Monday March 29th, 8:15 am- Sully was born. After cleaning him off, I got the chance to hold him only to have him whisked away when the nurses realized his breathing was not quite right. After 2 hours of CPAP (the little mask over his face helping him breathe), Sully still wasn't breathing right on his own so the doc called the NICU in Provo and arranged to have the NICU team/ambulance come to Heber to pick up the babe.
1:30 pm- The NICU team intubated Sully and put surfactant into his lungs. They transported him in that little incubator looking thing on the stretcher. I cried and then took a much needed nap, Rode stood by the little boy all morning, then headed down the canyon to be with him in the NICU. He was a champ through it all.
5:30 pm- They extubated Sully in Provo and he was breathing fine on his own, but still had plenty of wires, tubes, and machines hooked to his little body to monitor him.
7:15 pm- Thankfully Dr Tayler gave the okay for me to be released from the hospital. After making a quick stop at home to give Liv some love, Aunt Hezzie and I headed down the canyon.
7:30 pm- Grammie landed in SLC from Philadelphia (she was on a trip with friends and jumped on a plane as soon as she got word the baby was coming). Papa Winterton picked her up and brought her to the hospital in Provo so she could meet the new grand baby.
9:30 pm- I got to the hospital to relieve daddy and finally brought him something to eat. Hezzie, Grammie, and I cuddled with Sully and all of his wires until about midnight then headed home. This was the point when I started asking myself "Did I really have a baby this morning?" It seemed like it had been a weeklong day.
Tuesday March 30th- Sully got moved to the "border" nursery where babies are learning how to eat and getting ready to go home. I got a room at the hospital (yay!) so I could nurse him through the night. Liv got to come meet her new little brother through the glass and loves to say "Hi baby!"
Wednesday March 31st, 2 pm- After the docs made sure Sullivan was 100% healthy, they gave us the okay to end our very expensive stay in the NICU. We were all very happy to be headed home, but a little nervous to be in charge of a fragile baby. Grammie, Hezzie, Rode, and I have spent plenty of time anxiously staring at Sully sleeping, analyzing his breathing patterns, and convincing ourselves there is a problem.
Tuesday April 5th- Sully got his tanning bed, which he enjoyed for the first day. He then decided it was much more comfortable and far less sweaty to sleep in someone's arms or mom and dad's bed and didn't want much to do with his new luxury bili-bed.
It's been an eventful first couple of weeks, but well worth it for a face this cute. A few things learned...1. When your baby is in the NICU, you HAVE to ask questions and be persistent until you get the answer you are looking for. It was hard to feel like I was in charge of my child, because he was always in a nurse's care (which i appreciated of course). But I had to remember I was still his mother and could have a say in decisions beibg made. Luckily I learned my mother's interrogation techniques- those poor nurses had sue kane and sue kane in training asking a million questions.
2. Although it felt nice to get a baby out of my large, uncomfortable, 8 months pregnant body, it would have been worth it to keep him cooking for a little bit longer so he could grow some surfactant.
3. A NICU ambulance ride costs $800 down the canyon, just in case any of you were considering that as transportation to provo. It would probably be cheaper to call a cab :)
Another package from Aunt Jane, this time with a staple in every girl's closet- a little black dress. She loves these shoes and wore them all day, with pj's before church, the dress at church, and sweats after church.
Liv has been sporting a mullet for quite some time now. It is probably the cutest mullet I've seen, but even still, she is a lady and we aren't living in the 80's/early 90's anymore. It was time to update her look. We tried for pigtails a few weeks ago, but I could only keep her still to put one ponytail in and it looked pretty ridiculous (although she still wore it to church because I was determined). Finally this morning, we succeeded in getting two pigtails. She still has fairly small amounts of hair on top, like someone else in the immediate family (insert Rode's name here), but the ribbon hopefully acts as a distraction from that :) I think she is pretty darn cute.
"The Incredible Daddy Rode, Lion tamer Extraordinaire"...
I LOVE the fall. It reminds me of home in New England, and inevitably makes me homesick. I decided that even though I couldn't see the beautiful trees in New Hampshire, I was going to celebrate autumn. When I told Anthony that I wanted to go apple picking, he was game although a little confused. I think his exact words were, "So what exactly do you mean by 'apple picking?' Like WE are going to go pick apples off of the tree?" to which I replied "Yeah like you go to an orchard and fill a basket with apples to celebrate the autumn season." "Oh okay, that makes more sense. I was just confused because picking apples in my mind seems like work." And, apparently it seems like work to most Utahns who would just as soon leave it to the farmers as they would to pick their own. After researching and calling numerous orchards within a reasonable driving distance, there was not one that was "Pick Your Own" with the exception of one which my friend reported was 4 rows of apple trees bordering a busy street in Salt Lake. Anyhow, I resigned myself to the fact that we would be "picking our own" apples out of the country store at whichever orchard we visited. That would have to do.
