The First Few Days

Iylah's First Few Days

Do you remember the very first day of your life?  When it all started?  t = 0?  t = 1? (engineering notation for time = 0, the start of a series or event).

On Iylah's first day of life we awoke to a glorious sunrise with the city of Boston peaking out beyond the rooftops (if you look carefully you can see the unmistakable outline of the Prudential Center)

View from our hospital room at Brigham and Women's Hospital

In the wee hours of the morning (think 4am) Iylah was wheeled away in her bassinet to be given her first bath. I really wanted to follow her because I had this irrational fear that somehow she'd be mixed up and I'd get back a different baby.

I was just too tired (and still hooked up to IV, catheter, etc.) which made jumping out of bed a bit difficult. Therefore, I sent Brede in after her.  He half-asleep followed her to the nursery but then eventually retreated back to the blue "husband arm chair" to get some more sleep.

We did get Iylah back sometime shortly after sunrise.  She was squeaky clean and dressed in a new cute little cap with a curly purple ribbon.  I did verify it was her - luckily I'd stared into her eyes long enough immediately after delivery that there was no mistaking her deep blue eyes and sweet little baby face.

We spent the day holding Iylah, attempting breastfeeding, sending out news to friends and relatives and unfortunately dealing with my very obnoxious spinal headache - a bi-product of the anesthesiologist missing the epidural space and accidentally puncturing my spinal sack.  ;(

Brede giving Iylah some "skin-to-skin" lovin'

Brede also assumed his first fatherly duty: operating the green bulb suction.  Iylah repeatedly spat up and needed to be suctioned.  At times it was a bit scary because out would come this brownish tinged mucus that caused her to cough, gag and choke.   Brede would spring into action and quickly suck the nasty mucus away so that Iylah could breathe.

The nurse later explained this was mom's blood. Baby's often ingest quite a bit of this during the birthing process and will cough it up for several days post delivery.   Yummy, yum!

The bulb suction, amazing how big it is compared to her tiny little foot

Latch and Chat 

Iylah and I also attended the "latch and chat" group.  This was basically and open forum "chat" held by the floor lactation consultant in the floor nursery.  Moms and babies showed up together (fed if they were comfortable feeding in "public") and asked questions about breastfeeding.

Our room board - a great communication tool.  Loved it, very visual Lean.  "Latch & Chat" at 1:50pm

Even after taking an introduction to breastfeeding class at our local Isis Parenting Center the whole concept of breastfeeding was completely foreign and a bit scary to me. The "chat" was definitely helpful to ask questions.  I learned that you can hand express a bit of milk to entice baby (well Colostrum at this point) and learn what to expect over the next few days.

I was very lucky in that Brigham and Women's had great lactation support.  If you are a new mom, definitely take advantage of all the help that you get at the hospital.  Breastfeeding is not as straight forward or as easy as you'd expect and the lactation staff is a big help.

Tryin' on the headphones

Every baby in the state of Massachusetts is given a hearing test through the newborn screening program. I've always wondered how exactly this works, it's not as if little baby's can raise their hand or vocalize when they hear a tone.

The test is actually pretty ingenious. It's called auditory brainstem response (ABR).  Baby is hooked  up to a noise generator where different tones are played, electrodes are placed on baby's head to detect nerve response. I think they then measure the time delay between playing the tone and the electrical brain response. The baby doesn't even need to be awake!  Iylah passed with flying colors and slept through the whole thing!

Sound asleep during her hearing test

Ahh... such a long day

Back to bed at last... what an exciting first day of life!