Like I said, my 4 hours in the recovery room are still a blur, but what I do remember is being able to touch Georgie from my bed to his pod. Prior to this, George was in the transitional nursery where Rich was able to meet him and hold his hand. It was the shortest 3 minutes of my life. He was rolled away so quickly. My family had been waiting in the lobby to see how we were doing.

At 5:30AM, I was moved into my private room where I spent the next 7 days. George was admitted into the NICU on the 9th floor and I was on the 5th floor. Thankfully, we had the support of my family where I was never alone and neither was George. Of course, my first question was, “When can I see my baby?” My heart was in a million pieces come to find out that I was to stay on magnesium sulfate for 24 hours via IV. This meant that I was not allowed to get out of my bed until the medication was done. I’m sure you can imagine how frantically I messaged Rich to get updates. I had doctors, nurses, lactation consultants, social workers, etc. coming into my room and all I wanted to do was sneak off to see George. I couldn’t even imagine what Rich was going through this time, but it’s when he really thrived.  Rich kept me updated seeing that I couldn’t sleep knowing that my baby was just upstairs and I couldn’t be there with him. I remember Rich telling me about his first experience during rounds. This is when the entire NICU team gets together to discuss the baby’s plan for the day. He explained how all these acronyms and numbers were being thrown around and how overwhelming it was to have 15 people huddle up by George’s bedside. Eventually , I was able to sit through my first one and it was as if Rich was a pro. He was providing feedback about George’s improvements, setbacks and asking amazing questions. I felt so silly because I couldn’t even get a single word out!

George was admitted into the NICU due to his low blood sugar and was put under a heater to maintain his body temperature. Upon his arrival into the NICU, George was put on CPAP (a machine that helps with breathing by releasing pressure into the lungs) due to his prematurity; however he was on the lowest settings and was on room air. He had an IV line providing Dextrose (to aid his glucose being in the low 30s), lipids and fats, and saline. He had two EKGs done in his first day of life (DOL) to check his heart activity, which came back normal. He also had a feeding tube in case he wouldn’t take his bottle. George also had an ultrasound done to check his kidneys, as well as, his testis. They noted that his testis hadn’t dropped, so they wanted to make sure everything was okay. He also had a head ultrasound and I kid you not, I laughed when Rich told me the reason was because of his big head. Apparently, his mancrush fellow  said that he wasn’t surprised because well… dad has a big head!

What we were most worried about was his echo.. this is the moment we had all been waiting for. Throughout our entire pregnancy, we were told he had something going on in his heart. I kept asking Rich what they were waiting for. In my head, I kept trying to stay positive. Maybe they hadn’t done it because it wasn’t that urgent and he wasn’t showing any clinical signs of being in any kind of danger.

George had a long first day and it felt like ages for me. He was born on Thursday just after midnight and I wasn’t able to see him until Saturday at 2:30AM. At 1AM, I was already calling for the nurse to give me the green light to leave my bed. I didn’t sleep from Tuesday night up until Saturday and I was entirely delirious, but what I did know what was that I wanted to see George.

The first time I was able to hold George was by far the best moment of my life. It had felt like I was pregnant for 3 years and I was finally able to hold my baby. And he was so perfect and beautiful. I did my full inspection to make sure he was all in one piece. My eyes filled with tears as I picked him up and then the nurse suggested we take him off CPAP. Oh my goodness the 4 hours I was able to spend with him were so precious! Rich and I appreciate the little milestones like this. Being off CPAP for a few hours at a time was a big deal.