Home healthcare

Some facebook friends were curious about how we got a home healthcare nurse to visit our house on little Calvie's fourth day of life.

With our insurance, if you leave the hospital before your 48 hours are over, then a home healthcare nurse schedules a visit to your home.

Our home healthcare nurse called to set up an appointment. (She called and asked for Calvin and his availability!) When she arrived, she was the mother of one of my own students. She hugged me when she saw me crying. I weeped because little Calvin wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping (but was retaining fluids), and we were worried about his yellowing body.

She was an angel. Honestly, an angel.

We talked about what my body was doing. We talked about what Calvin's body was doing. (She told me that he was really a good communicator; I just didn't know what he was saying.) She taught me how to feed him so it was comfortable for all of us. We began feeding and pumping on a strict time frame in order to get Calvin's weight back. I recorded every feeding, every diaper--wet and dirty--and his weight gain for the next three weeks. She coached Dan so that he would know what to do and when to do it. And, we talked a ton about her son and how she raised him (single mom in the armed services).

She and I talked several times after that (she called me on her personal phone so that I would have it in case I needed it). She even stopped over with a scale to see how much our little Beach Boy was weighing in at a couple of weeks later.  I wanted her to move in with us...I am pretty sure that I wouldn't have survived the first week without her!