Tyler's (short) Stay at the Hospital

So now Ty is finally here!

We spent the hours after his delivery just watching and observing him. As I said many times before, we were not sure how he would be when he was born. We had no expectations, but hoped for nothing but the best. And I think we came pretty darn close to the best.

There were times I lay in bed awake at night during my pregnancy, wondering would I even get to bring a baby home? It was a horrible thought to think, and something I was very afraid of. I worried that his condition would be more severe than Aidan's. I worried that he would suffer and be in pain after he was born. I have to admit that even though I mainly filled my thoughts with hope and positive thinking, there were times that I thought worse case scenario. I admit that many of his clothes didn't have the tags cut off because I wasn't sure he would even get to wear them. Our worries were part of the reason we didn't buy a carseat...and I didn't open the package of newborn diapers and place them in the changing table. It makes me sad that I thought this way, or that I held off on doing things because I was afraid we might not bring a baby home. But I knew it would've been too hard to come home to all this stuff ready for our baby boy and not have a baby in our arms - even if it were because he had to stay in the hospital. After Aidan was born, and we didn't get to bring him home, it was SO hard for us to come home to a full nursery :( And now that we have Ty, and I look back, I feel so sad that we held off on so many things. Because here he is - crying, eating, pooping, being so demanding yet so perfect!

My initial worries after his birth were: is he breathing okay? is he in any distress or pain? is he adjusting well to the outside world?

After it was obvious that he was acclimating well, then I was able to relax a little. Yes, I did notice seizures (movements) right away. I watched them begin and slowly gain momentum to the point where they were almost constant, just like with Aidan. But I also saw him handling them well, just like Aidan does. Just as he would overcome one, another one would start. Some would be little facial tics, some would include his arms and head jerking to the side. Even though they are quite frequent and obvious, they are definitely more subtle, and even a little less frequent, than Aidan's.

Our first few hours with Ty were spent passing him around between all the family that was there, snuggling him like crazy, and of course taking the long anticipated "brothers" pictures!


Like I said in his birth story, Ty did not leave our room. In fact, we didn't even switch rooms. Because of our special situation, they did not move us up to the after-delivery rooms. We stayed in the room where I delivered, and that was just fine with us. We had more time to get settled in and relax.

We waited a few hours before we gave him his first bath. Then came the outfit changes! And the pictures with Aidan and Ty together!




Ty and I were doing so good that the nurses even thought that we might be able to go home the next day! For sure it looked like I would be able to be discharged the next day, and if Ty didn't start eating at that point then he would stay one more day and I would just "room in" with him.

About 6 hours or so after he was born, Ty's pediatrician came in to check on him. Prior to this, I had briefly tried breastfeeding, but Ty was so sleepy and didn't seem interested in eating.

So my new worry, and pretty much my only worry at the time, was how am I going to feed this little guy?! His pediatrician talked with us about sending us home with feeding tubes (NG tubes) in case we needed them.

After the pediatrician left we decided to bite the bullet and try feeding him a bottle with formula. We were all shocked when he started sucking right away and gobbled up the milk! It was so strange to see a baby actually eat as if he knew just what to do. With Aidan, we have had to be so patient because his sucking reflex has never properly come in. After that first bottle Ty was off and running! He hasn't stopped eating since. He has shown us no sign of having ANY feeding troubles. This has been a HUGE relief to us.



After his first bottle.
I started pumping breastmilk (colostrum) as soon as I had Ty. Over the course of the next day I could sense that Ty was going to get the hang of breastfeeding in no time...



Feeding Ty colostrum with a nipple and syringe.
Our first night at the hospital was Ty was uneventful. He slept, he ate, he pooped and then ate some more. When morning came it was clear that he was doing very well, and it was looking like we would be able to take Ty home that very day. All we had to do was wait for the pediatrician to check him out and give us his approval. In the meantime Ty had his hearing test - and he PASSED! Wonderful news - although I was sure he could hear because whenever I moved the hospital bed up or down he would jump. He has been sensitive to sound from the very start. Not to mention sensitive to light, especially camera flashes.

The pediatrician checked Ty on Saturday afternoon and told us we were all set to Go Home!! He said despite having a smaller head (I loved how he worded that!), he saw nothing out of the ordinary - nothing that concerned him. He was so nice when he talked with us, and made us feel like Ty was perfect!

So there we were - Ty was just over 1 day old and we were packing up to go home as a family of 4 for the first time. Everything happened so fast, but we were ready to bring him home. We had no worries and knew that once Ty got home he would thrive even more. Not to mention he would have more time to bond with his big brother!




It still seems very surreal to me that Tyler Gabriel was able to come home with us so soon - that everything that happened surrounding his birth was so "normal"... I sometimes forget that Ty does have a 'smaller head' because everything about him so far is so typical, so very newborn-ish! For the first time Jason and I are experiencing what it is like to bring home a newborn, and we are kind of lost when it comes to certain things. This is very new to us. At the same time we remain partially cautious, watching Ty carefully to make sure no signs or symptoms of distress pop up.

All in all, we are enjoying Tyler as the perfect little baby that he is. We don't know what God has in store for him down the road, but right now he is doing AWESOME, and we pray that everything just gets better for him with time. We hope that all the choices we have made regarding Ty have been the right ones for him (to come home right away, to skip MRI's and CT scans for now, to keep him off medications...) There are many decisions we have had to make, and some we had made before he was even born. I feel like there are some decisions we need to reassess and re-consider... My mind is all a whirl, wondering if there is something I should be doing for him to make sure he continues doing so well? Should we be doing more things medically? Would it change anything? Should we "fix" what isn't broken? *sign*

There is so much more to tell about Ty - what he has accomplished just in the past few days... I want to tell you all about it right now - but duty calls! There is also more to tell regarding what our plans are/could be for possible testing on Ty...genetic testing...all that non-fun stuff. But for now I'd rather write about the fun stuff *the normal baby stuff* because that is truly the reality we are in right now - that Ty is as typical as they come (at least in our eyes). So for now I'll save all his accomplishments for another day, another blog. Bedtime for the boys is calling my name!