Haig Arthur at Home

We brought Haig Arthur Pinsent home on January 3rd 2017. Like I said, the birth story and other memorable moments will be written about soon enough but Haig spent the first 10 days of his life at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He was born prematurely and when he was born he had difficulty breathing. He was on oxygen for the first 24 hours and he was also hooked up to monitors and an IV for fluids. He stayed in the nursery at the hospital and he was well taken care of by wonderful neonatal nurses. Later in his first week, he had a feeding tube put in because he wasn't eating very much. Premature babies have the tendency to think they are still in the womb and so they don't have as much energy to obtain nourishment. I saw this everyday with our little guy. We struggled with breastfeeding because he would get tired very easily. I would breastfeed him and also use a breast pump so that he would be getting my milk at all times. On New Years Eve they asked if we wanted the feeding tube to be removed to see what would happen. I ended up staying at the hospital again that night so the nurses could come and get me whenever he was ready to be fed. When they finally saw two days of weight gain, we were able to go home.

Being in the hospital was really hard, but I felt some guilt in knowing that some parents and families have premature babies much earlier than Haig Arthur and spend a lot more time in hospitals receiving treatments. We only live about two minutes from the hospital. Some nights I was able to go home and sleep in my own bed. Those nights were some of the hardest. I knew that our baby was safe and that he was okay, but I wished he was with us in our own home. The day before we came home, the nurses and doctors hinted that we would be going home the following day and I was so thrilled but I still didn't want to get my hopes up. We did arrive the next morning and we received the good news that we would be going home. I worried about what his transition would be like after spending a week and a half in the nursery and what he might think of this new environment. I obviously didn't realize how adaptable babies are. Haig Arthur didn't seem to mind being home with us at all. He's been at home for a full week now and I can already say that I know without a doubt that he knows he belongs here with us. He especially seems to think he is the king of mommy and daddy's bed, he likes to spit up on everything, he gets to sleep whenever he wants and demands food whenever he wants too. As long as I get to kiss him whenever I want, I am okay with everything else.