Amity's Story Begins, Part V

Around 5:30 on Saturday, it finally happened. We held her. It seemed like the nurse (Megan, who was fantastic) might have made an exception for us and let her try to breastfeed, because we really hadn't expected to be able to and it was an awesome surprise. That had been a huge concern for us because we had heard so much about the health benefits and so many horror stories about how hard it was for a lot of women and their babies. They say that starting within the first hour is really critical, so both Kim and I had been stressing about whether it would be a huge roadblock since it had been over 15 hours since she had been born and she hadn't really been held at all.

Turns out that our fears were unfounded. Amity got right to it without a single problem, and it was a massive relief on a couple of levels. First, because of the aforementioned anxiety, but second and more importantly, because a healthy appetite is one of the best signs you could hope for of a healthy baby. After we both got a chance to hold her, smell her, look at her up close, and do all of those new parent things, Amity conked out really solidly. She was ready to eat but her hunger wasn't very enduring because she was getting plenty of dextrose to keep her blood sugar looking good. The nurses told us that she would most likely sleep through the night, so we headed back to Kim's hospital room and got an actually decent amount of rest for the first time since Wednesday.

We woke up feeling great, and Amity ate well and had visitors throughout the day. They were weaning her off of dopamine, dextrose, saline, and finishing up the transfusions, so IVs started coming off one by one. Some people have trouble with too many visitors, I suppose, but especially then we were just so happy to have people come around and see her and have a chance to show her off that we really appreciated having everyone come by. There was a rumor from the nurses that we might be able to go home Monday morning if everything was looking really good.

That night was short, and Kim got up halfway through to feed Am. We got up early to go spend time with her and hold her. Our pediatrician came by to check out Amity, and we were holding our breath, but she said that leaving her one more day would be the safest route. It was a bit tough, but we didn't really care because the only thing that ultimately mattered to us was getting our daughter as healthy as possible.

They moved us to a family room in the NICU, which was a huge, huge step. They took out all of the IVs and left only the sensors on for monitoring. We got to hang out and sleep in the same room as a family, and it felt like the first time we were able to finally relax with Amity. They unplugged the monitor for a bit and Kim was able to nap with her in a recliner and I got to lay down on the couch and hold her. It felt normal, for once, and the only thing that was still a bother at all was the fear-inducing monitor. Even that was tolerable, though, because the nurse set it up so that it really wasn't objectionable and it went off very few times.

Really early Tuesday morning, our pediatrician came by and said that Amity was good to go home whenever we were ready. We had been expecting it, but it still hit us both really hard and we could scarcely keep our emotions contained until the pediatrician left, and then we both teared up. I think we got ready in record time. It was interesting leaving the NICU - the nurses were so excited for us to leave, and we were so excited to leave, and we both understood perfectly why that was. No matter how wonderful they were there (and they really were amazing) the best thing that can happen at a NICU is to be healthy enough to leave. The big payoff for the NICU staff is the sight of a healthy baby leaving the unit.

I collected our stuff and took it to the car. Kim got Amity buckled in to her car seat for the first time. The nurse took us through a "staff-only" route to exit the hospital, and it was kind of surreal, like seeing the backstage of a set that you've lived on for several days. We got checked out at the front desk. We walked out the door and Amity felt daylight for the first time - our daughter was healthy and ready to go home.