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Wafer posted:Anyone have any experience with preterm birth and NICU? I can answer this - first, congrats! 34-weekers have an excellent prognosis but I know you won't feel better until Maya is home with you. Also, on average, girls fare better than boys. 1) Read her chart. There should be a daily sheet where they log poops, pees, eating, heart rate, and any "events" which include things like apnea, bradycardia, or desats (collectively called ABD's but can happen individually). Apnea is a period of not breathing which you are probably past, bradycardia is a slower heart rate and can seriously happen on a big poop (as can apnea), and desats is a lower O2 saturation. Reading her chart every day (and it should be accessible to you) will give you a feel for this stuff and her patterns. There will also be sections for all of her labs, x-rays, and any occupational therapy. They will probably weigh her daily and measure her length weekly (that's how my NICU did it). Be involved, ask questions, and speak up. You will spot patterns faster than nurses and docs who rotate every few days. 2) A speech therapist will probably come once she starts eating. And as the speech therapist told me when I was ready to explode "If feeding preemies was easy, I wouldn't have a job." They have to learn suck-swallow-breathe. If there is physical therapy, ask them to teach you what they are doing and leave a mat so you can do it as well on days they don't come. Babies get stiff laying all the time, especially in the hips. They also sometimes get a little stiff on one side of their necks from laying one way that's easier for right-handed nurses to access them and change diapers. The PT/OT should notice but ask them to change position every week or so if you feel it will help. 3) babies usually go home, as a rule, around their due date. Mine went home about 4 weeks later because he couldn't get the hang of eating. Be prepared for her to hit 5 lbs and for everyone to assume she gets to go home RIGHT THEN. To go home she has to regulate her own body temp, eat her prescribed amount and frequency over a few days, and be able to sit in a car seat without her head collapsing and obstructing her airway - this is called the car seat test. The hospital may require you to take an infant CPR class as well - mine did. Since they required it my insurance paid for it, though. 4) Does she have the little beanbag thing they use to position her head? They sent those home with us to be laundered and a nurse told me to keep them - I have 2 or 3 still. They're wonderful for holding in pacifiers (she'll spit them out for a while until she learns to hold it in). They are also good as a soother - Alex is 1 and I still lay his on his tummy at bedtime. Also - steal hospital blankets, they are awesome. 5) Facebook is your friend. The character limit on statuses limited me (I'm wordy, can you tell?) so I would post a photo every single day with an update - no character limit on photos. It was a great way of allowing people to support us and love on my boy, and a good way to vent, or joke, or just get important news out. My rule was I would give big news to immediate family before posting, so my mom wouldn't call asking why she had to hear about X on FB. PM me and I'll send you the link to my album, I had to make it accessible to everyone because people were sharing with their friends and so on. I got messages from 3 degrees of separation strangers wishing us well. The pics were like crack and I would get phone calls if I didn't post them quickly enough. 6) Your son will need extra love and attention, but since my older one was nearly 10 when Alex was born we were past the need to hold. Your wife can't pick him up but can he sit in her lap if he is very careful about her owie? Explain things honestly but age-appropriately, and don't make all the attention in relation to the baby. Yes, he will be the best big brother, but as I told the 10yo (and she needed to hear it too), he will always be your FIRST baby. 7) Once she seems like she is close to ready and maybe before, every day you go home without your baby will me more and more demoralizing. Make a conscious effort to understand this in each other and to be kind to each other. PM me if you'd like to chat or have more specific, offline questions, I'll be here if you need it. Main Wife fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Aug 18, 2011 |
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Aug 17, 2011 22:15
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Good to hear from you! I figured a lot of what I mentioned would not apply - mine was a 26-weeker - but I like to err on the side of too much information. So feeding, which as I am sure you know by now they do reeally slowly. it will be easier since she's not on O2 and thus can have the feeding tube in her nose, freeing up her mouth for all that learning to eat. They'll start with one and increase from there as she will tolerate it. And then the car seat test. About the 5lb thing I mentioned, I've seen kids go home at 4lb, and some at 9. It's just that so many people assume 5 pounds is a magical all-clear healthy baby thing, especially those in the 50+ age range. Glad things are better with the boy, and that your wife is on the mend. Ugh, as much as I didn't want to leave I think if they'd tried to put me back in once I'd gotten out, I'd have broken things. Glad they saw some sense. One final thing, in case she was feeling like she might get gypped out of the baby wheelchair ride - at my hospital, at least, we got one when we left after 118 days. I could almost feel the other moms looking at me wondering where the baby weight was - having only gained 10lb in the first place, I never had that still-pregnant look after I had him. But still - baby wheelchair ride yayyyy!
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Aug 20, 2011 18:35
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With my first son we had been told we were having a girl, we'd named her, had her room all done. We found out we'd lost "her" at 37.5 weeks, delivered, and then got the big shock that it was a boy. That messed with my head more than anything in the early days. And then Alex had the WOW is that a boy ultrasound. If they'd said girl again I'd have gotten a bunch of gender-neutral stuff, probably. Girls do seem to be harder to confirm than boys.
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Aug 22, 2011 21:35
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Tesla Insanely Coil posted:I have a question - do you go to the hospital as soon as your water breaks or do you wait until contractions are a certain length apart? Your water doesn't always break first. I love that about TV and movies, you'd think all labor began with slapsticky water breaking and then immediate, intense 30-seconds-apart contractions, followed by a baby about 5 minutes later. And TV pregnant people obviously only wear dresses and no undies because it's on the ground and knees up with no taking off pants or undies. As a kid I was really creeped out at the thought of this. At least in my area (Southern US) it's pretty standard when labor starts to contact your OB. My sister started having random contractions and then when she called the after-hours line, they had her come in to the office first thing in the morning. She had progressed far enough at that point to be sent to the hospital. They had to break her water, she was stuck at 2CM for hours, and then all of a sudden she was at 10 and time to push. From what I have heard this is a fairly typical experience. If your water does break, call your OB to let them know, take a shower if you can, and then go to the hospital. Those membranes are an infection barrier so once they've ruptured, you go stay in the hospital. Even if it's early. If you're far enough along they'll just induce, but if you're early you still have to stay, drink a ton of water so your fluids will replenish (and run right back out of you, ad nauseum) until it's time to have the baby.
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Sep 6, 2011 18:30
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hookerbot 5000 posted:I'm terrified. So normal. Our NICU stay was a lot longer (118 days) and I remember being worried about not having the safety net of monitors and nurses. You could ask the hospital if they have a nesting room where you can spend the night with the baby with the safety net of being at the hospital, but that's more for your own peace of mind. Y'all will be fine. But I get it, the hospital has been a safety cocoon for you since before birth. My experience is they wouldn't send her home if she wasn't ready based on feeding, regulating body temp, and all internal systems being on go. Since she is so small, unless they've done a car seat test, just keep an eye on her in the car seat so that she doesn't obstruct her airway. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions too. My son is almost 3 and I haven't broken him yet so occasionally I feel like I've got the hang of this. And she may not breast feed, my son didn't. Try nipple shields, and a lactation consultant. But there is a comfort that comes from being able to accurately measure what she's taking in, so there's your silver lining on bottles, if you need one. And I assure you, she will let you know when she's hungry. Loudly and with tiny, adorable invective. One recommendation: a white noise machine. Think of the constant hum of the hospital. She'll probably sleep a lot better at home if it's not starkly quiet.
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Apr 20, 2013 14:48
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