Henry's Life: NICU for 12 days

NICU for 12 days

Upon arriving in the NICU and seeing my baby Henry I still did not fathom he could be there for weeks as the doctors had implied he may. They told me he was perfectly fine although a little jaundice- he was able to breath on his own and seemed to be doing well. I was convinced he would be discharged when I was, but I was definitely wrong.

Brian and I spent all our time there. The hospital feeding schedule was every 3 hours (8, 11, 2, 5, and over again am/pm). I was told early on that if I was not there at every feeding or had enough breast milk in supply that he would have to be formula fed. That did not sit well with me. I already felt like my rights as a mother were being taken away and this did not help.

So I breastfed when I could and pumped at almost every feeding schedule. Luckily my 6 week early premie is a fighter- he knew exactly how to breastfeed. When the lactation specialist came he was already breastfeeding. I swear we have a champ on our hands- he latched on the moment he saw my breast. The lactation specialist even left the room to bring back another nurse because she was so impressed. She never even instructed me on what to do because he was doing it all right. I’m so glad he knew what to do because I definitely didn’t at the time!

Brian and I learned to change diapers from an isolette, learned to take his temperature before every feeding, and learned to juggle tons of cords and wires during the times he was allowed out. He unfortunately had high bilirubin levels 3 times during his stay (jaundice) and that most likely increased his length of stay. His main goals for his 12 day stay were: weight gain, regulate body temperature, breastfeeding, and low bilirubin levels. He was placed on special lights for the jaundice the day after he was born until that Sunday and then again two days later and then the day before he went home. This again was still a very emotional time for me. I felt like this should be the happiest time of my life yet here I am at a hospital being told how to take care of my child minute by minute, being pressured to succeed in breast pumping/breastfeeding volume output every 3 hours, not being able to hold him as often as I want (especially under the lights), and seeing him struggle in the isolette (especially when he had to wear special googles) and knowing I can’t do anything about it. Overall, I felt completely helpless and definitely not like a mother.

On the day of my discharge from the hospital (Henry was now 3 days old), we had our originally scheduled baby shower for our local friends. To the much insistence of my friends and husband who felt like we should cancel it, I decided I still wanted it. At this point I felt like I needed something in my life to make me feel normal. And I felt like I needed at least one baby shower to happen! We did change the format since we were still in the hospital with Henry and made it more of an open house, stop in and say hi. Brian and I ran home from the hospital and literally had two hours at our house and then had to be back at the hospital again for feeding. It definitely wore me out more than I expected but it was nice to see our friends and be home for the first time in a week.

I want to give a HUGE shout out to our two friends who both came over daily to take care of our two very neglected dogs. We really really appreciate all you did to keep them company!

Henry celebrated his first Halloween in the NICU. We made a quick getaway after one feeding and went to Build A Bear to pick out his costume. A nurse had mentioned to us that this would be a great place to find an outfit for a premie. We found a cute pumpkin outfit and we had our own Build A Henry!

Although the days in the NICU were very draining and exhausting mentally and physically we still are so thankful that there was nothing wrong with Henry. We encountered a lot of babies with some major issues and we are so glad he was just small and early with some jaundice.

We skipped the 2 am and 5 am feedings (I pumped enough during the day for bottle feeding at night) and went home to sleep, but besides that we spent about 18-19 hours a day at the hospital. Brian worked most of the time due to the fact that we were trying to save his days for when Henry came home. Luckily every NICU baby had their own little room so we did have privacy and a little space.

For Henry to be discharged he had be able to regulate his temperature at 28 degrees Celsius. He was in an isolette and once they were able to lower the temperature to 28 degrees he was then placed in an open-air crib and then had to maintain his temperature for 48 hours. He also was given a hearing test (he passed!) and a car seat test- he had to sit in his car seat for 1.5 hours and not show signs for distress (he passed this too!). We also had to attend a discharge class were we learned infant CPR among other basic newborn care.

My parents came back in town late in the evening the day before he was discharged. This was a great help; they spent the following week cleaning our house and cooking and of course holding Henry!

Henry was finally discharged on the afternoon of Monday, November 3 after being given the okay on his latest bilirubin count. It was such long day of hurry ups and wait that when we finally got the okay they were literally throwing us out of the room, which was totally okay with us!