First Moments with Nathaniel
January 18th, 2006
Right after the Birth, Dr Chui checked out Nathaniel, and they asked Alex if he wanted to go with the nurses to clean Nathaniel or stay with me. He stayed with me and helped hold me as I was stitched and still shaking.
The stitching took about 30 minutes, and then they transferred me to our private room (with a great balcony!).
About an hour after the delivery, they brought Nathaniel to us, and we had our first breast feed. He was great and fed a long time on each breast. He then lay on my stomach and chest and I was instantly in love with him. Even now typing this, 12 days later, it brings tears to my eyes.
There is a great photo 
, of Alex with Nathaniel at 3 hours old, just after the feed.
Before the birth, we thought we wanted to ‘room in’ with Nathaniel, but the midwife convinced us that it would be better for us to rest and they would bring Nathaniel to us when he needed to be fed, cuddled or anytime we asked.
Matilda Hospital was excellent, we could not have asked for better care or more competent midwifes. We had lots of great advise about breast feeding, Alex learned how to bathe Nathaniel, and they made sure I was as comfortable as possible.
We stayed in the hospital for 3 days, until Friday noon when we went home as a family.
Our first three days at home were incredible. We did not ask our helper, Marietta, for any assistance – we did everything ourselves to get comfortable as a family. It was a very special time.
Entry Filed under: 1 - Family