The hospital stay

Something that I haven't mentioned yet is that not long after the birth Andrea and I settled on the name: Emmett Foster. I hadn't heard Andrea say this before, but she said that the way we should spell his name is with two e's, two m's, and two t's, so that is how it is. Within about 90 minutes of birth Emmett was having his first go at breast feeding and he seemed to pick it up pretty quickly. There is nothing that warms the heart more than seeing your wife supply nourishment for your child, I am convinced of this.

Two hours after birth, all of the clean up and post-birth testing and measuring was done. Andrea was put into a wheelchair, Emmett was piled on top, and I collected our hospital bag and other trinkets from the room and we were moved to the post-delivery room. The room we were given had a great view facing south from the hospital (California and Parker) on the fourth floor. There was a typical hospital bed with its accompanying feeding tray, an uncomfortable plastic chair, a rolling sleeper/carrier on wheels for Emmett and (eventually) a foldout cot where I would sleep. We had our own large bathroom with a shower. We were in the room by 11:00am, and throughout the day we had a number of excited guests. It was really great to have so many people thrilled to meet little Emmett and congratulate Andrea on a job well done.

By 10:00pm, the last of our guests had left. Andrea and Emmett had spent the day learning how to breast feed (good at times, more difficult at others) and all three of us were very tired as Andrea and I (and Emmett??) had been awake for something like 40 hours. Emmett and I slept together on the cot for a couple of hours before Andrea fed him again (3 hour schedule). After the feeding he was fidgety and I couldn't get him to settle and stop crying. Finally, in the lowest of low points of my life (well at least the lowest for Emmett's short life), I had to ask the nursery if the could watch him for a couple of hours while Andrea and I got a little sleep before Emmett's next feeding. Asking them to take him away is embarrassing to admit, even now, as I feel like we were failure parents already, but we were really falling apart at this point. That short, uninterrupted sleep was immensely helpful, though, and Emmett has not been out of our sight since.


The next day (Thurs, March 6) was much of the same with friends and family visiting, continued breastfeeding practice, and occasional visits from the nurses or doctors for checks on Andrea and Emmett. Our pediatrician informed us that Emmett and Andrea have somewhat incompatible blood types which had given him a slight jaundice which could be treated by short spells in the sun and lots of bowel movements (by Emmett), so the faster Andrea's milk came in the better off we were going to be.

An interesting side note on the exams of Andrea: I had no idea that when a woman gives birth her whole belly doesn't go away pretty immediately. This was news to me, but apparently a woman looks like she is about five months pregnant after giving birth. Since Andrea had been in bed pretty much straight since birth, I didn't know she still had a five-month-pregnant body until the nurse arrived to give the first post-birth check that her uterus had shrunk properly (another amazing thing that happens, but I am going long here), and started pressing very deep into Andrea's still-pregnant-looking belly. For someone that had to be trained to be extremely careful around that pregnant belly, I have to tell you that this was a very troubling sight---akin to being trained through life not to touch a hot stove and watch someone rest an open hand on one. I really felt sick to my stomach when I saw this.

Oh, also on day two was Emmett's hearing test. For this they put a ear-covering speaker over each ear, an electrode on his forehead and two on the base of the back of his neck. Sounds play in each ear and they measure reactions while trying to subtract off the random movements he is making just being a baby. The technician explained the test and that Emmett had to score 160 in each ear to pass. I had been told about the test earlier in some class and that it is not uncommon for children to fail and that they often pass when the test is administered again a week or so later. Well, Emmett passed in one ear and failed in the other (with a score of 158). The technician fully expected me to go into one of those psycho parent "what's wrong with my child? will kids make fun of him? will he get into harvard?" sort of things and kept saying "I am sure he will pass later. Are you sure you are OK?" and so on. She said she could re-administer the test right then since he was all hooked up, I said sure, and he passed with a 210 or something like that (the accuracy of this test is no doubt in question by the wildly different scores, but also the fact that during the test the technician continued to move the speaker around saying "sometimes the numbers improve if I do this" made me very suspicious of the test telling much of anything). It was comforting to know that at age one day Emmett had already failed and then passed his first test on the re-try---he's a strong C student.

They gave us a "fancy" celebration dinner (little nicer food, table cloth, bubbly apple juice) that night. After the meal (but not a result of), our second night's rest was much better. Our swaddling had vastly improved, we had gotten some rest the night previous, Emmett was finding satisfaction in the colostrom Andrea was providing, and we were practiced in the art of meconium removal from Emmett's bottom. At four in the morning, a nurse came by to take Andrea's vitals and to take Emmett away for a blood screening. The trick with this, I am convinced, is to take the baby away in the middle of the night so that the parents will just let him go and not witness them prick the child. I was having none of it however, and dragged my bleary-eyed, morning-breath self into the nursery with Emmett. Surprisingly, he only wimpered with the first prick (had to be done twice) and didn't complain as the nurse literally milked the blood out of his foot. I had my finger in his mouth the whole time to sooth him, and it worked wonders. They also re-weighed Emmett and he had dropped to 7lb 3.7oz, a 7.5% decrease (10% max is considered good).

The rest of the night was a good sleep (Emmett bouncing between Andrea's bed and mine), and the next morning we were pretty antsy to get home. A last visit from the ob/gyn, another from the pediatrician, and we were cleared for Emmett to get to see his new home and meet his older brother, Malcolm.