's mom.  Since a whole lot of nothing was going on with Dodi, and she was ok, I headed back to the Delivery room to get out of these crazy scrubs and make some calls.  I got a hold of Dodi's mom, and then left the voice post below.

Moving Rooms and Mommy Meets the Baby - April 18th, 7:30AM to 10AM
We had brought a LOT of stuff to the hospital.  We had 3 bags, a cooler, some jackets, the clothing Dodi had worn to the hospital, and a stack of pamphlets/booklets/papers we'd been given.  In addition, we'd set up Dodi's iPod and some computer speakers.  I found out where our new room was and borrowed a wheelchair to get all our crap upstairs.  It took me about 20 minutes to get everything gathered and hauled up, then I had to figure out to get back to the recovery room.

Let me tell you something about the layout of this Hospital:  It is a twisty maze with many hallways, all alike.  The delivery rooms are all on the bottom floor, with the cafeteria, and the postpartum rooms are all on the second floor (which is really the first floor - the bottom floor is the "LL").  I came to find out later that the floors are shaped kind of like a Butterfly outline.  This means a bunch of 45 degree angles AND 90 degree angles, some going in, some going out.  I spent the next 20 minutes trying to find my way back to the Recovery room.  Over the next few days I slowly figured how to get from point A to B, but I certainly spent a lot of time looking lost and confused.

I finally made it back to Recovery and chilled out with Dodi until she was due to head back up to the room.  She came out of the surgery with flying colors.  She impressed the nurses by being able to lift herself up using her feet and crab walk over to the new bed, only a couple hours after the surgery.  Once her O2 level stabilized, the called transport and around 9:15 we rolled up to our new room.


After only a few minutes in the new room, the nurses brought Celerity in for Dodi to see.  Aside from the glimpses she had in the OR, this was the first time she had really seen and held her child.   She was completely blown away by the experience.  The nurse initially tried to get Celerity to breast feed but could not just not get her started.  Dodi was so tired and overwhelmed by the experience of it that she couldn't really follow the instructions of the nurse.  Instead we gave her a bottle of formula.  Later on, when we got serious about breast feeding, we found out that the breast that she'd tried feeding on didn't have any milk yet.  It took us 3 days and a bunch of pumping before it would produce a drop.

The nurse pulled me out into the hall to express her concerns about Dodi's ability to cope with having a child, etc, etc.  As I was explaining exactly how tired Dodi was, and just what over-stimulation did to her ability to think, a familiar girl walked up.  "Hey, Rex," she goes, and I am thinking, "I totally know this person . . but I don't know from where."  So I say, "Um. . .I'm pretty sure I know you, but who are you?"  She gives me the dirtiest look ever and cooly informs me that she is Tara . . you know, my Wife's niece . . you know, the one who planned the Baby shower for us . . . Yeah.  I think it was a combination of a lack of sleep and an out of context problem.  Dunno.  Anyway, she came in a visited for a bit and cooed at the baby. 

We eventually shooed her out and crashed out for some sleep.

That's all for now . . . Part 4 when I'm feeling ambitious.