Anna- NICU

After Anna's first bath, her blood oxygen levels kept dropping and were having a hard time coming back up.  They put a little oxygen mask on her.  They suctioned her out a few times and took some chest x-rays, but decided in the end to send her down to the NICU.  :(  

This was my first visit with her after not seeing her for about 4 hours.  Her chest x-rays came back clear.  They took some blood tests also to see if she had any infections.  One thing I remember about this first visit was that after her face had been messed with so much, being suctioned so many times, she was not the least bit interested in nursing.  This made me pretty nervous.  

Unfortunately, she remained in the NICU for our entire hospital stay.  I still feel a little silly saying she was a NICU baby because as far as actual interventions go, they suctioned her a few times and that was about it.  Other than that, she had monitors constantly checking her blood oxygen levels which  always came right back up whenever they dipped.  After that issue was resolved on its own, they still wouldn't let her back up to the regular nursery because she wasn't producing enough urine.  That also was resolved in the end with a little supplementing.  She was definitely the healthiest baby there and our hearts were so sad for the other tiny and sick babies that we knew would be there a lot longer than our girl.  

There were certainly pros and cons to her being in the NICU.  Pros- We got slightly better sleep than if she were to have stayed in our room.  My milk came in faster because the NICU has you on a pretty tight every 3 hour feeding schedule.  Cons- We never got a family picture in the hospital and her sweet siblings couldn't meet her till we got home.  :(  Our hospital stay was pretty boring actually, with very few visitors.  

Unfortunately, we also didn't have the greatest experience being discharged from the hospital.  Anna and I were both healthy enough to leave the hospital the normal 48 hours after delivery. However, there was a problem with my OBGYN's office sending a doctor over to the hospital (across the street) to discharge me.  We waited 5 HOURS after Anna was officially able to leave the NICU (but she couldn't come back to our room because the procedure is to walk the baby out directly from the NICU to the car) to finally go home.    

Here are more pictures from our time in the NICU together.  

 First time my mom got to hold her in the NICU.  

We also had Dan's sister, Sarah Jane with husband Jake, and Dan's brother Sam and his wife Lara come visit and hold her as well.  

 Check out the bruising on her little hand from the blood they had to take.  

Getting dressed and ready to go home.  Dan secretly picked out two girl outfits to bring to the hospital and I could choose which one to bring her home in.  Kinda fun!

The nurses were all SO sweet in caring for Anna and helping her and I get nursing down!  We're so grateful for the excellent care we both received!

 The parking garage was dark.  

 I dislike how floppy babies little heads are for the first month.  I feel like they can't breath in their car seats because their chin is always to their chest.  

We were beyond excited to soon be together as a family of FIVE!