4 days and lots of excitement

We've had an exciting weekend. Not a good exciting - but it all turned out okay.

The home health care nurse visited on Thursday because I was discharged from the hospital prior to 48 hours.

We were feeling good about how things were going. Declan is eating well, doing the things newborns are supposed to do. We haven't had the same breastfeeding struggles we had with Paddy.

The home health nurse, first checked me out and decided my blood pressure was too high. I think she's crazy as I just brought home a newborn, Pat is back at work, and my Mom wasn't in town yet. There was a lot going on. But okay. So she calls my doctor, who decides I need to come in the next morning for a blood pressure check. Super.

Then she checks out Declan. He looks great, he's pink, sleeping, and happy. Until she takes his temperature. 99.8. No big deal. The pediatrician told me anything under 100.4 is fine. The nurse disagrees. Fine. Next she weighs him. Not surprisingly his weight is down a bit - normal for a breastfed baby. He still above the 10% loss threshold that the hospital told me to be concerned about. The nurse decides she needs to call the pediatrician's office. Great. She talks to the triage nurse, tells her its urgent, and that the baby has an elevated temperature, decreased weight, and is excessively sleepy. She does this as Declan is eating very vigorously. She hangs up, tells me the Dr said I need to go the ER. Seriously??

Okay, fine. I call Pat - freak him out. Tell him we're on the way to the ER. Call my Mom, who is on her way to St. Paul, tell her, we're on our way to the ER. Pack up 2 kids, get in the car, drive to the ER.

I discover, if you arrive at the ER with a 4 day old, they see you real quick. That was a nice bonus. The triage nurse looks him over, takes his temp - 98.9. Why are we here? We get situated in a room, the pediatrician stops by - looks over Declan, says he looks perfect. Checks his vitals, tells us we can go home, no worries. Right up until I get the discharge orders. Please wake baby every 3 hours to feed. WHAT??

Declan had been eating every 2-3 hours during the day, but sleeping for a 5 hour stretch at night. I really have to wake him up? Grrr. Fine. I swore I wouldn't wake this baby up. So we wake him up Thursday night from his happy sleep, and my happy sleep too. He then proceeds to wake up every hour and a half. Dumb waking up rule.

As much as it pains me, we'll keep waking him up until he gets back to his discharge weight of 8lbs 3oz. We have 5oz to go in just over a week when we go back for a weight check. Keep eating kiddo.

We have also had visitors. Uncle Mike visited on Thursday. I think Paddy was most excited as Uncle Mike was willing to chase him around the house. Grandma has been in town since Thursday doing lots of laundry and letting me sleep in a bit.