Hospital Story, continued...

Okay, so, we talked about my labor and how it went. The aftermath was also a bit crazy, so I will share.
I delivered Halia at 6:14am. And I was starving! Remember? Breakfast trays usually start being delivered around the same time, what a coincidence. So, I was ready to eat whatever the cafeteria had whipped up that day! I waited for a little while. Everyone had cleaned up the room, sanitized everything but me, and they all took off. There were about 5 nurses in the room when I delivered her, but they were all long gone. Baby was in the nursery, Hubby had gone back to sleep. Finally, I pressed the call button and asked what I had to do to get some food. A timid little nurse brought the crazy lady in room 215 a menu and quickly backed out of the room! :-)

Once we finally made it to the "recovery" room we started the paperwork process. Did you know that there are about 5 different ways to say "I don't know who my baby daddy is," on a birth certificate?? It's called Acknowledgment of Paternity and it's all up to the mother. You can fill in a father's name, you can omit a father's name, or you can say you know but don't want to declare the father's name. There was also a spot for "Married but not declaring father's name." I'm sorry, what? You can be married and if you don't think he's the father, you don't have to put his name. If you were married to someone else within the past 365 days you can also declare that it might not be this husband's baby. I was getting confused and I DID KNOW who my baby's daddy was!!!

The part that got to me, though, was when you start filling in info about how many pregnancies you have had. The terminology "Live Births, Now Dead," is just the cruelest thing I have ever heard. Who thought of that??? My son is not just a "Live Birth, Now Dead." Anyway, I had to answer that I had "3 Live Births, Still Living" and "1 Live Birth, Now Dead." Very disturbing emotionally.

Another stressful moment came when the hospital pediatrician suddenly requested an echocardiogram on Halia in the nursery. Because of Elijah's congenital heart defect, we need to have our subsequent children checked for heart defects also. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, but we had already gone to Houston and done a very intensive echo a few months ago. They found absolutely nothing wrong at that hospital, so we were alarmed that this doctor ordered another one. It turned out everything was fine, but the nurses and doctors were not on the same page as far as communicating to us. (The nurses were acting like there was a big problem, and the hospital pediatrician said it was all okay. Stressful!!) But in the mean time, I had all these post-partum hormones going nuts and was thinking, "Surely this isn't happening again. God please don't let us have another child with a heart defect...."

God spoke to my heart with a reminder about Susanna Wesley. Ever heard of John or Charles Wesley? The founders of the original Methodist church? They were just two of her 19 children. Nine of whom died as infants. NINE infants that died. I would have given up and never had another child. Yet, she persevered and continued to raise her remaining children to love the Lord.

So! That's about all. We did shock the hospital staff by leaving the next day and bringing our sweet baby girl home! Now I am adjusting to having three little ones to hustle and bustle around. Talk to you later!