It's Miller Time!

That's right folks; I am back home with Miller and feeling up to posting and returning to the world wide web! Sorry for keeping you hanging. It was a rough labor and first week home.

The stats:
Born: 6/4/08 at 8:42 am ET (shares his birthday with Grandpa Sladky)
Weight: 7 lbs, 10 oz
Height: 21.5 inches

The facts:
Labor: started Monday. First trip to the hospital Tuesday morning (2:30 am ET) and then sent home (7 am ET) after 2 hours of walking the most boring halls of a hospital (4-6 am ET). Took a nice sleeping pill that made me slightly out of it (I fell out of bed!). Woke up still having contractions and toughed it out until 3:30 pm ET. My water broke shortly after (for those that have inquired, it did not get all over, I made it to the bathroom before any dripping or puddles). I called Ryan at work, told him to come get me and back to the hospital we went. Checked in and was set up in the room before 5 pm ET.

The fun began after that. Multiple attempts at IVs were the worst part until they turned my epidural off during labor. After 2 hours of pushing, I was told I had 15 minutes to turn things around or it was time for a C-section. #(*$&)#(& that! I didn't go through all that work to get cut open when I could have scheduled that appointment! I pushed like no other and 25 minutes later Miller was born! :) Ah...turn the pain meds back on!

The hospital stay:
Overall, the experience was good. It is something you can't really explain but I can say this; some nurses really pissed me off and made it much worse than it needed to be. My experience was the night nurses were all from the north or midwest, had good work ethic, were nice, and extremely helpful. My witch of a day time nurse pissed me off and made the whole experience stressful by her poor attempts to lecture rather than teach me anything. She was lazy and a witch in my opinion. The lactation ladies were sweet as pie and very helpful. If you are delivering a baby in Florida, think twice. No matter how many times you mention you are a first timer and try to ask questions, you will be ignored or given conflicting information; if any at all.

After my 48 hour stay and doing quite well with hormones, lack of sleep, and pure fear that I was doing something wrong our release day came but we weren't released. Miller's umbilical cord got slit by his diaper (not a big deal but scared the crap out of Mom and Dad). Then he came back to us with the news that his belly button was fixed but he had jaundice and had to stay another night. I lost it. All emotions came out in the form of tears and the not so nice people were like fuel for the fire. I was a mess and I had to stay another night in the hospital! I hadn't been home since Tuesday afternoon and it was now looking like a Saturday and possibly a Sunday release :(

We spent Friday and Saturday with Miller on his "tanning bed" hoping his biliruben levels would come down enough for us to take him home. They drew blood in the morning (6 am ET on Saturday) and we were told we know by 7 am what the plan was. Well, 7 am came and went and nothing. We heard the machine to test the blood was broken and they sent his blood to another hospital. Then we heard that hospital doesn't test babies so the blood they sent wasn't enough. The nurse and doctor didn't want to re-prick him for more blood (thank god!) so they performed the same test they initially did (isn't a blood draw). Luckily the levels dropped more than aniticipated and we were given the ok to go home BUT we should stay until 3 pm to get the maximum exposure to the "tanning bed." That was the longest 3 hours of my life. We just wanted to go home with him.

At home:
So far everything has gone pretty well. We have had our moments where we second guess ourselves and I have worried a ton. My parents were very helpful in their short stay and reassured us we are doing everything right. We were put at ease after our first pediatrician visit on Wednesday. Today, the little guy got his wanger snipped. Hopefully their will be no more trips to any doctors until his 1 month check up and my six week check up.

The toughest part is getting a routine established. Right now we are at the whim of a newborn who doesn't know morning from night. He is a great baby and sleeps 4-5 hours at a time (until he has those so called moments every parents dreads where there is no sleep from 12 am to 3 am or longer). I thought I would have more "time" to sleep or do things but right now all we do is eat, poop, change diapers, and do laundry/wash bottles.

I know this is a long one so I will post pictures in a separate post and some other random funny things that have happened since we got home.

Sorry to keep you waiting so long. I just didn't have it in me until today. Thanks for all the well wishes, dishes of food, and thoughtful gifts! Your love and support is appreciated. :)