Welcome to the Hotel (err, Hospital) California

I’m starting to wonder if we’ll ever leave. I have to admit I’m not very happy right now. Part of that, I’m sure, has to do with the fact that I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep since I’ve been here. It has nothing to do with Susie… you see, it’s a little known fact that a baby crying does not bother me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like hearing a baby cry… and I really don’t like hearing my baby cry, but a baby crying will not wake me up. Now if a dog whines (even just a little) I’ll wake up from a deep sleep. I can’t explain it. Anyway, the reason I haven’t been sleeping well is that I’m still in this stupid chair that moves any time I shift my weight. So I’ve got that going against me.

We were going to go home today. At least that’s what we had been told on Monday. Before I continue, I should be fair and tell you that Susie has jaundice. Her bilirubin level is up. It is also worth noting that Mary Ruth’s bilirubin level was higher when they sent us home with her and things worked out well there. But ok, they aren’t going to let us go home… that makes me mad, but that’s not the main thing. The main thing that made me mad is that they didn’t tell us we weren’t going home. We were just sitting here when we noticed that it was 9am and we still hadn’t seen a doctor. We had to ask a nurse who had to go look and then come back and tell us we weren’t being discharged until tomorrow. No doctor ever came by. It’s now 1:30pm and we still haven’t seen a doctor. Our doctor (he sees me, Jennifer, Mary Ruth, and now Susie) is on vacation. He’s great. He wouldn’t have done this to us. I think he would have let us go home. Even if he wanted us to stay here one more night, he would have come in and talked to us and let us know why we needed to stay. He wouldn’t have just let us find out on our own. That’s not how you treat people. The nurse didn’t help things when she told us this is what we want… we want to stay here… the baby will be better here. No, this is not what we want. No, they are not doing anything here to Susie that we couldn’t do at home (and I know this because we did it with Mary Ruth almost 4 years ago). I’m sure she was just trying to help… but she didn’t really help. She didn’t want to hear what we had to say, she just wanted to tell us what she thought would make us happy. But at least she came and stood in front of us, I’ll give her that.

Things might be a little better if this stupid remote had numbers on it. We’ve got about 70 channels on this TV and we have to go one by one to get to the one that we want.

We got a nice little note from the finance people here at the hospital asking us to stop by and talk to them. I sent a nice little note back saying unless they are writing to tell us today/tonight is on them, now isn’t really a good time to talk to us.

On another note, I went home to see the dogs yesterday. Maverick was happy to see me. Scooby is just happy to be alive. Poor Lucy looks like she is worried sick. I could see it in her eyes. I let all of them smell the shirt I wore when I held Susie. Maverick sniffed it a little but then he wanted to just lick me. Scooby didn’t even sniff it, he just wanted to play with it. Lucy sniffed it the longest and seemed happy with what she smelled. Then she went back to worrying. She kept looking at the door wanting to know where everyone else was. Us staying here another night is going to be hard on her.

Just so you don’t think I hate everything about this hospital… I had a nurse ask me if I wanted him to get me a drink yesterday. I’m not sure if he asked because he’s a dad and we have to stick together in times like these, or if it is because he’s a student nurse and they haven’t trained him yet not to talk to the father. Either way, I thought it was nice of him to ask. Also, every time I get on the elevator with someone from the hospital staff, they are very nice (saying things like… “Oh, did you have a boy or a girl?” “I bet she’s pretty!” “Congrats” “Is this your first?”). I’ve had a nurse or two ask, but usually it’s other people like the lady pushing the food cart around or the maintenance man or someone from the security staff… people who aren’t really paid to make small talk with patients. Maybe there is some kind of policy telling them to do this, but it’s still nice of them.