The Janzens: Our Time in the Hospital

This might sound funny but I miss our days in the hospital. I was in a lot of pain and the first 24 hours were r.o.u.g.h. but I can't help but smile thinking about our first few days as a family of three. We were figuring each other out and how things would work. Jake took excellent care of both of us and I wouldn't have been able to make it without him. I also really liked that if we needed help a midwife was one button push away and someone did the cooking and cleaning :).

If you missed Linnea's birth story you can click on the link to read about her entrance into this world!

July 5th
We spent our first night on the postpartum floor in room 2. We had a private room but a shared bathroom. The shared bathroom was a pain because I felt like I was going all the time trying to flush out all the medicine and fluids they gave me throughout labor. We got to our room around 9:20 pm on July 5th. We tried getting settled and then Linnea saw the pediatrician to get her head checked out before we went to sleep. They were worried about a sack of fluid where the vacuum was because they didn't know if it was just liquid or if it was blood. They checked her around 11 pm and then came in again during the night at 2:30 am to check her again. I didn't realize how worried they were. I thought it was standard to check babies after they were born but I figured out the next day they were kind of concerned about her. I was thankful I didn't know that until after I got some sleep.

Jake tucking her in. We put her between our beds so we could both reach her.

Our first night we slept from about 1:20 am until 2:30 when they checked her head. I took her to do skin to skin time. Skin to skin is encouraged a lot here. Before we went to sleep they told us that we should do it several times a day so we thought we were supposed to do it during the night as well meaning one of us would sleep with her on us. So we did that the first and second night. I slept with her after she was checked until about 5 am. We learned on the third day that they didn't mean to do it while we were sleeping. Oops. #rookieparentingmistake

I tried feeding her a few times. They don't push breastfeeding too much during the first 24 hours. If the baby seems interested then that is great but if the baby isn't they don't worry about it until it has been a full 24 hours after birth. Once the baby hits the 24 hour mark then we have to wake her up to feed her every 3 hours. They also checked her blood sugar and counted how many breathes she took in one minute.

All swaddled up and ready to sleep!

July 6th

The next morning I walked by a room that was empty and noticed it had a private bathroom so I asked the midwife if we could move to that one and she said YES! I was so excited.

We moved rooms, had breakfast, got all settled in and took a quick nap before Baker's appointment with the pediatrician at 10.

On our way to the pediatrician's office.

The pediatrician looked like Vin Diesel. We both really liked him. He read over the birth journal and talked to us about her head. They were worried about the sack of fluid because they couldn't tell if it was water or blood. They were going to wait for the standard 48 hour blood test and add an extra test on to see what it told us. If it was blood they would give her something to help her body absorb it but either way they weren't concerned especially since she didn't seem to be in pain.

We brought a few swaddles to the hospital but she was so small that none of them really fit. They don't swaddle in Sweden so we got a few strange looks when we had her all wrapped up. They do use a baby nest which is a soft u-shaped pillow that the baby lays in the middle of. We saw several babies being pushed around with a completely full bassinet. You could barely see the baby.

My two favorite people!

Little Monkey

I took Tylenol and Ibuprofen while I was in the hospital. They wanted me to take both every 8 hours but I wanted to stagger them so I could take something every 4 hours. Jake was in charge of coming up with a system so I knew when and what to take every time because my brain couldn't remember a darn thing.

I normally have a great memory and Jake's memory is awful. He still sometimes forgets how to get to my parents' house. They've lived in the same house, in Wichita, about 5 minutes from Jake's parents' house, the entire 13.5 years we've been together. It kind of scared me that I had to rely on his memory so much :). That is how I knew I was in bad shape.

For the first few days she was spitting up amniotic fluid and it freaked us out. I hated watching her struggle to get it up and out. I was thankful we could see through her bed so we could help her once we noticed she was trying to cough some up.

I thought she was cold and I couldn't find her hat to I improvised.

Instead of having normal visitors we had lots of phone calls and video chats. I talked to Jan on the phone, did a video chats with my parents, Emily and Jami and also Jake's parents. Jake also talked to Liz on the phone.

