Our Hospital Stay..,

Well, our hospital stay this time around has been less than ideal, and quite honestly, very upsetting for me.

But I will get to all of that later, first let me tell you about the 'milestones' of our first couple days! After meeting Brookelynne, Braxton had to go back to the nursery for some tests, and my family all went down the the cafe to get food. While they were gone, I laid down and tried to get some rest, even though I wasn't sleepy at all, so it was kind of pointless, lol. While I was resting, Misti, Garrison and Maele came up to see me. They were so sweet and I felt horrible that Braxton wasn't there for them to meet! Braxton got back a few minutes before my family did, and was able to see everyone one more time before they headed home. Mom and Dad were the only one who stayed after everyone else left, but Dad was in the waiting room "racing" Brookelynne back and forth. :) Then Mr Don and Mrs Diane came in to see us. (They are 'our' deacon and his wife. :) They've sat at the other end of the pew from us for as long as we can remember and we just love them and Allison, their daughter!) They were so sweet and brought Braxton a little blue puppy dog! They sat and visited with us for a little while, and were getting up to leave, just as Dr Kim came in. Kim is our pediatrician, and used to go to our church, so she actually knew Mr Don and Mrs Diane, so it was like a mini reunion! lol. Kim did Braxton's exam (most of which I missed because my nurses came in to check my vitals at the same time) while my Mom and Mitch looked on. She said he looked great and that she was the doctor on call for the whole weekend, so she would be back to see us both days. :) Shortly after that, Whitney and Brad came by. They came in one at a time, because they didn't want to bring Max into a small room where he would have to be calm, so Whitney came in for several minutes and held Brax while Brad entertained Maxwell in the waiting room, and then they switched. It was very sweet to get to see them both! We're so grateful for good friends! (Whitney also brought us cookies, which were very good!)

That night Mitch stayed at the hospital with me and the next morning went by slowly. Braxton was wonderful, barely making a peep, and we both got a decent amount of sleep. My parents brought Brookelynne up to the hospital around 10, and she sat with me and held Braxton some more. She really liked the halls and the waiting room more than being with me, but that's okay because she was having fun. The nurse came in around 11:15 to do Brax's hearing test. This was something different for me, because when we had Brookelynne they did all the tests and pediatrician exams in the nursery, and then told you the results. Now they do them in the rooms with the parents, so I got to see it. He passed on his right ear, but then his left ear failed, so they said they would come back the next morning. They have 3 chances to pass the test before leaving the hospital and it's totally okay if they fail, because most of the time its something as simple as the fluid not being out of their ears yet. Around noon, everyone left! lol. Brookelynne and my dad went to St Augustine for my nephew's birthday party, my mom went to work, and Mitch went to run some errands. So Braxton and I just hung out! Kim came by and did his exam again, and said he looked great still. She did feel some popping in his hip, like they did with Brookelynne, but neither of us is really concerned about it, because we are pretty sure that its not dislocated, just soft. (by soft, I mean that the hip bone hasn't hardened yet, because I produce so much of the pregnancy hormone released in the third trimester, meant to soften the mother's hips for delivery that he and Brooke's hips are soft too) They'll of course keep checking for it, and he'll get an ultrasound too, if it keeps up.  :) Kelly, Jeff and Malachi came by around 1 and kept us company for a couple of hours. It was nice to just have someone to talk to, and of course they both held Braxton and Malachi had a good time "exploring" the room!

After they headed out, Mom, Mitch, Dad and Brookelynne all returned, followed shortly by my sister's family. Tricia, Chris, Davis and Abbi all came to see little Braxton and Davis and Abbi were both super excited to meet and hold their new little cousin! They were so cute with him! It was Davis's birthday (which is why Brookelynne had been at his party) so he was having a great day anyway, but he said seeing Brax made it even better. Abigale definitely wasted no time in asking to hold him either! She even sang to him a time or two! When they headed out, so did everyone else. Mitch took Brookelynne home with him, so that she would be in her routine and once again it was just me and my little man!

We went home Sunday morning, even though it had only been two days since Brax had been born. Our first priority was making sure that he passed his hearing test, which he did on the first try that morning, and then getting everything ready for discharge. I watched Chest of Joash while getting ready to leave, and we headed home around 1.

As promised, here are the reasons that my stay at St Vincents was horrible this time around. 

After I got out of recovery and taken to my room, I asked for a pump and bottles/formula for Brax, which didn't happen for hours. Braxton was literally like 5 hours old before he got to eat anything, or before I had the chance to pump. On top of which, even though my doctor told me and put in my file that I could have solid food as soon as I wanted too, the nurses refused to give me any. (And by refused, I mean that she said "While I'm aware that you THINK you're ready to eat, and that Dr Phelan has approved it, I don't think it's a good idea. How about I bring you some water and maybe a jello".) And that's what she did. I didn't get any food from midnight the night before until almost 6, when my family went to dinner and brought me something back. I was, needless to say, VERY FRUSTRATED. On top of this, since my doctor left me multiple prescriptions for pain (ie 4 different ones, in case one didn't work as well as the another), instead of asking me out right which ones I wanted to take, they waited until I was in pain before giving me anything. And no, I'm not kidding. This was even more frustrating because I have a pretty high tolerance for pain (ie- I'm not crying or really even upset until the pain is a 8, 9, or 10) So by the time I ask for pain medicine, they go and get it, and it starts working, at least an hour has passed and I'm pretty close to tears. This was the biggest problem on Saturday night. Mitchell and I decided that he would take Brookelynne home and they would stay there (so she would have a little routine) and I would stay by myself at the hospital. I woke up at 1:30 am, got up to go to the bathroom, and when I got into the bathroom, realized that I was in serious pain. I couldn't find the nurse call (as it was directly behind me), so I stood up and tried to walk back to the bed. Halfway there, my entire body froze, and I was literally scream/crying in pain, as I held onto the door to keep from falling. I made it to the bed and called for the nurse. When she came in, and I told her that I was in serious pain, she said "Well, that's not surprising, your pain medicines should have run out about an hour ago, but you didn't ask for more, so I didn't give them to you." (NOTE: "an hour ago" was 12:30 in the morning and I was asleep!) I was crying, pretty hysterically when she left the room, and I called Mitchell. I didn't ask him to come, mainly because it was such an inconvenience to have him wake Brooke, take her to my moms and wake them, and then come to the hospital, but I was terrified. All I could think was that the nurses weren't taking care of me, and since no one was there who could make sure that they were, that I had to stay awake and make sure nothing happened to me. I don't think I've ever been so scared (for myself) in my life, as I was that night. Mitch texted me about an hour later saying that he was leaving our house. It didn't really matter, because even if he hadn't been coming, I wasn't going back to sleep. I couldn't even put Braxton down, I couldn't help but think that something might happen to the both of us, and I sat there, sitting up, holding him for hours. Mitchell got to my room about 4 and I was still crying, still holding Braxton. At that point I tried to get some sleep, but it didn't come easily. Even though I didn't feel strong enough/well enough to go home that day (it had only been 2 days), I was too scared to stay any longer. Ironically the nurse I had on the last 5 hours I was there, was better than any of the others.

There were a few other things, like the rudeness of the anesthesiologist and nursing assistants, but I get too upset while talking/typing about it to do so anymore. Next time, things will definitely be different, and if they aren't, I'll be speaking to a hospital administrator before leaving. In fact, I may be making an appointment with one about this visit any day.