Our second home at the end of February & beginning of March was Abbott Northwestern Hospital. We definitely were making several trips to and from the hospital. Erin remained in the Special Care Nursery for about two weeks. We live about 35 minutes from the hospital, so I started making two trips per day. I usually went to be with Erin at 11:00 am and again at 8:00 pm. Her feedings were 2 am, 5 am, 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 5 pm, 8 pm & 11 pm. Towards the end of Erin's hospital stay I started going for all day visits. I would get there around 9 or 10 am and stay until 9:30 pm. As much as I wanted to be with her, it was also very draining going back and forth from home to SE Mpls.
The hospital had a special room for family to stay in. There were three rooms and they were on a first-come-first-served basis. They were usually reserved for parents who were about to take their newborns home from the Special Care Nursery soon. This is where we spent most of our time the last few days that Erin was in the hospital. It was nice being in these rooms because they had a lounge area with a fridge, microwave, toaster, etc. Each room had a couch, recliner and tv. Emmy loved to look out the window and she got really excited when the hellicopter would come and go. These rooms worked out so well with Emmy because she can get really busy. Emmy was not allowed to go into the nursery due to the H1N1 season, so someone always had to occupy her while we were visiting Erin.
Grandpa Brad made another special visit to the hospital just to come and hold Erin. He wasn't able to hold her on the day she was born and I felt really horrible about that. All of us were afraid of the nurse that was in charge of Erin...That's so sad to say. If I would have been in my right mind, I wish I would have said something.
While my dad and I were visiting Erin in the nursery, Brad stayed in the family room with Emmy. When my dad and I got back to the family room there was nobody in the room. I figured that Brad probably took Emmy back down to McDonald's so we headed in that direction. As soon as my dad and I got off of the elevator, we saw Brad and Emmy walking our way. Emmy saw grandpa Brad through the whole mass of people in the hallway and started running towards him...my dad bent down and she jumped into his arms. This was one of the most precious things I have ever seen. She REALLY loves her grandpa!!
We knew we were getting so much closer to taking Erin home from the hospital when she got moved out of her Isolette and into a normal bassinet which was also closer to the exit door. Just after this happened the nurses told me to bring in her car seat for the car seat evaluation. She was unhooked from all of her cords and brought to another room in the nursery for the inspection. I asked one of the nurses if I was able to bring Erin closer to the window so that Emmy could see her from the other side. They had no problem with that so Brad and my dad brought Emmy up to the window for their first meeting. Emmy kept saying "Baby!" and "Momma!"
The nurses had Erin bundled up in about five different layers of clothing every day. I thought she would get hot, but they just wanted to make sure her body temperature was normal being out of the isolette. After the car seat evaluation was done, they told me that Erin would get to come home if I was able to nurse her more often. I already felt like I was there so much and I almost passed out when they told me I needed to come to the hosptial more often. But, I was determined to get her home with us. Two days later the nurse removed Erin's feeding tube and didn't put in a new one. She wanted to see how she would do through the night. The next day when I arrived, I noticed that her feeding tube was still gone. Yeah!! This was a good sign. Later that morning when the doctors were doing their rounds they reviewed her chart and told me in front of my mom & Rachel that we could now take Erin home!!
We were able to take Erin home on Saturday, March 6th. The weather was a bit cold so we bundled her up with extra blankets before we took her outside. We were greeted by big sister Emmy and my mom at our house. Emmy was so excited to see her new baby sister. I have a video that I will upload soon.
Here's some pictures of our time in the special care nursery and bringing her home!!
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