Little Chub's Post-birth Hospital Visit

I figured that since I don't have this written down anywhere, I better get it down so we remember more of the little details when we think back on it in the future...

When Little Chub was born, she didn't know how to nurse. At the birth center, and for the next couple of days a few different nurses tried to help us get a good latch, with no sucesss. She was born on a Sunday, and by Tuesday nobody was really too concerned quite yet because they assumed she would get it soon and then everything would be fine, and that was what her little fat stores were for that she was born with, anyway. My milk came in on Wednesday in the evening and I was engorged and hard as a rock. This didn't help matters, but the way things were going, it didn't seem to hurt either because she was nowhere near being able to latch on and eat. The Birth Center was keeping in touch with me regularly, seeing how she was doing, and every time she seemed to get slightly better at latching on, I would relay the good news to the nurses, which relieved them. Since I was a first-time breastfeeding mom, I had no idea quite how little she was actually getting, and that NONE of her "latches" were really sufficient to get her anything. At the same time, I had very sore and cracked nipples that made the constant attempts at feeding quite miserable, and I spent a large amount of time crying, from the pain and from the frustration. This continued for a few more days.

Little Chub had pooped meconium several times for the first three days (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday), but by the time Sunday came around, she hadn't pooped for 5 straight days and we were getting really worried. I spent some time on the internet and reading my baby book, and both mentioned that babies should be pooping more frequently than that, and that it could be a sign that she wasn't getting enough to eat. This was not too surprising, but I was still hopeful that she was getting enough food, since she was still peeing a lot. What we didn't realize was that since her pee was dark yellow, it was a clear sign of dehydration. Don't ask me why we didn't catch on to that. We were focusing more on the number of pee diapers than the color or amount.

The birth center nurses had given me the number for the lactation consultants at TMC if I had any more questions or concerns, or needed any more help (thinking that things were going pretty well by then because of my false hope and my naivete). Since it had been 5 days since Little Chub had pooped, we were already concerned, but by mid-day on Sunday, when she was a week old, we got really concerned. Little Chub, who had been an incredibly active arm and leg swinging baby this whole time, was being incredibly lethargic. She spent most of the day sleeping, and was almost impossible to wake up, and even when she was awake, she would barely move. In fact, freaked out would probably be the more appropriate phrase to use about how we felt. She seemed like she could die. (I don't know how far away that was, but that was how I felt.) We called and left a message with the lactation consultant, then I took a shower, and she called back shortly after I got out. She sounded optimistic about the pee, concerned about the not pooping, and very worried about the lethargy. She advised us to call our pediatrician right away. Peter called the pediatrician, and his assistant advised us to take her straight to the emergency room, where they could see what the problem was, and see if maybe she was constipated, or what. So we packed a diaper bag and headed straight for Tucson Medical Center's ER, thinking we would be able to make it to dinner at my sister's house within a couple of hours.

When we got there, it was about a half hour or so until we made it into seeing the nurses. They took her temperature-- it was way too low, they drew blood--her glucose levels were horrible, she was dehydrated, so they gave her an IV and filled her full of fluids. Unfortunately, her IV became dislodged from the vein somewhere in there and they ended up filling her arm with water instead of her blood. Her right arm puffed up to about three times its normal size. I believe this was after they first injected water into her arm and she let out the most blood-curdling scream I have ever heard from a baby in my life. They were having a really hard time drawing enough blood to get real labs done (the previous ones had been from a little stick), and one of the nurses was intent on drawing blood from the veins in her head. The doctor advised me to try to breastfeed her, which I tried a few times and, of course, it didn't work. They gave us a bottle of pedialyte to feed her, which she also wouldn't drink.

The pediatric ward of the hospital was full of little kids with RSV, so they didn't want to send Little Chub over there. Instead, they called the NICU, which had a little side room empty that they said she could come up to in a couple of hours. They told us this would be a good thing, since the nurses there were accustomed to drawing blood from little tiny veins, so they would be able to do a good job with her. She was weighed in the NICU, after being pumped full of fluids, and she came out weighing 6 lbs 1 oz. We determined from that that she had dropped below 6 lbs, even though she was born at 7 lbs 3 oz. Our poor little baby was incredibly thin, and her little veins were visible all over her body right under the skin.

