Finding Our Way Home

Let me just say, first of all, that I REALLY wish I could remember more details and more of the order in which everything happened.

Yesterday evening, after everyone left for the day, and it was just my wife and I, that's when things started getting really good. (As I'm typing this, I'm really getting a kick out of how stubborn my little girl is. She'll take a pacifier, and after about 30 seconds, she'll spit that thing out so hard it ends up at the other end of the bassinet.) As my wife and I watched our little girl, we shared a good cry and marveled at the miraculous grace and wonder of our Lord. Then, it was time for my wife to go walking.

After having a C-section, they said she needed to walk. I finally convinced her to go walking with me. I think I said something like there was ice cream at the end of the hall, but I really don't remember. As we walked, she was in a great deal of pain from the incision. When we got back to the room, she got some pain medicine and felt better. Oh, I almost forgot. I got to roll my little girl down the hall in the bassinet while momma and I walked.

Sometime before that, I guess it was just after lunch time, a lady came in and asked my wife what she'd want to eat for supper, breakfast, and then lunch. She recorded my wife's menu selections. When supper came, it wasn't what she ordered. When breakfast came the next morning, it wasn't what she ordered. When lunch came, it wasn't what she ordered, and I thought, "As much as we're paying to stay here, you'd think they could at least bring her the food she ordered. The only meal we insisted on them getting right was last night's supper. She'd ordered a club sandwich and chips with sweet potato pie for dessert. They brought her salisbury steak, a baked potato, green beans, some kind of green jello fruit salad, and strawberry shortcake. My wife didn't really want me to insist on them bringing the right thing, but she changed her mind when she later got her hands on the sweet potato pie!

This morning, the pediatrician came by to check out the baby. He said everything looked good and gave every indication that we'd be discharged some time before noon. An hour or two later, the nurse came in and asked if the pediatrician had been by. We affirmed. She asked if he'd said anything about discharging us. We told her he had. She said there was no record of him even coming by. She finally got in touch with him. He'd forgotten to fill out the paper work. We WERE supposed to be discharged before noon, after all.

Let me back up a little bit. My wife had decided we were going to keep the baby in the room with us all night. I laid down on the couch about 11:30. By midnight, I was asleep, and I didn't know I was in the world again until 7:00am. She informed me that the nursery nurse had been in a couple of times through the night, once to take the baby for tests and once to bring her back. She also informed me that her doctor had come in at 6:30 but that I had been snoring the whole time and never knew it. Oh well, I guess I needed the sleep so I could drive baby and mother home.

Now, back to being discharged. My best friend from growing up came by and stayed until around 11:15am. By this time, we already had our walking papers and were free to go. After they left, my wife wanted to change and feed the baby one last time before we headed home. We started changing the baby, or rather, I started changing the baby. My wife wanted me to change my first diaper all by myself. I got that diaper off, and I kid you not, she wouldn't stop going to the bathroom for about 20 minutes! Somewhere between starting to change the diaper and finishing, I got sidetracked doing something else, and my wife finished. I'll be changing my first one solo here in a few minutes. It's been a couple of hours since we changed her.

We got all that taken care of, fed the baby, and called for a transport. By this time it's about 12:15. Forty-five minutes later, there's still no transport, and you can't leave without a transport. We still had to run by Walgreen's to have my wife's prescription filled, and then drive an hour home. We figured up that if we did all that, it would be about 4 hours between feedings, depending on how long it took at the pharmacy, so we called and canceled the transport, and I went to Walgreen's. Less than five minutes after I left, transport showed up anyway. Go figure!

It did take a while at the drug store, so I'm glad we waited. By the time we left the hospital, it was about 3:30, but we finally found our way home. One of the young men in our church helped me unload the car, which was super nice of him. He and his dad were here putting in a drain pipe for the new ice machine in the new kitchen. He had a little experience with babies, since two of his sisters had babies last month. I'm very appreciative that he helped.

I waited until around 7:30 to walk over to the church. I figured that's about when they'd be wrapping up prayer meeting, and I was right. When they finished, I invited everyone over to see our baby, and most of them took me up on the offer. They say babies aren't supposed to be around a whole bunch of people, but I just had to show her off!

I finally ate something around 9:30, and then we bathed the baby for the first time. Now, that was an experience. She hates baths worse than our dog does! She fussed the whole time, but it was totally worth it. Besides smelling better, we found out that her hair isn't nearly as dark as we thought. It's practically blond, and like I said before, she's beautiful.

As of right now, mommy is trying to get a little sleep, and I'm watching the baby. She's getting a little fussy, so I better check her diaper. Plus, it'll soon be feeding time. Oh, wait, I almost forgot. Blue Bell loves the baby. We thought she'd be scared, but she wasn't. She skipped the sniffing part and went right to licking her! And she's been super interested in every little thing we do to the baby. Well, that's all for now. Good night.