UNC Hospital

Reed was a picture perfect healthy baby with one small exception - his breathing was a little fast. The nurses at the Birthing Center kept checking him all day and he was just barely out of the range that they could release him. Since they are not a hospital they can only watch him for up to 12 hours and when the time came close they had to transfer him to the hospital - fast respiration is an indication of a variety of lung problems. The nurse said she had been procrastinating calling the hospital since he was doing so exceptionally well.

He had to be transferred in an ambulance and it was all pretty horrifying after our nice day at the Birthing Center. Reed, Maura and I spent almost two days at the hospital where they determined that the fast breathing was caused by normal fluid in the lungs. Maura and I stayed at his bed most of the time and were able to feed him every 3 hours. He charmed everyone who came near.

As much as we didn't want to be at the hospital, there were quite a few silver linings. We had many nice surprise connections: the parents of the baby next to us were in our birth class, we ran into another birth class parent who was in labor, we knew a nurse in our ward who was in our adoption orientation class, and the Doctor was friends with our pediatrician (which probably helped us get out of the hospital a little earlier than otherwise). We also learned alot from the lactation consultants.

After we were discharged, we gathered in the Children's Chapel in the hospital for our adoption Entrustment Ceremony - Rachel, Bill, Shelley, Kathryn, Big Meredith, Gigi, Little Meredith, Maura and I were there. Rachel and Bill and then Maura and I read some words we had written to each other and then we had a toast with Champagne and chocolate peanut butter balls.