Baby Day, Part Two

Once we arrived at the hospital we decided to leave our overnight bags in the car and just take in our essentials.  We went to the welcome desk, they called up to the social worker and she met us down on the first floor.  As we took the elevator to the maternity floor, she told us procedures and protocols for staying on the maternity floor and how to get on and off if we needed to go anywhere.  Once we got upstairs, we received our name badges and bracelets and she walked us to the nursery to meet Baby Boy.  As soon as we walked over to his bassinet I immediately began sobbing.  He was just the cutest, sweetest thing wrapped up in his swaddle blanket, he had his hat on his head and he was just sleeping so soundly.  It was just so surreal that we were looking at our little guy after just learning about him not even 24 hours prior.

I mean, Come On!  That face!  Those lips!  

The social worker told me I could hold him and I asked Matt if he wanted to hold him first and he said that I needed to.  I started to pick him up and as soon as I did, the social worker remembered I needed to wash my hands first.  She was so excited she had gotten frazzled!  So I had to immediately set him down, wash my hands and then got to hold him again.  He was just so sweet and tiny.

Ben loved mealtime!

After a few minutes I set him back in the bassinet and we brought him to the room where we were staying.  The hospital called it "the bonding room".  It was a hospital room without the hospital beds and monitors.  It had a couch, chairs, futon and TV.  It gave us plenty of space to spread out and not feel claustrophobic and gave us some privacy.

Immediately, he stayed with us in our room and we began taking care of him - feeding him, diaper changes and cuddles.  They came in every so often just to check his vitals and see how we were doing, but otherwise, we were his parents.

Cuddle time!

That evening was spent feeding and changing him about every four hours or so.  We were able to Skype with most of the family so they could see him because at this point we were unable to send photos since birth mom hadn't terminated her rights yet.  After we got all our phone calls, texts and Skype calls in we got ready for our first night with Ben.  All in all he went super easy on us - slept and ate, slept and ate.  He went four hour stretches sleeping and would fill his belly, get a diaper change and fall back asleep.  It was a very good day.