Up in the NICU, the first nurse we had was very friendly and made us feel better and more comfortable, which was nice. Little Chub had to spend all of her time warming up in a little baby bin in that room, and we were allowed to sleep in one of their Family Rooms. Little Chub was fed formula several times a day. The next day (Monday) they had a lactation consultant come to try and help me out. Over the next 3 days we had two different lactation consultants working with us, and both were surprised at how Little Chub didn't seem to be interested in the breast at all. We knew she could suck properly because she would latch on to our fingers, but when it came to the breast, she wouldn't even try. It turns out, we were in a kind of vicious cycle where she wasn't getting milk, so my supply dropped, and since my supply dropped, she was getting no reward for any effort she put in. The lactation consultants showed me the pump room, which it turns out the nurses should have shown me ages before. I used a breast pump in the pump room, and we fed Little Chub the milk that I pumped, out of a bottle. I also continued to try breastfeeding her for every feeding. Sometimes it would seem like she got a good latch for a few minutes, but most of the time it was just frustrating. One of the times while we were sleeping, a new nurse came on shift and burst into our door telling me I needed to feed the baby now and chastising me for waiting so long. At this point, Little Chub was being allowed to sleep in her little bin in our room with us, which was something at least. So, I got Little Chub up, and was preparing to nurse her, but was first just holding her a little bit, and bouncing her up and down a little bit, because that seemed to be one of her favorite things. The nurse came back into the room and said, in the rudest tone you can imagine, "What are you doing? Why are you bouncing her?" I said, "She likes being bounced," which was about as much as I could manage because I was so angry with this nurse and her attitude toward us. Just thinking about it now makes my blood boil and I have to take deep breaths to calm myself so I don't explode. So, I set myself up with pillows to nurse Little Chub, and this nurse stood in the doorway until Little Chub was set up nursing with her sad pitiful little latch. The whole time we were in the hospital, we felt like we had no rights, and like we were animals in a zoo, with no agency, and no privacy. While some of the nurses were quite friendly, some were downright rude, and others were lackadaisical. Most hospital staff treated us as if we were incompetent parents and stupid people, and even the nice nurses touted their knowledge of babies and didn't trust our efforts to fill Little Chub with as much food (formula) as she would eat at each feeding.

The one good thing about being in the hospital was that since I was a breastfeeding mom, I got a $6 meal ticket for every meal to use in the cafeteria, and this was plenty to feed both me and Peter. The sad thing about this was that I could still barely walk, so getting there was torture, until we figured out that Peter was allowed to wheel me in a wheelchair. This whole time I was still in a lot of pain from the large amount of swelling from the birth, and sitting was extremely painful, as was standing, but I had no options, and none of the nurses seemed to even think this might be an issue (I kniw my swelling was much worse than normal, but I thought they should at least realize I was in pain).

While we were in the hospital, my sisters brought us some stuff, since we had brought nothing with us, which was very nice. We also left the hospital for about an hour a couple of times and went home and napped, since Little Chub had to just sit there in that little bin. We spent a large amount of time in her little side room, since the Family Rooms were used for breastfeeding mothers during the day, so her liitle side room was where she had to be all day. Little Chub was seeming to be recovered by Tuesday morning, but she was not allowed to leave until her glucose levels were normal, even though we asked to leave. So, we had to stay Tuesday night, too. Tuesday night, I couldn't really fall asleep from a pretty annoying discomfort that made me feel like my bra was too tight. By about 4:30 in the morning, the pain was unbearable and Peter and I left the NICU for the ER. None of the nurses in the NICU had any ideas, and we called one of the birth center midwives, who happened to be sleeping at the hospital. Her thought was a gallbladder attack, but that turned out to be the other side from the pain I was having. We had to wait over an hour to get into the ER, and by the time I was admitted, the pain was gone. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being childbirth, this pain was an 8 or 9. We were very worried. Once I was in, they drew blood, and gave me an IV, and I had to sit on a stupid hospital bed for hours. Peter and I were both dead tired, and they took forever to come to me, I guess since I wasn't in pain anymore. They found nothing wrong with me, even after giving me a CT scan, and discharged me around 10. We went straight back to the NICU, where we were also going to be allowed to take Little Chub home finally!

On our way home, we listened to our phone messages and Bonnie had left a message of one of the oldies that has Little Chub's name in it, which really brightened our day even more. We were so happy to be taking her home from the hospital! The funny thing is that the day we left the NICU was her due date, since she was born 10 days early.

Once we got home, the breastfeeding trials were not over, but we at least knew what was going on, so she was always healthy. We supplemented with formula in her bottles, and tried breastfeeding (always before the formula). Finally, I decided she was not improving while using the bottle, so I ditched the bottle, and any formula she got fed to her through a little supplemental feeding tube that we attached to our fingers (since she would still latch on to our fingers) that the lactation consultants had given us. We even managed to ditch the formula entirely and feed her only pumped breastmilk from the tube. Once we ditched the bottle, it wasn't too long before she started being able to latch on better to the breast, and finally, when she was probably about three weeks old, she was entirely breastfed. Unfortunately, we still had trouble getting a good latch for quite some time, but by the time she was about 5 weeks old, I felt that she had a pretty good latch and was doing a good job breastfeeding. Then a few weeks after that, we were able to switch from the football hold to the more typical breastfeeding position, and we've never looked back since! Little Chub still breastfeeds several times a day now, and loves her milk!