1st month in review - The Hospital

I feel bad that I didn't post more during the first month of Gavin's life, but I have realized very quickly that there are a lot of things that I just no longer have the time (or energy) for. Well, actually I do "have the time," I am just not able to do them when I have a baby that demands that he be held 24/7.

Anyway, here is my attempt to catch-up. The first post in a series of "1st month in review."

Those first few days after Gavin was born were kind of a blur. There was so much happening and I think we were just trying to process what a big change our life was about to go through.

It was so nice to be in a hospital where there was always a nurse or doctor around to help us out if we needed it. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, so I really appreciated the support. We tried to get to know this new little person that we had in our life. We were busy figuring out what he needed and wanted, and how to give it to him. The hospital we were at was so nice and all of the nurses were wonderful. I loved ordering the free room service meals and I always made sure to order a little extra for Andrew to snack on.

I decided that I would take advantage of the chance I had to get as much sleep as I could, so at night, we sent him to the nursery (I know, we are horrible parents who didn't keep their baby with them all the time, oh well.) They brought him back to me every 3 hours at night to feed him, so it's not like we really got any sleep anyway.

He was a really good baby those first few days. He slept a lot, pretty much whenever he wasn't eating. He was also a good eater, which we were grateful for. There was one day that they were a little concerned about jaundice, but they just made sure I fed him frequently and by the next morning he was doing much better.

Gavin's first visitor's to the hospital were our friends the Devere's. They brought us a pizza to eat that first night, which was very much appreciated. Our next visitors were our friends Dave and Brittany. Dave is pretty much a doctor, so we felt safe letting him be around Gavin.

It was fun to interact with Gavin when he was awake, which wasn't often.
The first family photo:
I know they say they can't smile this early, but c'mon ... what do you call this?
Andrew was so helpful at the hospital. He was so great to stay overnight in the super uncomfortable cot that they have there. He always changed the diaper and did anything else I needed him to do.
We spent a lot of our time in the hospital trying to figure out what to name him. We had narrowed it down to a few choices, but just couldn't seem to agree on the final choice. I have always said that this was the scariest part, because their name is going to be with them forever! The last morning that we were there, we finally decided and we made it official. It's nice that he won't have to go by "little guy," "buddy," or "peanut" for the rest of his life.
After two days in the hospital they told us we were ready to go home. (Although I could have stayed there much much longer ... free food and child care? Really?)

We put him in his car seat and we were ready to go. He was so little and I felt like he was going to just fall out of the seat.
We drove home from the hospital and I just couldn't believe that we were actually taking this little guy home with us to stay. It was a very exciting and scary time.