First Bath

With all of our other babies, the nurses have taken them to the nursery to have their first bath.  They clean them all up, then put them under the warming lights to make sure their body temperature is good (with the cute little heart sticker/thermometer).  This time, they did Gabe's bath right in our room.  They said it was part of trying to make it a more family friendly environment, and they did almost everything in our room (testing, etc).  Gabe wasn't too fond of his bath.

We have this picture (with Scott's hand on the stomach) of all of our kids.  It puts their size in perspective.

Since the bath wasn't done in the nursery, Gabe didn't have the warming lights to sit under after his bath.  The nurse checked his temperature to make sure it was high enough, which it was, so he got to stay in our room with us.  The sun was shining through our window, so I sat by the window and let Gabe sit on my lap in the warm sun.  He and I both loved the warm sun!

Day 2

I had Gabe spend the night in the nursery, so I could try and get some sleep.  He had to have his blood sugar tested every three hours, so I had to stay on top of feedings so he'd be able to pass each test.  When Owen was born he had the hardest time passing all of his blood sugar tests.  He'd pass a couple, then fail one and we'd have to start all over.  By the time Owen finally passed the final test, his poor little feet were just a mess of cuts from having to draw blood each time.  I didn't want Gabe to have to go through that, so I woke up and fed him every 2 hours through the night (they would just bring him from the nursery to me, I'd feed him, then send him back to the nursery so I could get a few more hours of sleep before it was time to feed again).  And it worked, Gabe passed every single blood sugar test!

When morning came, my dr. made his rounds to check on me.  He sat and chatted with me about how cute Kate had been watching the delivery. He thought it was so funny how she had been right there at my feet, watching all of the action, and totally unphased by it all.  I love my doctor.  Then the pediatrician came and checked on Gabe.  He said he looked perfect.  Then I had quiet time with my baby.

Scott spent his morning getting all the kids off to school, then he headed down to the hospital to be with me. 

We spent the rest of the day taking turns snuggling our new little guy.

8th Floor

A few hours after delivery, we were ready to move upstairs to the 8th floor.  We got settled into our room and cuddled with Gabe a bit more.

 

The girls really did not want to leave and go home.  But it was a school night, so they needed to go home and sleep.  I had planned on Scott going home instead of staying the night in the hospital.  I knew trying to get all the kids off to school would be hard on my parents, so I wanted Scott there to help out.  I hadn't realized how hard it would be to send him home, though.  We've always had our babies before noon, and have had the whole day to spend together after delivery.  This was our first evening baby.  We didn't get up to our room till after 8.  Everything had happened so fast, and before I knew it, I was having to say goodbye to Scott and the girls and I was all alone with my new little baby.