Moving across, moving down, moving over, moving on

I have not slept at home since Sunday night. That was a pretty restless night of sleep as I anticipated the birth of baby and also worried about the upcoming induction. I thought I would be spending a night or two sharing a room with Matt and baby at Swedish Ballard and then going home. But that is not how it worked.

First we moved across town to Swedish First Hill. Baby went to the NICU on the 6^th floor and I went to a room on the 4^th floor in the maternity/post-partum section. Matt stayed the night with me in that room and then we kind of thought we would get another night there before they discharged me.

Instead they moved me down. They have something called parent sleep rooms on the 2^nd floor that can be reserved for 2 nights each week. Except immediately after your discharge from the hospital you can get an additional night. So we were able to “book” a room for 3 nights. It is not a traditional room with nurses checking in on you, and both the hall going to the room & the room itself require keycards. It is kind of like a no-frills hotel room. We do not have to pay to stay in the room and it is a way to be near baby. This was especially helpful as I tried to establish breastfeeding and since we only have one car it reduced on commuting some. Matt stayed the first night in that room with me. But then he needed to get home to be with the girls. So I stayed a second night in that room and got more late-night and early-morning visits to baby Willa.

I planned to spend one more night in the room then go back to my bed at home. But yesterday things were able to move forward towards Willa’s discharge. Wed night he Drs had ok’ed halving the iv amount so that she would start getting hungry and wanting to nurse. They wanted to monitor her and make sure she peed and pooped normal and that her blood sugar was normal. Yesterday afternoon the Dr ok’ed taking her off the IV completely. Once that was done she was a big step closer to going home and they decided to move her to the 2nd floor to a step-down unit. This unit is in the same area as the parent sleep room I was in. But they offered a “rooming-in” room to me, which means I would be (for the first time) sleeping in the same room as Willa. Of course I said yes to that! I was home for a few hours at the time (my first time being home since early Monday morning) but they needed my sleep room cleaned out right away. So someone gathered all my belongings and moved them over to the room Willa & I would share.

She was still hooked up the heart rate monitors etc. Which got annoying because they loudly beep every couple minutes when she moves or her breathing changes or something. But we were together! I was able to feed her overnight when she woke. Actually the nurses said they will wake me and make me nurse her if she sleeps more than 4 hours. It was not my best night of sleep ever between being directly across from the nurses’ station, random beeping from Willa’s monitors, waking to nurse her, etc. But moms of newborns should never expect to sleep well regardless of the location :)

Today Willa was discharged - we got to take her home! We got to move on past the nurse supervision and constant monitoring! Despite a scary start to things, she by all measurable accounts is healthy. Good hearing, good eyes, good nursing and digestion, good blood sugar, good muscle tone and responses - she was good to go!

Now she is home and ad-midst the real world. The world where sisters have snotty-nose colds and tons of friends want to meet her and relatives want to hold her. I hope it will be a smooth, healthy transition for all of us.