Preparing For Departure

 

Well, Baby H came into the world at 1:41 am on Tuesday, September 15th, 2020.

He got to snuggle with his daddy and Grams and I for a little while before they took him for his first official check up. The nurse walked away with him, whispering sweet words and promises of singing to him the whole walk to the nursery 😉

We slowly got relocated in our new room around 4:00 am and there’s a photo of Mom and Mikes McDonald’s on my phone, so I guess Mike must have went out and got some food for us all before Mom headed home but I don’t remember that 🤪

Baby was wheeled back into our room around 5:00 am and they were going to leave him with us, after very briefly and abruptly saying where the bottles and diapers were in his bassinet. We quickly asked if he could stay in the nursery and luckily he could.
They left him for half an hour of snuggles and then took him at 5:30 am.

It was then, that we finally got to go to sleep.
Luckily Mike and I got our own beds too 🤪👍🏻

(I was surprised at the lack of instruction the nurse offered about feeding, burping etc. thinking if we were people who’d never been around kids much, it would have been extremely daunting to be told next to nothing and just being left in charge of a little life.)

I awoke by 7:30 a.m. and they brought baby, and breakfast, by 8:00 am.

Mich jumped into the role of attentive dad and took care of baby the whole morning 🖤 Feeding, changing and soothing him, so I could eat my cereal.
Water retention/ swelling was a real thing that I was experiencing. My rings being very much stuck on my fingers and my eyes feeling more closed than open 😑

Between nurses coming in to check on us, food trays being cleared, trying to stay semi on top of all the messages coming in, and stressing out about choosing a name for baby H, I finally got to freshen up and take a breather and a bath, around noon.
While I did that, the babe was introduced to his Dutch grandparents via FaceTime 😉🖤

Next on the phone were his great grands and then his Canadian grandpa came for an in person visit after that!

Mom understandably stayed home that day to recover from her coaching job 😉👍🏻

The sister then wrote that she’d be coming in to see us and we placed an order for some Tim Hortons soup and bagels, though my appetite hadn’t been overly strong at all.

What followed was very disappointing and annoying… she texted us to say that security was telling her she wasn’t allowed up due to the nurses in the maternity ward saying it wasn’t allowed.
Mike went and tried to ask in person if she could come in and the new nurse on shift told him no.
So then I walked to see Pro, get our food and see what exactly was up.
I then walked back to the nurses station to ask why she wasn’t allowed in, when literally 30 minutes before I’d asked visiting rules to make sure of the restrictions and I had been told I could have up to two visitors at any time, not necessarily family, so long as they’d have masks on.
I was told that I’d been given incorrect information 😬

So, babe stayed with daddy so I could visited with her for about an hour in the lobby.

Then I went back to my room to eat my first real food of the day at 3:30.

Between trying to solidify our name decision, freshen up, paperwork, nurses, baby tending, guests or lack of, phone calls, etc… I was exhausted, had walked over 4,500 steps, been up doing stuff more than laying down and I desperately wanted a nap but never got one 😬

Mike left for home around 8 p.m or so, thinking he’d be more rested if he stayed there and thinking the nurses would take the babe in the nursery again.

Unfortunately, the new night nurse wasn’t the most enthusiastic about tending to my offspring and said she’d take him for a little bit after his check up at 12:00 a.m. since he’d have his 48 hour check at 1:41 a.m. 😬  So due to my med schedule etc. I ending up staying up waiting for her to come take him and bring my meds but she came late, forgot my meds and then only took him for a few hours, returning him at 4:00 a.m. Resulting in another very short, interrupted night for me 🤪

Wednesday –

By 8:00 a.m., the doctor had come and given us the okay to be discharged, Mike had come in from home and our child’s name was finally and officially, decided 😅

Thus,’ Lake Fallan Johannes Hagenouw ‘ was readied by his father whilst I got ready and we packed up, filled out his birth certificate information and prepared to leave, after what felt like a very, very long stay 🙈

It really felt like I’d been in there for years… giving me an appreciation for those who are unfortunate enough to have to spend much of their time in there. It really felt like I went there in the summer and came out in the fall…the trees having dropped a majority of their leaves during my stay.

I’ve never before in my entire time of knowing Michiel, known him to take a corner SO slowly and cautiously while driving, as he did when we left the hospital with Lake 😂
I halfway wondered if he was even planning to turn or if he somehow hoped he could just ever so slightly adjust his straight direction in a way that would result in the correct path, because let me tell ya, I think a full cup of water on the dash would have been perfectly safe and unspilt 😉

Before we could head home, a stop had to be made at the fathers sawmill, so we could introduce the little human to his uncles before they headed off for a weekend hunting trip.

He was proudly shown and received and then packed back up into the most uncomfortable looking position in his car seat 🤪
We went on to get a couple grocery items and then finally got back home, a much changed unit from when we’d left 🤓

Lake had an introduction to be made once we got home, to Atlas, the cat 😏🤪

Lake began crying during his diaper change and Atlas’s reaction to this loud, odd new sound, was that of tense stress and confusion 😂😬
I tried to reassuringly pet her and it freaked her out, sending her running to her room downstairs 🙈

I was exhausted and feeling it hard and the houses general state of chaos was magnifying those emotions.
I was so tired I didn’t even open the gifts set up that the sister had snuck over and set up to greet me on my arrival back home as I wanted to wait until I was in a better mood to enjoy it.

 That’s telling you something, when Jess will leave an available gift, unopened 😳

Mich sent me to nap, which I managed to do for a little while and then we got to go eat dinner at the parents house. Mom had made a meal for us, as well as the sister, sister-in-law and all those littles.

All of who were more than ready to make the newest family members acquaintance 😏

Then began the first night home with Lake and our new beginning as a family of three…