Tuesday, April 01, 2008

She's Here - Part 2

Where was I... oh yes, Michelle asked me if iI wanted Jordan on my chest. I was SO thrilled to have that opportunity. Sam and Julie both had issues when they were born so I didn't get to see them for a bit. One of my (many!) prayers was that I would be able to have her right away.

I nearly fell off the bed when they said she was 8lbs 9oz. I was expecting another 7lb baby! We took lots of pictures and passed her around then my mom headed home. Ian headed off shortly afterwards so he could go home and be there when the children woke up so he could tell them their new sister had arrived.

I was moved to a private room about three hours after her birth. I wanted to upgrade to a private initially because the idea of sharing a room and bathroom with some woman's husband was freaking me out a bit. The only room they had was a private so I was all over that. I'm so glad too, because babies were crying everywhere.

Ian came back with the children around 10:30 and it was so precious to see them meeting her. Sam held her first and told Ian it was the happiest day of his life. Julie held her next and marveled at how small everything was. Ian took Sam for a tour of the main floor of the hospital and checked out the gift shop and Tim Horton's, then came back and took Julie for a bit for the same tour. All in all they stayed about four hours before heading off.

I had tons of visitors throughout the afternoon and I was so exhausted by the time visiting hours were over. It's really hard to get any rest in that hospital - nurses kept coming in for some reason or another. Jordan had a bit of a rough night. She was fine to sleep as long as I was holding her, but I was so tired myself, so once I thought she was sleeping I'd lay her in her crib only to have her wake up. She just wanted to be cuddled, I think.

The nurse that was assigned to me kept coming to my room every time Jordan cried. I was always doing something wrong: over feeding her, under feeding her, wrapping her wrong, changing her diaper wrong, I shouldn't have music playing, on and on and on. Finally I took her for a walk and this same nurse tracked me down and scolded me for leaving the ward. I almost called Ian at 3:30 in tears because she was bothering me so much, but I knew if I did he'd be at the nurse's station at 6am ready to rip her a new one. So I just let it go.

Said Nurse took Jordan at 7am for some bloodwork and then scolded me for a) not sleeping while she was gone (didn't know I was supposed to) and b) for opening a new bottle when she just fed and changed her (ok, didn't know you were going to do that, but thank you). I called Ian to let him know I could leave at 9am and was SO glad to see him and the kids again. Julie missed having me at home.

So there you have it... believe it or not, a shortened version of my lovely daughter's birth story. We are all so happy to have her home.

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