Birth Day ;-)

September 20th, 2012

9:05 am

7 lbs  4 oz 19.5 inches long

Cohen William Grafton made us a family of three!

After a quick clean-up and measurements, Cohen was whisked to the nursery to be assessed.  Patrick went with him and I patiently received my morphine while the nice doctors stitched me up.  I was blessed to have my OB, Dr. McClure, and her awesome partner, Dr. Allen, both there for the surgery.

Cohen's assessment went well.  Both APGARS were a 9, but his breathing was too labored and they were concerned about his blood sugar being low.  The nurses decided that he needed to eat immediately to help his sugar level, so Patrick was able to give him his first bottle (formula, of course).  At this point I was wheeled back into the room and my sister, Audrey, and my dad had just arrived from Tulsa.  Within an hour, I was moved to postpartum and Patrick was checking on Cohen and me - just going back and forth between the nursery and me.  I wasn't allowed to see Cohen until I could get out of bed, and they wouldn't release him from the nursery until his breathing issues resolved...which they didn't...so I still hadn't seen him :0(

After Cohen had been in the nursery for around 5 hours, his breathing had not slowed enough and they moved him to the NICU.  The NICU doctor gave us a bunch of senarios (one included him staying in there for 24-48 hours....) but basically said it was a sit and wait.  His vitals were perfect but the breathing took too long to settle and they wanted to keep him overnight for observation.  Once I could get in a wheelchair, I was finally able to go SEE my SON around 2 pm.  He was hooked up to monitors but they let me hold him!

Mom and Patrick went back down to the NICU a few hours later around 4:30 pm and gave him his first bath!  I can't tell you how jealous I was that Patrick had gotten to do all these firsts and I didn't get to participate or even watch!!  My body gave in to the effects of major surgery/emotional hormones/unexpected complications and I slept for most of the afternoon/evening.

Our family went to the NICU one by one (rules that only two people are in there visiting, and one MUST be a parent) to visit Cohen.  It was so special.

They visited for a couple more hours before tucking us in for the night. Patrick and I made a couple more trips to the NICU that night for his feedings to try to breastfeed....and this mama had several meltdowns about not being able to see her baby.  I don't know if it was the pain medicine or what, but I had some pretty vivid dreams about suddenly not being preggo anymore and not knowing where my baby was.  I am also pretty sure that Patrick was thinking I had lost my mind by the second set of hysteria at 2 am ;-)

Cohen was released to us from the NICU at 8:30 am the next morning. Somehow the smiley-face emoticon just doesn't do this sentence justice - we were SOOO EXCITED!!

Cici and Petco the morning of the 21st - Dad's first time to hold Cohen.

 I brought Cohen to a sleeping new daddy that morning - he was so surprised ;-) and still had some sleepy in those eyes.  We were so excited to have Cohen in our room and get to just SEE him!!

Blessings,