Our Stay At Matilda and Welcome Home

We planned to stay at Matilda hospital for three days, but due to some complications we ended up having to extend our stay to five days instead.

The concern began a few minutes after Lola's birth, when she started having a little bit of trouble breathing and the doctors expressed concern over her oxygen intake.  She had her blood drawn and was shuttled to the special care unit in an incubator where they could give her oxygen and monitor her vitals overnight.  We were very concerned about this and I also worried about my ability to breastfeed and bond with her from the get go, but we weren't given much of a choice.  She was also put on a glucose drip.  Her initial blood markers indicated a slightly elevated CRV level, which the doctor explained indicated an infection, although she wasn't symptomatic.

So the first night Michael and I spent in our hospital room without our little darling.  We did go down to visit her in the SCBU though, and I struggled to keep it together at the sight of her inside the incubator with a huge (in comparison) IV taped to her tiny left hand.  Michael said watching them draw the blood from the heels of her tiny feet was heartbreaking.  However, she was generally such a champ when it came time to actually get her antibiotics - she never cried when they fed it through her IV tube.  

The next morning, her oxygen intake was declared well enough to come up to the regular nursery, and we rolled her into our room to "room in" with us when she wasn't in the nursery with the other babies.

She was in her own little portable rocking bassinet, with her diapers, wet wipes, cream, etc. all stowed away in a handy dresser underneath.

Finally had her in my arms!

Staring into each other's eyes

Or maybe just dad staring at his sleeping baby...

On the second day, we found out that her infection levels were not dropping despite the antibiotics, which was troubling and ensured that Lola got her heels pricked for vials of blood every day.  She's so tiny that you find yourself wondering if she should really be losing so much blood... but again, no choice.

On the third day, we found out that she has a heart murmur, which was loud enough and distinct enough to entail calling a pediatrician cardiologist and getting Lola an EKG.  She was hooked up and pinned down (gently, by us) and given a thorough scan.  It turns out that she has a ventricular septum defect (a very small hole in the muscular wall of the lower two chambers of her heart).  We were told that there was nothing to be done about it now, but that it is, as far as heart murmurs go, in an ideal location where there is a chance the hole will close up on its own as she develops.  We are keeping our fingers crossed and meanwhile, monitoring her breathing and eating.

I couldn't help but get very emotional at the sight of all of these wires

On the fourth day, we found out that her jaundice levels were rising, so that while she didn't need the light treatment, she was close enough to the recommended levels that they suggested giving her a dose of the tanning bed, in order to ensure that she could actually go home on the fifth day.

Lola under the light

As you can imagine, by the end of this we were really hoping that she would be able to be discharged smoothly!

She was finally cleared to go home and on Wednesday morning her IV finally came out of her left hand.

Yay!  Homeward bound

Matilda is known as the baby hospital in Hong Kong, and I think they do a fantastic job for newborns and mothers (and the prices probably reflect that, hah!) - the food is really good for a hospital and delivered piping hot on demand from morning to night, the midwives and nurses show a lot of care and patience (for the most part) and help you with breastfeeding around the clock, and teach you how to swaddle, change a diaper, bathe the baby...

 

and of course the views from the rooms can't be beaten.

We happened to be in the hospital at the same time with our good friends who also had their baby, two days before us!  We spent one evening hanging out in their room having a little chocolate and wine party (well, the husbands enjoyed the wine).  Party at Matilda...we've come a long way from the bars and clubs.

I managed to get a shot of a silhouette of Michael and Lola out on the balcony on the day we headed home:

and another one of him just kind of staring at her in wonder.  She is all bundled up here for her trip home.

In contrast, I think the pictures he took of me and Lola are slightly less flattering...I mean, just saying...

Here we are on our way home, being chaperoned by my friend who was so generous and let us use her driver.  I was a bit nervous about installing the car seat in a taxi, not to mention dealing with an impatient driver careening down the Peak taking the steep curves like a Nascar racer, so it was really nice to have the luxury of taking our time.

Lola was very sleepy and cooperative in her car seat, and we were giddy (and I slightly aghast) at the fact that they were really allowing us to go home with a five day old human being that we barely knew how to care for!

 

Dad was very proud to be carting her home.

Here she is, home at last, in her little crib.  Welcome home, little one!