Camden Daniel Davis

I'm a little slow at posting but I've been busy :)
Here is a picture of me the day before Camden was born. I gained more than I would have liked but it was worth it.
Camden was breech and had the cord wrapped around his neck so I had a scheduled C section for January 3rd at 9:30 am. We got to the hospital at 7:30 and filled out the paperwork and I got dressed in my lovely outfit. I was quite anxious at this point! The nurse came in and started my IV and said the anesthesiologist would be in. He finally came in at 9 and they didn't have time to do a regular epidural so he said we would do a spinal which would be effective immediately. I walked into the operating room at 9:30. The room was freezing and due to a combination of the cold, my IV, and my nerves, I was shaking so badly! I really wasn't feeling that worried but I could not stop shaking. It made Dan pretty nervous it think.
As soon as they administered the spinal I couldn't feel my legs and the doctors went to work. It was the most surreal thing that has ever happened of my life. They strapped my arms on the table and put this weird hot air blower on me so I wouldn't be too cold. They hung the blue curtain and got to work. I couldn't feel anything and it was actually really quick. The meds made me kind of queasy so I was mostly thinking about my breathing and listening to Dan. He was great through the whole process. At 9:55 they pulled Camden out and I could hear him crying. Dan got to go see him weighed and then they brought him over to me. He was so tiny! Dan said the only time he was quiet in the first hour of his life was when they put him next to me. He weighed 7lbs 3 oz and measured 18 inches (they couldn't get him to straighten out so they think he is actually a little longer).Dan took pictures when they took him to the nursery since I couldn't go with. The doctors finished my surgery and took me to the recovery room. By then I was really queasy and was throwing up. Dan brought Camden into the room and I slowly got feeling better.
This is the second day in the hospital and by this time the queasiness was eased and I was just itchy! I was on a lot of pain meds I'm sure but I actually didn't feel too bad. It was harder to get in and out of bed though. Camden was born perfectly healthy but on day 3 he started sleeping a lot and not really eating. We asked the nurse to check his glucose levels and they were dangerously low. They sent Camden up to the NICU and we awaited some test results.
Camden's first glucose reading was a 16 and the lowest they like to see is a 45 so we were quite worried. It makes you really nervous when the nurses say it can cause brain damage if his levels drop too low. The lab results came back and said his glucose was a 30 so it wasn't as bad as they initially thought. They started him on an IV and hooked him up to the monitors. They gave him a gavage feeding through a tube. They checked his levels again and he was up to a 40. The nurses in the NICU explained that a lot of times babies don't get much to eat the first couple of days while moms learn to nurse but that babies usually have a lot of brown fat to hold them over. All babies lose weight the first week but Camden didn't have enough brown fat and lost 8% of his body weight in 3 days.
After another gavage feeding his glucose level was 111. The healthy range is 60-160 so we were definitely making progress. The next step was seeing if he could regulate his own glucose with regular feedings. They weaned him off the IV and started more feedings. We used a combination of gavage, bottle, and nursing slowly easing off the gavage feedings. For the next two days Dan and I would go to the NICU (on a different floor from my hospital room) every 3 hours to feed Camden. I stayed 4 days in the hospital and they discharged me Saturday morning. Camden was still in the NICU so we went upstairs and sat by him. He was doing a lot better and his glucose levels were consistently in the normal range. The nurses thought he was doing well and might get to come home but they needed the pediatrician to sign off. We waited for the doctor from 10 am to 4:30 Saturday and it was the longest wait of my life. Finally he came and we were expecting him to say he looks good lets monitor for a set amount of time and he can go home tonight. Instead he wrote discharge papers! We were so excited! We had to set up a follow up visit for Monday to check his progress but we got to take him home! The adorable nurse took off all the monitors, tubes, and stickers, helped us get him in a car seat and gather all his stuff and we went home!Our first couple of days home were a little more stressful than I would have liked since we were still worrying about how much he was eating and if he was showing signs of low glucose. My mom was a lot of help taking care of anything else that we needed. Dan relaxed a little and Camden watched his first football game.
After his appointment on Monday, everything looked good and we were able to relax a little more. I still worry and wake him up to eat a little more than I probably need too but better safe than sorry. Overall, Camden is super adorable and happy! He doesn't cry too much unless he needs something and now that Dan and I are a little more practiced his night aren't too bad. We actually woke him up this morning. Because I was pretty concerned about Camden I didn't think too much about my recovery and I was up and walking a lot to go to the NICU. All the nurses said my incision is really small and that the doctor did a really good job so I feel pretty good about that. I still have pain getting in and out of bed or once I get up after sitting for a long time but overall it isn't nearly as painful as I had heard. Today I am actually making my first venture to the outside world (while my mom watches Camden of course).

Anyway that's the story of Camden's first ten days! We love him tons and tons and are so glad he is healthy and home with us. We've already taken about 200 pictures between all the family but I'll spare you and just leave these two!