Part 6 - "Hospital Living"

We had to stay at the hospital for three nights after Aila was born so that Angela could recover enough to come home. For the first day and a half Angela was confined to her bed, so I was on full time Dad duty. It was pretty much a trial by fire experience... every two hours I had to wake myself up, wake up Aila, change her, help Angela breastfeed her, clothe her, and put her back to sleep.

The nurses at the hospital were very nice, and were an amazing resource to draw on. We learned some excellent tips from them, and it is scary to think that if we had a natural birth, they would have sent us home the same day and we may have missed out on a bunch of good knowledge. That said, staying at the hospital wasn't exactly comfortable... especialy for Angela. It reminded me of my university dorm days, when the door to the room was always open, and at any hour of the night you may wake up to find someone in your room messing with your stuff or taking your baby for weird experiments.

Over the course of those three days, Aila passed every test, and we were able to meet with the lactation consultant on staff to help us with our breastfeeding. It was quite an experience, and we certainly learned a lot! Here is a picture of Aila after a breastfeeding session.

Stay tuned for Part 7!

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75mm at 59mm, ISO 800, f/2.8 for 1/100th of a second.