Day 3 in the hospital

I went to work today for a few hours to finish a couple of deadlines. I decided to take my laptop back to the hospital so Mom can check email and I can do some work. This is probably not a very wise decision. After a little over 10 hours of sleep since Sunday at 9am, I should be taking every advantage of these precious down times and sleep. Unfortunately, I have decided to do work and write a blog. Running on caffeine or just insane?

Incubator Cancun
Laura's doctor informed us that her blood type is O-positive (just like Daddy). Unfortunately, Mom is O-negative (could this be a direct correlation to why Uncle Michael calls Mom "Captain Bring Down?" Because she is negative?) Anyhoo, a test result showed that there was a little bit of Mom's blood that mixed with Laura's. This could lead (and possible did) to jaundice. Laura is showing a tad bit of yellow but I can't really tell. After a short consultation with the doctor and nurse, Mom and I decided to put Laura in an incubator last night at 8pm and she will be in there until 8am, Thursday morning. Mom and I decided this option outweighed the alternative of waiting for jaundice to really develop and then we are solely responsible for incubating her at home.

When we dropped her off at the nursery for the first time on Tuesday evening, Grandpa M cleverly called her incubator "Cancun" because she has to wear goggles under the warm bright lights. (I will post a picture when we get home.) She is all toasty while I look out the window to a cold, gloomy day and see scattered snow lightly spread across the tall, brown grass from the early morning flurries. This is tough on Mom and I because we only see our baby every couple of hours for feeding time and that lasts a short-lived 45mins.

Tearjerker
Last night I walked out of our room to bring Laura to "Cancun" in the nursery. As I walked down the hall, I could see a dad about my age (30) and his daughter (5-7 years old) walking away from me toward the elevator. For whatever the reason, the dad and daughter heard us walking down the hall and turned around and walked back toward us. The dad, in a sadden, whispering voice asked if they could see our baby. The couple looked at Laura and commented how cute she was. The dad looked up 30 seconds later and with glassy eyes, told me they were here to "see someone go". He told his daughter, "we have experienced the circle of life tonight." The daughter replied, "Thank you dad, I am very happy we did this." AHHHH...How emotional is that?!?

I felt like I was in a movie shown on the Lifetime channel. This is purely speculation, hearsay!?! Let's just say I am too manly (tounge-in-cheek) to ever land on that type of network. I call We and Lifetime "fly over channels" because the "up" and "down" button doesn't stop until it is way past those type of channels.

More to come. I will cover the prelabor and labor portions when we go home. I will cover our experiences at the hospital some day soon as well. Thank you for the wonderful messages. They have helped us pass the time by.