I really thought I would be sad we didn't have visitors but it was kind of a relief not to. The first 24 hours or so I was struggling and it would have been a bit much to have visitors I think. Jake had to bring Baker to me so I could feed her because I couldn't get up and down with her. He also changed all of her diapers and her clothes. It was so strange finally having my very own baby and not being able to take care of her the way I always thought I would. It did however, give Jake lots of bonding time with her which was so sweet to see.

Jake bought her a little mouse which is super cute! Now it hangs on her stroller.

The first few mornings Jake brought our breakfast to the room but the last morning we had breakfast in the dining room. Jake was able to eat breakfast each morning but lunch and dinner he had to buy from the restaurants or cafes in the hospital.

I had to put in my order for lunch and dinner between 10-10:30. The food was okay. Some meals were better than others. They gave me both meals when I ordered them and I put them in the fridge until I was ready to eat. Lunch was served from 11-1 but you could go warm up your food whenever you wanted they just had extra food out during that time.

The food containers were neat. You warmed them up in the microwave sitting on a plate but once they were done instead of taking the plastic off the top and dumping them you pulled the white tab from the bottom. Then the plastic was peeled off the bottom while the container sat on your plate so when it was done your meal was on your plate and out of the container. It was pretty clever.

You store your lunches and dinners in the fridge on the right but you can also store your own personal food in the fridge on the left as long as you mark it with your room number, name and date.

A fancy coffee machine is a must of course. The gray fridge above the sink had breast milk in it for people who were struggling to have enough milk for their babies.

The dining room.

They also had fika for us :).

July 7th

Baker slept on me again from 1:30-3:30 am. I fed her a little and she calmed down after Jake walked with her for a bit. She fell back asleep on me at 5:30 am until someone came in at 7:45 to take my blood for testing.

Baker had blood taken to test for PKU and a few other things as well as to check her head.

We had almost decided on Linnea's name at this point we just needed to figure out her middle name. During dinner we were talking about Linnea's name and I remembered that my friend Amy sometimes has other people pick something for her when she is trying to decide between two things. Then if she is disappointed with what they pick she knows which one she really wants and then picks that one. So we decided to call Amy and tell her the names (which was a big deal because it was top secret) and get her feedback and see how it made me feel :). We texted her 4 options all with Linnea as the first name and talked through them all. It really helped.

July 8th

During the night, Jake helped with the first feeding like he had been doing since she was born but I did the second feeding all by myself. That was a big moment for me. I was able to get up and down with her, feed her, change her and put her back to bed. At that point I finally felt like her mom. The one that I thought I would be but couldn't physically be the first two days.

Normally you stay two nights after having a baby and if everything goes well you get to stay in the patient hotel. However, because of her vacuum extraction and me losing too much blood they had us stay at the hospital on the postpartum floor for 3 nights which was fine by me. I definitely wasn't ready to go home until that last day and even then I could have stay longer ;).

She had her hearing test done while we were still at the hospital. They usually do this during your 5 day check up but we were there long enough to do it before we left. She passed with flying colors of course :).

Before we left her pediatrician, Vin Diesel, came in again to talk to us about her head and her blood. Her blood test for her head came back fine but the test showed that some of my blood mixed with hers so she had some antibodies in her blood since I am B Negative and she is O Positive. They were going to monitor it and if it started causing a problem they would give her some iron supplements. There was a higher risk of jaundice so she would be checked again for that at her 5 day appointment. She said that because of the sack of fluid on her head her body was making more blood which could help with the antibodies so that is good.

I was also examined before I left. My blood test showed I should take some iron supplements but other than that I was good to go.

Our room

The hospital provided diapers and wipes that you could wet with water. They didn't give us any blankets or clothes to put her in and they never swaddled her.

One of our awesome midwives.

Kisses from Daddy.

Going home outfit

Checking out was weird. We didn't really have anyone tell us what to do. They just said we could leave sometime after lunch. We hit the button to have a midwife come to our room just to ask if we needed to do anything before we left and that is when we realized we hadn't paid for Jake. It was 250 kr (about $30) per night for Jake to stay and then it was 100 kr for me but I had to pay for all four nights so our total bill was about $135 to have Linnea.

Jake went home to drop off a load of stuff and to pick up the car seat and then he came back to get us. We took a taxi home but because of rush hour it took us almost an hour to get home instead of 15 minutes.