A Few Days in Hospital

Immediately after birth the midwife put William on my tummy for a few minutes. Then he was taken to be cleaned before coming back. His eyes were wide opened, looking at the lights with a frown . He must be slightly confused... well what do you expect having just come out of the womb?

However, after a short cuddle, he was taken to the neonatal unit because they had to monitor his blood sugar. They also had to feed him some formula to ensure that his blood sugar does not go too low (as I was on insulin and William may have excess insulin in his blood). He had to spend the whole day at neonatal, being fed 3 ozs of milk every 3 hours. They didn't even know when he will be able to return to his Mummy! Poor me didn't have a baby by her side so they gave me a single room so as not to be disturbed by other babies. However I could visit and help feed William in the neonatal ward.

After 12 hours, they decided William was all right and return him to my side in time for the evening and bedtime. He still needed to be fed every 3 hours but at least I could try to breastfeed. I was quite worried that since he started on the bottle he would reject breasts but he was cool with both!

The next day (Thursday), we stayed at the hospital to ensure that William is breastfeeding well. On Friday, they were preparing to discharge him but noticed that he was jaundiced. So they took some blood for tests. Poor William was like a pin cushion since birth from pricks for blood tests for sugar and jaundice.

The first test didn't work as the blood had clotted so they had to do another one which showed that the jaundice was a bit high. It was important that he ate more so that there is more liquid to wash out the dead cells. On Saturday morning they did another test and it was much lower so he did not need phototherapy and was discharged.

By the time paperwork and checks were done it was past 4pm before Uncle Chester and Aunty Amy came to take us home. Well, we went home for a little while to leave our bags and for me to tidy up a little as I didn't get to prepare things properly before the birth before going over to Yee Poh's house for dinner! After 5 days and 4 nights in hospital, I was glad to be home with my new baby boy!