Baby Life Week 1: Getting Acquainted Part 1

June 30, 2012: As the dust settled after Asher's birth, we began a new phase in our life: Baby Life. I have said it before & I'll say it again...I can't believe that we are finally living the dream that we've had for years (see Raw for more info). As Eric held our little boy, I called my family to give them the news of his arrival. It was late, but news like that just couldn't wait until morning.

That evening seemed like a dream. My entire body was exhausted from the labor & delivery, but I still had a hard time sleeping, because I was enjoying listening to all of Asher's little squeaks & noises. It was also difficult to sleep as the nurses kept coming to check on us, to give Asher his first bath, and to start the nursing process, which proved to be quite difficult, as Asher was much more interested in sleeping than eating.  (It got to the point that the nurse convinced us to give him some formula early the next morning).

Asher's First Bath

On top of all that, my legs ironically had no feeling. While the medications did not work how they were supposed to during labor, they did decide to work afterwards. I was told that epidurals are supposed to wear off a couple of hours after delivery, but for some reason my drugs didn't wear off for almost 8 hours. For most of the night, I could not move my legs, which made the evening a bit more difficult.  Eventually morning came (July 1, 2012), feeling in my legs came back, and I was able to clean up....feeling human again. After getting freshened up and eating some breakfast, our visitors began to come through to meet our little miracle. Mom and Dad were first to make it. They visited for a while, and then headed out to get lunch.

Asher meets Grandma Klingenmaier

Asher meets Grandpa Klingenmaier

Family Photo

In the meantime, Asher was taken away for his hearing test (which he passed), and Eric & I laid down for some sleep. When I awoke a while later, Eric was walking back into the room followed by Aaron, Erika, Micah & Caleb.  Not long afterwards, Eric's parents arrived to meet their first grandchild.

Asher meets Grandma Migrin

Asher meets Grandpa Migrin

Three generations of Migrin men

Asher meets Uncle Aaron (known in our house as Uncle Meat Fingers)

Our tiny baby or Aaron's gigantic hands?

So in love!!

My beautiful boy

Daddy talking to Asher

After the family left our room, we got a call from Eric's dad saying that Pastor Dave and Judy were in the elevator on their way up to our room.  Thus, they were our next (& final) new visitors during our stay.

Asher meets Judy Dryer (honorary Kenosha grandma)

Asher meets Pastor Dave Dryer (honorary Kenosha grandpa)

After the Dryers left, Eric, Asher & I were on our own for the rest of the day...well, as on our own as we could be considering the parade of nurses, lab techs, janitors, doctors, etc that made our way in and out of our room as they wished.  Despite these (not-so-welcome) visitors, we were still able to enjoy some family time.

Asher & Dad share some nap time. (One of my favorite photos so far)

That night was difficult to say the least.  Asher was inconsolable for most of the evening, meaning that Eric & I got very little sleep.  We tried to have him sent to the nursery, but the nurses kept ignoring us and made us feel like we were bad parents to desire some rest.  Then, just when we got Asher to calm down, a lab tech came and took a bunch of his blood, getting him all riled up again.  Fun times.  Needless to say, we were quite exhausted by the time that Monday morning arrived (July 2, 2012).

Where'd Asher go?

As our annoyance with the staff of St. Catherine's grew (for various reasons including bad information about my medications, the nurses & lactation consultants, and being made feel like we were never doing the right thing), Eric and I were become eager to get out of there and get our little guy home with us.  There was one thing that we had left to do before we could leave though: Asher's circumcision.  The doctors and nurses had told us that they would need to observe him for an hour after the procedure and said that they could keep him in the nursery for that time.  We decided that sounded like a great idea and that it would give us some time for some much-needed rest before we headed out.  At about noon, they came and got Asher for the circumcision, and Eric and I settled in for some rest.  Then, about 10 minutes later (just as we were about ready to fall asleep), we heard a knock on the door.  "Here he is," the nurse said.  Apparently, no one cared that we had requested to have him kept in the nursery, and instead Eric and I were given our little guy who was VERY upset (not that anyone could blame him).  We both felt terrible for him, and at the same time, wished that we had been able to get at least a little bit of rest.  At that point, we could no longer wait to get out of there.  We tried to console Asher while getting our room packed up.  Then we got our check-out papers and took some final photos of our little guy and the room.

Put up your dukes!

Our room

Our room's bathroom

Our room's bathroom 

Once we had the photos we wanted and had all of our stuff packed up, it was finally time to get out of there and start our life as a family in the comfort of our own home.  The nurse came with a wheelchair and pushed Asher & I out of the hospital as Eric carried out the remainder of our stuff.  Then we buckled Asher up in his car seat and headed home to begin a whole new adventure.