Shawn & Ang: 10.2013

So I don't know how sum up that first week of Eva's life. So I'm not going to. Deal with it.

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Saturday, Feb 16, 2013

Saturday morning I was "discharged", but because we were doing the hospital hotel stay we were able to stay in the exact same postpartum room. So pretty much a doctor came in and checked me to make sure I was okay and then the nurses said that they would be coming to my room only to take care of Eva, not for me anymore. Which I was very excited about! By this time I was feeling so much better, can't believe how fast your body heals. I was able to get around by myself and I felt great. So they put a little "hotel" picture on our door which indicated that the nurses shouldn't assist me anymore. It was never promised that we would be able to stay for very long. We would have to call every single afternoon and get "permission" to stay another night. Luckily it never got too busy so we were able to stay every night.

Every day we got an update from one of the doctor's from Eva's pediatrician's practice...it just dependedon who was on call. It was pretty much Dr. Wagner from this time forward...we didn't really like her. Eva received antibiotics every 12 hours for about an hour at a time. She would get her IV flushed around the clock, and also receive other things in it periodically. Our schedule consisted of 2 am nursery to receive antibiotics, 2pm nursery for antibiotics. Other than that Eva was pretty much in our room. Everyone felt so bad that we had to be staying in the hospital, but honestly it wasn't bad at all! We felt so blessed to be able to be there with Eva, and that I could continue to try to nurse her. She did have to receive a little bit of formula right before her spinal tap, but other than that I was able to pump and feed her the whole time.

oh my goodness, nursing/pumping was so hard! No one prepares you for just how hard it is. My milk came in and it wasn't really all that painful, but it is such a huge adjustment! At first I felt so awkward pumping or nursing when family was visiting. It gave me such anxiety. My hormones were going crazy, and really the anxiety was out of control. Eva was pretty much too weak to nurse, so that's probably what caused the anxiety. Everyone kept telling me to keep trying. We saw a lactation therapist every single day. Looking back on it now, she was just too weak.

I would pump and then we would suck it up with a syringe, attach this tube and drain the milk into her mouth with the tube. Our finger was for the sucking motion. This worked really really well and we were able to keep her blood sugar in check.

However, it was a lot of work! We were new parents, so we had no idea that this was abnormal! haha. We just did whatever it took for her to get food. & I was so glad that I was producing milk and she didn't have to have formula (at this time it was just colostrum).

Shawn had packed so much stuff for our 2 day hospital stay. It ended up all being used! I guess he knew what he was doing.

She was such a cute little newborn!

Ashley and Scotty with Eva

We had lots of family visitors this day, this was before the doctor told us we really shouldn't be having any. I need to get a hold of all of the pictures that were taken with Eva that first day.

Seriously, could she be anymore perfect? The nurses were so cute and would tell us all of the time how she didn't look like a typical newborn, that she was so beautiful. I'm not sure if they told everyone that, but we like to think not.

Getting her first bath from dad

Scott & Jenn came all the way from Vegas to see us. It happened to be President's Day weekend or something, so Scott didn't have school.

Children 12 and under were not allowed into the wing, so it made it difficult for aunts and uncles.

With everyone in town we decided to do dinner. Shawn and I left the hospital and it felt SO weird to leave without our baby! We were just across the street from the hospital so we pretty much just ate and left.

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Sunday Feb 17, 2013

Pretty girl. Eva's labs were taken almost every day to track her progress and every single day they improved. So blessed.

Bed time with dad

Just feeding our little diva through the tube

our good friends Suzy and Paul with Eva

Kallie's chalk drawings...it was hard that the other grandkids couldn't come see us.

I loved the name tag that the nurses made for Eva's little roll-a-way crib. There were also a few fun perks of Eva being born on Valentine's Day. She got a cute little minky snuggle, and some crochet booties...all donated for Valentine's Da.

I hate that this picture is a little blurry.

My milk finally came in! Pumping this was a huge accomplishment, I was so proud.

Aunt Mickie visiting

All swaddled up

Our ward heard that Eva was sick so Brother Branscomb from the ward came to visit. He let us know that ward was going to do a special fast for Eva and that everyone had us in their prayers. So grateful to everyone for their support...& meals!

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Monday Feb 18, 2013

On Monday Shawn had to go back to work. I was so worried about being at the hospital all by myself all day long! Luckily my mom came and spent most of the day with me. We had a little mini photoshoot. Dr Carter advised us to not have any visitors. It was so hard, we decided to only let close family members who were all healthy.

Caught her smiling in her sleep

Modeling some of the handbands that I brought to the hospital.

She got a little bit stronger and was able to suck from a bottle nipple. Nursing was still so hard at this point. She would only last 2 minutes at the most before falling dead asleep. It just wore her out.

Can't get enough of her

Kioko and Karl visited a few times (they count as close family). Kioko brought us beans and rice. so yummy.

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Tuesday Feb 19, 2013

Shawn hated having to work while we were in the hospital. He would come every day for lunch and literally run in from the parking lot.

Sometimes Eva's IV would have to be moved. They alternated between her hands or her feet...we got creative and either covered them with the little baby mittens or booties. The booties Eva is wearing were made for me when I was a baby.

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Wednesday Feb 20, 3013

I got to know every little amenity that the hospital had to offer. I made myself a ton of labels with Eva's anklet. I used them to label the pumped bottles and still have a ton extra. We were super nice to the nurses and Shawn brought them all ice cream cake one evening, so they were so great to help us with anything we needed. They directed us to all of the free stuff...lots of people don't know that there's a little station with free milk, juice, crackers, hot chocolate etc.

This quilt was made for Eva by aunt Katherine. We love it.

Eva is the first Great-Grandchild on my mom's side

Love those cheeks.

Dr Carter let us know that Eva's labs indicated that she was healthy enough to stop receiving antibiotics and that we would only be staying the minimum amount of time, seven days! We were so excited...and kind of scared to take her home!

Filing her little fingernails...we were so scared to clip them!

This was the first time I had seen myself in a full length mirror, or window...so weird to not have a huge bump...just a little one...didn't help that I loved the hospital's milk shakes.

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Thursday, Feb 21, 2013

It snowed the morning we were to take her home.

It was bittersweet going home. We were so excited, but so scared! It was nice to know that Eva was receiving the best care that she possibly could. We were so worried we were going to somehow break her.

That morning we waited for her doctor to come and go over all of her labs. She said that she was healthy and ready to go home. Multiple doctors advised us to make sure that we stay in for the first 3 months of her life. They also advised us to only have our parents over to our house to help, as long as they were healthy...and to not allow any other visitors. Not only was it flu season, but Eva's immune system was already weak because of her infection. Lots of friends and family had their own opinions about this. It was extremely frustrating!!!