Read Part 1 and Part 2 of Waylon’s birth story.
After Waylon was born that Friday evening, one of the first things they want you to do is to feed them. I was able to get him to feed pretty quickly, but we had one complication that came up. He had low blood sugar, which is non uncommon for premature babies. So I fed him again in hopes that it would go up, but it actually dropped even further, which meant we were in for a bunch of monitoring that night.
It took about 3 hours to get us out of the delivery room because of this and everything else that needed to be done. We ended up giving him some formula to help, since breastfeeding wasn’t cutting it at the time. By this time we were settled into a room on the postpartum floor. We were told to keep feeding and supplementing and giving him as much skin-to-skin contact as possible to help with the low blood sugar. Needless to say, there was not much sleep to be had that night as I had him laying on my chest just about the whole time. Each time they checked his blood sugar they had to prick his foot for the blood test. And we had to get three good readings in a row in order to be out of the woods. It honestly didn’t seem to bother him too much, but I was a wreck each time they had to test his blood. Thankfully by the morning, we had gotten three good readings for his blood sugar and we were able to stop monitoring it.
The first day was filled with lots of family stopping by, lots of nurses and doctors checking in on us, and a ton of just trying to figure things out and getting to know our little guy. But the down side of the whole thing was that I still was on a no food, no water “diet.” Trust me, there are few things worse than giving birth to a child and them being told you’re not allowed to eat anything. Although having a new little baby does help distract you from that, at least. But the good part was that I was already feeling a million times better! The pain I had been feeling before was immediately gone and I was starting to feel more like myself and able to enjoy time with our son… even if I felt like I was starving.
That day was a little overwhelming with everyone stopping by, but it was nice seeing everyone so excited to meet Waylon. And he did great. Since he was born a preemie, he slept a ton. Even more than full-term babies. It was a rare occasion while at the hospital to catch him with his eyes open. Even so, I don’t think that entire day the little man ever laid in the bassinet they give you, since he was either in my arms or someone else’s.
That was pretty much our whole day on Saturday. A normal part of those couple of days in the hospital is running tests on his bilirubin level (yah, something I’d never heard of either) and basically it measures the level of jaundice. Waylon’s levels were a little high, which is also common among premature babies. Thankfully it’s treatable, but it is something that can cause problems if left untreated. The treatment, however, is being set under a UV light for 24 hours. They told us this during the night Saturday and said they could either take him to the nursery and put him under the lights there or they could move one of the lights into our room. Of course I was told them to leave him in our room rather than taking him away.
In order to do this treatment, they have him only in a diaper (which we quickly had discovered he hated being naked!) with protective glasses covering his eyes and you have to leave him under there and can’t pick him up. So they bring him in with this light and he just screamed and screamed. And there was nothing I could do. I just sat there and cried, feeling so helpless that there was nothing I could do for my son. My husband and I eventually agreed that he should be taken to the nursery, because I could not handle listening to him crying knowing I couldn’t help. They would bring him back to me every couple of hours for feeding and I got to hang out with him about an hour, but that was all I got to see him for the next day.
At least by Sunday morning they allowed me to start eating again and everything went great. The blockage was completely gone after having given birth and I was having no further issues or pain. It was fairly quiet day and I actually got the chance to shower and get ready and go outside for a little bit. It was good to finally start feeling human again, but it was hard only getting to see Waylon every few hours. My husband went home that evening to check on everything at the house, so it was just me that night, making it harder not having my little guy with me the whole time. At one point, I knew they were supposed to be bringing him to me soon for a feeding, so every time I heard something moving outside my room I would perk up, hoping it would be him. Once they finally brought him to me, I had my first emotional postpartum breakdown and starting crying just because I was so glad to see him again. (Silly mom.)
By Monday morning we got the good news that his bilirubin levels were getting lower and we would be able to go home that day! So even with being born 4 weeks early and under 6 lbs., we only spent 3 days in the hospital, which is only one day longer than the typical hospital stay for moms giving birth, and didn’t spend any time in the NICU. At our follow-up appointments at the pediatrician, he gained weight really well, nearly doubling it by his 2 month appointment!
This kid is my little miracle baby. I was so nervous in those weeks beforehand about how much he would weigh and if he’d have to spend a lot of time at the hospital or have any other complications. And while those last few weeks of pregnancy and my labor and birth did not happen the way I had planned, I am so thankful to have a perfectly healthy little boy who is already one of the most amazing people I know. I can’t wait to see the person he becomes.