Our hospital stay
19 Nov 2010 10:39 am | Category: Ethan
Day 0 of Baby E’s life was “gag”! For me at least.
Because of the high surge of babies born that weekend, we had to be put in a shared room. A SHARED ROOM?!?!?!!!!!!! At first, I was like “Ok, whatever. I have my baby. All is good.” Well, it wasn’t, really. 🙁
The room was tiny and cramped. We were separated by a curtain and we even had to share a bathroom! There was hardly any room to walk. It was just horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE! I’m sure the people on the other side felt the same way. But at least they had the window and a rocking chair! We were closest to the door, so anyone that came in the room had to walk pass us.
I actually felt really good after delivery. Right after the delivery, I was holding the baby while the doctor sewed me up. I think she took a good 45 minutes or so sewing me up. He came so fast, I tore a lot. Yikes! But of course that time passed real quick. Eric and I were just staring at him, counting his little fingers and little toes, trying to decide who he looks like more. Amazed at how much hair he has. Taking pictures of him. Taking pictures, pictures, and more pictures! He just laid on my chest, still covered in amniotic fluid, but he just laid there. Us gazing at him and him gazing back at us. Our doctor commented on how quiet we were. She said she’d never seen a group of people quiet like us. Lol!! What needs to be said? It was just a really precious moment.
Frances brought my mom to the hospital. We then starting texting and posting on FB announcing his birth. This was all still in the delivery room. The PRIVATE delivery room. They even brought me dinner. I was famished! Before this, I was really concerned about being hungry cos we weren’t allowed to eat while in labor. But you know what, you really don’t feel hungry amidst all the contractions! But after delivery, boy had I an appetite!!
After dinner, they wheeled me to the recovery room. The SHARED recovery room 🙁 Well, I did feel bad for the our roommates. We had so many visitors! The Law’s came and brought Pho (Eric’s request). Jeanette even drove all the way from Palo Alto! Then Yu-Hsuan and her family came. (I was actually supposed to hang out with them that day cos Yu-Hsuan was visiting from Utah. Didn’t happen). We were really noisy. A total of ten people visiting all at once, including kids. Good thing we weren’t in the Mother and Baby ward then, cos they wouldn’t have allowed all those people at once.
After this group left, Auntie Lily and Uncle Ken came to visit and brought ginger soup and ginger fried rice. Then later still, Chris and Katrina came and brought my APPLE PIE! and a quilt that Chris made. Super awesome monkey-themed quilt! By that time I was tired. Baby didn’t really cry or wake up that night. It was his first 24 hours, so they’re meant to still be really sleepy. But what kept us up that night was the nurses! They had to keep coming in to do check-ups on me and the baby. I’m pretty sure they did other things to him too. I believe his hearing test and APGAR test and what nots were also taken care of that first night. I can’t remember. Eric went with him. Either way, baby didn’t keep us up. It was the nurses, and the baby on the other side of the curtain!
The room was so small that every time you walked past my bed, you’re bound to brush against the curtain separating us and the people on the other side. And of course when that happens, the curtains separate a little. One time when that happened, Eric went to pull it close and his eyes beheld the mother breastfeeding her baby! Awkward 😉
Going to the bathroom sucked too. Because we shared a bathroom, I had to make sure no one was coming into the room before I went. Especially since the hospital gown is not very modest at the back! And for Eric, him and his bathroom adventures that night! He ate a lot of FiberOne bars while we were in delivery. He had to use the bathroom a lot that night, but he didn’t want to use the shared one in case he was too loud! So, he had to make a trek to the bathrooms in the hallway (wherever they were) to use the bathroom. Not fun for him! But definitely funny for me. 🙂 Funny in retrospect.
Besides the bathroom, the room itself was also really hot!! I was literally sweating and really uncomfortable. And the TV has no sound cos it’s a shared room!! I was pretty miserable.
The next morning when they brought breakfast, I asked to see if anyone had discharged from the private rooms and if they could put me in one of them. The attending nurse then went on to explain how full they were, blah blah blah…. I’ve had it! I was so upset I started balling like a baby! And I think they felt bad, so they arranged for me to be put in a private room as soon as someone discharged. I’m sure that wasn’t so hard! The assistant manager of the nurses saw to that. She even personally wheeled me to our new room.
So, I got my way eventually 🙂 We were even lucky enough to get a room in the corner, away from everyone else. So much better! We were able to control the temperature of the room, Eric could go to the bathroom all he wanted to, and we could watch TV if we wanted to! Lol!!
The second night was more comfortable. But more tired! This time it wasn’t the nurses that kept us up, but baby Ethan! He kept waking up wanting to eat. Obviously, I didn’t have much to give, so feedings took a long time. Maybe he just wanted something to suck on, I donno. But it definitely kept us up all night! Nevertheless, our hospital stay ended on a positive note. Yay! And ‘Yay!’ for an awesome nurse, Alicia, too!
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