Hospital Stay and Bringing Home Emilia

Picking up from Emilia's birth story, I wanted to chronicle our first days with her in the hospital. Since I gave birth so early on Tuesday morning (2:50am), I had almost 3 full days in the hospital (2 additional nights) and was discharged on Thursday, February 4th at 11am. 

It was a strange feeling being wheeled into my hospital room around 4am Tuesday morning - Emilia was still getting cleaned up/treated in the nursery and the rest of the world was still sleeping. The morning seemed to drag on forever. Joe went into the nursery viewing area to watch Emilia get taken care of. I rested a bit in bed then called in the nurse to help me walk for the first time post-delivery to the bathroom, then ordered some food (nice big omelet!) and took a shower. Joe headed home to rest a bit then come back with Nolan and his parents later in the morning. My mom stayed with me and we both tried to sleep a bit. I also passed the time by calling/texting all my closest family/friends to let them the happy news (often my dad already beat me to the punch - he was so excited to spread the news!)

Nonna holding Emilia for the first time

All cleaned up and bundled up!

Around 11am, the anticipated moment arrived: Big Brother meets Little Sister for the first time!!! It was a moment I was looking forward to my entire pregnancy, and it didn't disappoint. I am so incredibly proud of how Nolan has accepted his new role as big brother in stride and you can already see the love he has for his little sister. He was so happy to see Mommy and smiled the entire time meeting Emilia. I'm still comprehending that I get the privilege to me the mommy to these 2 beautiful children - I am hugely thankful and appreciative of this.

Nolan meeting Baby Emmy!!!

He was so happy to see mommy and see his little sister!

Mother of two! Love Nolan's look of adoration already :)

First family photo as a family of four!

It was also great to continue to introduce Emilia to the rest of our family. Abuelita and Abu got their chance the same day at the hospital :)

Abuelita holding Emilia for the first time

Abu meeting Emilia

Abuelos!

All snuggled up in the halo fleece swaddler from the hospital

Proud Daddy!

More Nolan interaction. He wanted to touch/hold the baby - so cute.

He followed the baby around the room to whoever was holding her

Big Brothers Rock :)

Didn't know I could love this kid even more!

Nonna and Abuelita with their new granddaughter

The rest of the hospital stay was pretty uneventful. I sent Joe and my mom home the 1st night (Tuesday night) and took the "veteran mom" route of having the hospital nursery watch Emilia in between night feedings so I could sleep. The first night was great and I had a few 2-3 hr stretches of rest in between feedings. I felt amazing the next morning - so much better than my exhausted, weepy self the first night post-Nolan delivery. Since Emilia was also born at 36w5d, they had me on the same "late pre-term" baby schedule with the lactation consultant, which consists of feeding every 2-3hr and pumping/supplementing post feeding. This time I was able to pump more colostrum in the hospital, which I fed to Emilia via a syringe after feedings. However, by the second day (Wednesday), this was no longer fulfilling her, which she made known to everyone. I opted to satisfy her (huge) appetite with additional formula until my milk came in, which is also what I did with Nolan. This wasn't as stressful this time since I had the experience of knowing that Nolan had no issue coming off formula within a few days once my milk came in and I hoped to repeat this time (and was able to do successfully). 

Even with the supplements, Emilia was a very cranky/starving girl the 2nd day/night. This was probably since we were only giving her ~20mL of formula so she would still try from the breast too. I've never seen a newborn baby chug a bottle like she was that 20mL - girl was hungry! On Wednesday, Nolan stayed home with my mom during the day, and Joe came to visit me at the hospital around lunchtime. This was the day of Emilia's hospital photoshoot. Joe stayed and had lunch with me (we just ordered off the hospital menu), we filled out social security paperwork, watched a mandatory video on baby shaking, and spent some time just the three of us. He then went back to the house for dinner, and my mom came to spend dinner with me before heading back to NJ. The second night at the hospital, I again tried to get sleep by using the nursery, but was so frustrated with Emilia's crankiness/insatiable appetite (the nursery kept sending her back within a half hr - one time within 10 minutes!) So not so much rest was had that night, but I still felt better overall during my stay with one decent night of rest.

Emmy and Daddy post hospital photoshoot

By Thursday morning I was definitely feeling stir crazy at the hospital and ready to go home (if Emmy was born only 3 hrs earlier, we would have went home on Wednesday). Joe dropped Nolan off at daycare and came by the hospital for the discharge. Since Emmy was late pre-term, we had to perform a 90minute car seat stress test to make sure she would be OK to leave. They did this the first night at the hospital, and she passed. Unlike Nolan, who had to be discharged from NICU and we needed to wait for the 48hr culture to make sure no infection was present, we had the OK to leave whenever we were ready and were discharged around 11am on Thursday, February 4th, again the date I would have been full term (37weeks) just like with Nolan.

Unlike Nolan, who slept through all the discharge/drive home, Emmy the hungry girl was a mess through getting her changed and the first half of the car trip. Poor girl wanted more and more food!

Little sister shirt she wore during discharge

All bundled up in a pink and turquoise fair isle fleece hooded sleeper. 

A little calmer with daddy post-change

Kiss from mommy as we prepare to head home

Goal of the day - discharge!

One last look at my home away from home for a few days...

We didn't get any pictures of the loading into the car process because it was absolutely freezing and the wind was brutal so we tried to get everyone in as soon as possible! Emmy was not a fan of the weather, but by the time we got home, she was passed out...

Emmy in the car when we got home

Welcome home!

Heading inside for the first time

The first house for both kids

happy to have her home!

Family photo inside for the first time!

I feel so lucky and relieved to have had such positive experiences with the birth of both my children. A big thank you to all my support systems along the way and the great doctors and nurses at Bryn Mawr Hospital!