Made it through the first night...

Well, we made it through the first night unassisted! Really it's like having a regular baby at home for the first time I suppose, other than the issues associated with tube feeding. Not a _lot_ of sleep, but I still feel like we can do this parenthood thing...

But before we get too far into doing it ourselves and get absorbed with having her at home, I want to take a moment to thank all of the great staff at the Rosie Maternity Hospital, and specifically the folks who've been helping us in NICU, SCBU, and Sara Ward. The 6 to the left are only a handfull ofthe total cast; it would be impossible to name and thank everyone. We did, however, manage to get pictures of Olivia with (top to bottom): Lisa and Karen (SCBU), Allison and Suzanne (Sara Ward), and Sabrina and Clare (SCBU). Thank you guys so much for all your help getting us on our feet as parents of a tiny baby, and teaching us how to care for her and understand the issues associated with a 32 week baby. It's been a steep learning curve for us but we've had some of the best teachers to be had anywhere.

And just a note for our international audience; make this a hearty endorsement for nationalized healthcare. I don't want to turn this blog political, but under the NHS (UK's National Health Service) we've received top-notch care from people who are great at what they do and very friendly to boot. Comparing stories with folks in other countries, it seems that the style of care we've gotten here is very progressive as well. When Olivia was in Intensive care and SCBU we were allowed to visit her any time of day, 24/7, and got great advice and encouragement about getting a start breastfeeding under the challenging conditions of having your baby plugged into a wall and not strong enough to feed herself. In short, it's been all we could have asked for (had we known what to ask for!).

And, we haven't had a penny out of pocket during this whole exercise. We pay our taxes and that's it. We came rushing into the hospital in premature labor, and the first questions were about the medical situation, not what insurance provider we had. And anybody in our situation, regardless of socioeconomic background, would be able to get the same care. And that is nothing short of fantastic.

And it's not stopped since we got out of the hospital- this morning we received 2 phone calls, one from the community neonatal team aksing if we had any concerns (they're planning to visit us tomorrow), and one from the community midwife, who offered to visit us today if we felt the need; we feel pretty good about things so far so she'll come out on Friday. Essentially we've got really good support at home too. As I understand it, even parents of full-term babies get support at home from the community midwives (we've got the neonatal tema as well).

Ok, end of my soliloquy on our great experience of the NHS. More next time on how it is to be home with Olivia, although many of the parents out there will already know pretty much what we're doing...