Nixon's "Birthday" Continued...

Our parents and Natalie didn't stay long, since it was 2am or so by the time they were able to come in and see him for the first time. They all took a little turn to hold him and took some pictures and then they left. They gave Nixon a good little bath after and the nurse couldn't believe how strong he was. They brought me and sandwich and a few snacks to eat and helped unhook me from all of the iv's and took out my epidural. The worst thing for me among all that was still going on was my lack of control of my arms. They were very shaky and I really couldn't control them. In order for me to nurse Nixon the first time, I had to have the nurses help. She had told me the easiest way for me to hold him but I couldn't physically get my arms to go there. She basically picked them up and placed them for me and then propped them there because I had no strength in my sad arms to keep them there. A little after 3am they were ready to move us out of delivery and into my regular room. Once I was in there and my new nurse came in, Tyler decided he could go home. Since it was almost 3:30, I thought that was a good idea. The nurse said she'd be right back and I figured she'd come back and get me situated to sleep. Little did I know my night was just beginning. She came back shortly after he left and took Nixon's temperature, checked a few other things on him, wrapped him back up and gave him to me. ***now remember, at this point my arms were still out of control and I had zero strength in them. I could hold him but not well. I basically had him cradled with most his weight laying in my lap. She began going over all sorts of stupid information with me. While she was talking I noticed that Nixon had a string in his mouth from the blanket. I told the nurse and she said, "oh." And then proceeded talking. The normal, alert me would have told her I needed her to get it out or something, but the very out of it and exhausted me was panicking internally and trying to get it out myself. All the while very upset that the nurse would rather stand there talking than help keep my brand new baby from choking. Not to mention, keep him from getting who knows what kind of germs from my fingers (I'm pretty sure the last time they'd been washed was before leaving to go to Target). When she finished talking she left and I just waited thinking there was more that had to happen before I could go to bed. She came in around 4:15 to check on me and I finally asked if I was ok to go to sleep(I'd actually dozed off a little before this)..I was dying for sleep. At this point I had been up 24 hours. She said yes and looked at me like it was the dumbest question she'd ever been asked. Without warning, she flipped off my light and was gone before I could respond. At this point, i had just had it. I started to cry and I'm not sure if I've ever felt so alone in my life. Here I was, completely sleep deprived, arms that were completely dead, and left with my new baby. I was so confused why she would think i could go to bed with a baby i was struggling to even hold. and how am i supposed to sleep and not worry if my baby, who is only a few hours old. i was really in no shape to take care of him. i also realized that my contact stuff, and so many things I needed were on the opposite side of the room. This meant I would be sleeping in my contacts and I really wished I had the boppy to help me hold Nixon. I ask myself now, why on earth I didn't call the nurse back for some help, but I didn't. My brain wasn't working normally at all. Somehow my shaky arms managed to get Nixon into his little bed thing and he went to sleep. I was paranoid he was going to stop breathing at any moment. If I hadn't been as exhausted as I was, there is no way I would have gone to sleep but I couldn't keep my eyes open for anything. After only a few minutes, he woke me up crying. I realized he needed to eat. Again, don't know why I didn't call the nurse to help me but I somehow managed to get him out of the bed...it was much harder than getting him in. And then miraculously I was able to hold him well enough to be able to nurse him. I had expected to struggle but I didn't. He ate and then back to his little bed he went. And I went to sleep for a whole 2 hours or so. When I woke up, all of my epidural had clearly worn off and I was feeling a lot of pain. Thankfully my horrible nurse from the night before was gone and I had a nurse who was so awesome. She was so nice and wanted to bend over backwards to make sure I was doing well. She even told me several things the nurse should have told me the night before and didn't. Things that would have been very helpful to know. She had lots of great advice too for recovering and being a new mom. They took Nixon to the nursery pretty early to be evaluated by the pediatrician. He came and talked to me before they brought Nixon back. He had 3 concerns-the biggest being Nixon's body temperature. It was way too low and so he said we shouldn't let anyone unwrap him or take his hat off. The only time he was allowed to be unwrapped was for diaper changes and skin to skin with me, because it would actually help raise his temperature. encouraged that we do lots of that to help him out.  His next concern was more of a peecautionary concern. He wanted to make sure Nixons blood sugar was okay, its something he likes to check with any large baby. This meant Nixon would have to be poked in the foot every 2 hours for the next 24 hours. Tyler got to the hospital at 7:30 or so and  sympathized over my horrible night experience. I really don't know why I didn't at least call him to come back either, but I didn't. I took a quick shower before lots of visitors started showing up. We had lots of visitors come and see Nixon and it was so fun to see how loved our little guy already was. It was definitely a rough day though, by the days end I was so glad to just enjoy some time with the 3 of us. Keeping Nixon warm was tough, I was exhausted from my lack of sleep, Tyler was exhausted, and we'd had an emotional day worrying about Nixon's failure to eat. He would eat well when he would eat, but instead of eating every 2 hours, he was going 4-6+ hours. Luckily he passed every glucose test they took and the nurse assured me that he wasn't starving and was doing just fine. Tyler went home around 11:30 and thankfully the nurse came and took Nixon to the Nursery for me around midnight. She brought him back to me to eat around 4 and I was so happy to see him. He ate and I figured I'd rock him back to sleep and send him back to the nursery, but he just wanted to stay wide eyed so I just spent almost 2 hours enjoying his company and then we snuggled up and slept for a couple of hours until the nurses came to get it him to do the last of his tests, before it was time to go home.

Picture overload of Nixon's visitors.

He's one loved boy!

 First sights at Nixon

 Papa Schaef

Grandpa Hunsaker

Aunt Nat-Nat

Grandma Schaef

Nana

This might be one of my favorite pictures. The last baby born in my family was Bubba who just happened to be born on Nana's birthday. Nixon is also the very first baby Bubba has ever held.

Grumpy

Uncle Kev

Grandma Hunsaker, Aunt Kristin, and Grandma & Grandpa Thornock

Aunt Kristin

Grandma and Grandpa Thornock

Aunt Misty

One tired mama!

Chelsey

Mitch

Sam, Sara, and Emmi

Jack was so cute when he first saw Nixon, I wish we would have been ready with the camera. He also had me laughing, because he was completely amused by the garbage cans in my room, because you could step on the pedal and they would open. He thought it was pretty amazing!

Emmi was dying to hold Nixon

 Keaton is the sweetest!

Sam is always such a ball of energy, I think this is the calmest I'd ever seen him.

Daddy and Nixon time

All tuckered out at the end of a very long "birth" day!