The Day After Birth

The next morning I was a mess. Woke up crying. I was so confused. My baby wasn't in my room, he was in the NICU. At least now I could walk, the feeling in my legs had finally come back from the epidural. I wanted to see Jesse but they wouldn't let me. The doctors were doing rounds. They said it might not be until 11 or 12. They don't want visitors during rounds to protect the privacy of the other patients. So I wait. Paul was very upset, made some comment about "a child should be with his mother". Around noon another doctor came in and told us that Jesse was being released from the NICU! The heart murmur had gone away. He explained to us that many babies are born with it and it usually goes away within the first 48 hours. They wanted to make sure that because his lip and palate weren't fully developed, that there wasn't a larger concern with his heart. My sister and mom came to visit that day. Paul went home in the afternoon to try and get some sleep, he wanted me to get some sleep too. I couldn't sleep. In the early evening Paul's family came for a visit. We told the nurses we only wanted immediate family visiting, unless approved by us. We were very fragile, me especially. You expect your baby to come into the world and be perfect, but it doesn't always happen that way. I was thankful there was nothing more major wrong, but it was still very shocking.

While Paul's family was still there we got a visit from Dr. Semba, a plastic surgeon. Paul's family left so we could have some time with her. She told us she had a team of specialists to get Jesse all fixed up. He would need multiple surgeries to repair his lip and palate. She also had a speech pathologist, ear nose and throat specialist, and a genetisict on her team. She spoke to us for over an hour and told us what would happen. His first surgery would repair his lip, around 3 months of age. Between 6 and 9 months he would begain repair on his palate. This happens 1 in 700 children born. I had no idea and it's totally fixable. The question still in my head was why? What causes this to happen? Did I do something to cause it? We would find out more when we go see Dr. Semba and her team in 2 weeks.

Friday we were released from the hospital, BOTH of us! The pediatrician checked out Jesse and aside from the cleft he was healthy. I got checked by my doctor and I was healing well, so they let us both go home. The photographer even came in before we left and got some awesome shots! We got home about 3pm and our new life began.