Time to Meet Your Baby!

Meeting Harvey

We were tired, tired, tired. We had been up for what felt like days. It was around 2 in the morning — it's a little fuzzy — and I was still shaking from the epidural and shaken up from the whole labor experience.

But this was the moment I had waited a long 9 months for, and nothing was going to ruin that. I got to hold my sweet little Harvey for the first time ever. It was magical. He was amazing. For a brief moment I forgot all the scary stuff I had just been through. I got to breastfeed for the first time — which didn't go as planned, you'll have to check out my other post to read about that. It was love at first sight and our lives were just changed for the better.

Harvey still had to be in the NICU for a couple more hours, so I used that time to take a nap and be ready to get through the rest of the night. It would be a lot of check-ins and not a lot of rest.

The one thing that almost broke my husband and me — after everything we had already been through — was when they sent our moms home. It was past visitation hours. I was barely able to function from all the medication I was on. My husband had only held a baby a handful of times before Harvey. I couldn't get out of bed. Our support, the people holding us together, had to leave for the night and couldn't come back until morning. We made it through, barely.

It's 6 in the morning and I call my mom sobbing. Harvey would not latch, and the nurse had been terrible to us all night — she even made Harvey throw up at one point trying to force feed him a bottle when breastfeeding wasn't going well. My mom rushes in to save the day once again. She helped me get him latched to eat and watched him while I slept for the first time since 4 am. When she woke me up to feed Harvey she helped me get him latched again, and I finally started to get a groove. We survived the night.

Release Day

In walks the best nurse. We raved about her and wanted to know where she had been the whole time! She taught me how to correctly breastfeed and explained why I had been struggling. It was honestly so nice to finally have someone treat me like I wasn't just a dumb new mom. She got us all squared away and we headed home to start our new lives.

Honestly, the hospital days are such a blur. I don't remember certain people who visited or conversations I had. My husband still to this day has to correct me on what happened.

I would love to hear your stories — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Labor is the most magical, scary thing, and having a place to talk about it has truly helped me come to terms with my experience.