Sebastian's visit to the NICU

Yesterday we had to take Sebastian to Mt. Auburn for some routine blood work.  The pediatrician wanted to check his red blood cell counts and make sure that his bone marrow had started to produce them on its own.  (The marrow hadn't yet kicked in before he was discharged from the NICU, which is why he had to have a blood transfusion last month.)  Let me just say that Mt. Auburn is nice and all, but what a pain in the butt!!!  We waited for 2 hours to have his blood drawn!  We went to the registration desk and waited for 10 minutes.  Then we registered and were escorted to the lab, which by the way, was filled with snot-nosed, sick people who were just eying my little bundle in his car seat.  I hope he's escaped catching their nastiness.  After waiting over a half hour with the sick people, we were taken into a room where we waited another 10 minutes.  Finally, the blood was drawn.  Carlos could hear Sebastian screaming out in the waiting room, although, I think he did pretty well considering.  He only shrieked for a few minutes.  Poor thing.  Then we were told to come back in 15 minutes to make sure the blood hadn't coagulated and that they could use it for the blood test.  Luckily, the sample turned out fine and we were able to leave, but it took an hour and 55 minutes to finish up.  Sorry, but Mt. Auburn is like driving a beat up old car after you've been riding around for a year in a top-of-the-line, tricked out sports car.  I adore the Brigham.  Thank God we didn't transfer the boys to the Mt. Auburn NICU.  I'm positive they would have gotten great care, but I would have missed the Brigham and their primary nurses too much.

With his "I love hugs" outfit waiting to be pricked in the heel...

Poor guy had no idea what was coming!

After that ordeal, we had Sebastian out and about anyway, and he was content and happy in his car seat.  So we figured we'd go to the Brigham NICU to visit Adrian.  Sebastian can't go back into the NICU where Adrian is, but they have a nice waiting area and pumping rooms where I could go to feed and change Sebastian.  I was afraid to go, but Carlos convinced me.  I'm glad he did.

When we got there, Carlos went in to see Adrian first, so I waited outside with Sebastian.  As luck would have it, Alex, the nurse from the 8th floor that was with me when I finally went down to the labor floor because I was in actual labor, was outside the NICU.  I met her 2 daughters and she met the infamous "Baby 2" who gave her a hard time on the monitors.  It was great to see her!

Then Judy came out to see Sebastian.  She held him for a few minutes, and Sebastian seemed very happy to see her.  It made me happy to see them together!  Judy doesn't like having pictures taken of her, so I don't have a picture to post, but they were very cute.

After a few minutes, there was a pumping room available so I went to feed Sebastian.  There was a knock on the door--it was Marcy!!  We didn't know she was scheduled to work yesterday afternoon.  So she came in to see Sebastian.  And they were equally as cute to see.  Sebastian was very happy to be held by both of his favorite nurses and to get a break from his mother who is so clueless and clumsy compared to them!

After about an hour, Carlos and I switched and I went in to see Adrian.  He looked so big....turns out he's over 8 pounds now!  Wow!  He and I had a nice little talk about his swallowing and his maturity.  I think he got the message that it's time for him to come home.

All in all, despite our first hospital experience of the day, it was a nice day.  The trip to the Brigham was a success.  I was glad we did it.  Sebastian was a good sport and slept soundly on the way home and last night.  I think he was tired from the day, which meant a nice night of sleep for us!