The Longest Walk

So in my last blog I left off with our beautiful boy on his way to the NICU. Shortly after Ben and Alex left, they closed me up and moved me into a recovery room. Our nurse (Kara) who'd been with us the whole time came in and explained to me that they were doing X-rays on Ben to see how much air had gotten outside his lungs and they would probably keep him overnight.

Alex came in to confirm this a little while later, along with bringing pictures for me to look at since I hadn't gotten to see him for very long. It would be nearly eight hours before I would get to hold him for the first time. My mom came in the recovery room to stay with me, while Alex went to explain everything to his parents who were waiting in our other room. Then he went back to the NICU.

I was moved back to my room on the recovery hall about two hours later. Kara explained to me that I would need to get up as soon as I felt able to (no problem there I had a baby to see) and I would need to do it twice before I could go down there. As soon as I felt my legs return to normal I was pushing the call button. By 6pm I was moving around my room, 6:30 I was doing laps back and forth between the bathroom and my bed. At 7:30 we asked the night nurse if we could go down to the NICU. She didn't want me to make that long of a walk without a wheel chair so the first trip down I had help from Alex.

The NICU is located on the complete opposite side of the labor and delivery floor. Thru a few doors and a check in room. Once we got down there we had to wash our hands thoroughly at this hand washing room before we could go in the room. Then Alex led me to where our little boy was. There really is nothing like seeing your child hooked up to a bunch of machines. Luckily for us, Ben was doing really well: they had taken him off the breathing device and were going to let me try and feed him since I was there.

I'll never forget the moment I got to hold my son for the first time. It's one of the best feelings in the world. I can't event begin to describe it. We stayed for about an hour or two but then we had to go back so I could get my medicine and a few other things taken care of. Throughout the night we would go back every couple of hours to attempt to breastfeed Ben and spend some time snuggling. Every time I had to walk away from him broke my heart. I would have just slept in that room if they'd have let me.

Ben was doing really well by early morning, and after walking back and forth down the hallway all night so was I. I was still in pain, but it was manageable, and I was finally allowed to start eating food again! Around 9am on Monday morning the NICU nurse told us there was a really good chance that Ben would be coming back to our room for the rest of our stay! Alex and I were ecstatic! We couldn't wait to have our little man in the same room with us.

By lunchtime little Ben was wheeled into our room free from all the monitors and tubes! To say we were all excited was an understatement. Ben would spend
the rest of the afternoon being passed from grandparent to grandparent and having his picture taken what seems like a billion times. It was the best Monday Alex and I had had in ages :-)