Below is my own pump to pain medication. Nice! And sweet flowers brought by my father-in-law, Warren. That was so sweet. I really do love getting flowers. They just are so beautiful and cheery! One beautiful thing about the Royal Brisbane hospital is that they kept Reid the first night in with the nurses. Hospitals here don't really have nurseries like they do in the states. You're kind of on your own here. Their theory is you're going to be on your own once you get home so you might as well start now. Oh, but to let the mom's get some uninterrupted sleep time can do such wonders! But since I was hooked up to lots of tubes and wires and drains and what not my first night they let me sleep, ah and sleep I did. Reid never woke up to eat and at one point a nurse asked me if I wanted to pump. Heck no! Was my reply! :) I slept the rest of the night and it was heavenly! I have very bad and exhausting memories of pumping when Jaren was a baby and my desperate and unsuccessful attempts to make more milk. Thank heavens that with Reid it all just fell into place and was easy-peasy! Sadly them taking your babies at night was a one-off thing while I was unable to get out of bed, but still that one night was amazing! As you can imagine it had been a long day!
Of course we were so grateful for all our visitors- sorry we didn't get more smiling shots of you all. And again a huge special thanks to my mother-in-law, Michaela, and her cousin Garbi for tending Jaren for me while I was in the hospital. I had so wanted them to be able to bring him into the hospital to meet his little brother and take some "new family" photos, but they were sick that week and it was a bit too much to bring him down. But I'll post some pictures late of Jaren meeting Reid.
I had initially included a picture of the first meconium diaper but decided that it really is too gross and unnecessary to share. Lucky you! Instead you get a cute picture of his feet. I don't know if you can quite tell her but his feet were soooo long when he was born. We Woods are pretty tall and for anyone who has seen my in-laws you'll now that our kids have awesome chances at being nice and tall!
1st bath. Reid was in heaven as you can tell. Look at that contented and relaxed face! This midwife was a bit of a bully and at one point tried to lecture me about how great Australia is compared to America. What an idiot. She got more and more aggressive as I tried to laugh it off and not engage in the conversation. I told her I didn't want to debate it, but she wouldn't stop. I then told her that if she didn't stop it was going to make me upset. I think her response was "so what". I said I would end up crying and she was still so indifferent and just rude and said some go ahead and cry then blah blah blah isn't Australia so great blah blah blah. I was in this beautiful cloud bubble of having a new baby and determined to stay calm and enjoy it and here was this spiteful bitter midwife trying to do what? Seriously what could she possibly hoped to gain by attacking a brand new (hormonal) mother about her home country where she so desperately would rather be. Again I repeat, what an idiot.
Okay in looking up her picture I am feeling bad to call her an idiot, although I do think she was being really rude and inappropriate. But maybe she thought she was being funny, or maybe she was tired and was taking it out on me. I remember she seemed to be pretty efficient the rest of the time and other than giving me a lecture about feeding my baby whenever it cried/attachment parenting (not going to happen) we didn't have any issues. That time I didn't try and resist her arguments. I just smiled and nodded and knew I would raise my baby how I thought was best. (Side note what I do and absolutely SWEAR by is the Baby Wise Routine by Gary Ezzo!!! It is phenomenal and is such a great guide to helping your baby eat well and sleep well - and seriously if they get those two MAIN newborn skills down you and they will be so much happier for it!)
I don't remember the above Midwife's name but she was really lovely. She just was so nice and helpful I remember. I really think they can make or break your stay. I told her how I really appreciated how nice she was and she surprised me by saying she was trying to break out of the grumpy midwife stereotype and be nice to the patients. Well she succeeded and was really wonderful, as well as the majority of other midwives I worked with. It's funny you think they all would be nice or try to be with all these new mom's and babies to look after.
Varian went back to work so we could save his paternity leave for once I was home. But as he worked in the same hospital that we were staying it meant that he could come and check in on us throughout the day.
So a random picture of some hospital food. You know I really enjoy being in the hospital, call me crazy, but I think it's fun. There will always be something fun to me about hospital food and airplane food. I'm a sucker for free food (insert Varian's voice saying, that's not free... Well I guess you could say the hospital food is for us here. Again another shout out to Socialized Medicine. Yes I may not have the room to myself (sad it's true, but not the end of the world) but it has been a huge blessing for our family!!!)
Oh I could just kiss those adorable lips again and again. Wow, reviewing this post is making me so clucky! For the non-Australians out there that expression comes from being baby-hungry, motherly - like a mother hen.
Happy 100th post and happy "birth day" Reid. In reality you're nearly two, so obviously you're mama's got to get busy to catch up on her blog. Happy reading then! :)
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