Preemie Care Class ?

andthatmakes4

I found out today that I'm probably bringing my baby home on Sunday after a 30 day NICU stay. I thought we had a couple of weeks left so this was quite a shock. Although he isn't my first, I'm scared about bringing him home yet although I know they wouldn't release him if he weren't ready. Did any of you go through a "what to expect" or "how to care for your preemie" talk before getting discharged? When I asked his nurse today, she offered to let me room in with him tomorrow night. So I'm doing that in hopes it will calm my fears.

Thanks!

chicagobride_07

We roomed in with LO before discharge as she was going home on an apnea monitor. They also had us take a CPR class and gave us a packet of general information on newborn care.

Pips09

We had a "discharge class" we had to take before leaving. It was about 2 hours and went over all basic baby care, and stuff specific to preemies. I also roomed in with her one night, and we were required to take a CPR class because she was discharged on an apnea monitor.

Brummy14

We roomed in the night before discharge -- and by rooming in, I mean we stayed up all night. All night. It was the first time they pulled DD1 off of all the monitors, and we were FREAKED OUT. I think we just made sure she was breathing all night. 

We had to watch like 2 hours worth of videos before discharge (everyone did), but most of them were things like carseat safety, infant CPR and SIDS awareness. Not more of the general "how to take care of a baby" stuff. 

But, ask questions of the nurses like CRAZY, and like everything else, you will learn as you go! GL, and congrats for getting to discharge! Woo hoo!

staceymack

In addition to all the great advice above I'll add stop looking at the monitors now. Without realizing it we paid more attention to the monitors than our babies unique sounds and movements. This hit me two days before discharge that we were doing this. We relied on the monitors too much. I started paying attention to how they breathe and the normal baby sounds they make. We roomed in without monitoring the night before we went home.

direy25

staceymack said:

In addition to all the great advice above I'll add stop looking at the monitors now. Without realizing it we paid more attention to the monitors than our babies unique sounds and movements. This hit me two days before discharge that we were doing this. We relied on the monitors too much. I started paying attention to how they breathe and the normal baby sounds they make. We roomed in without monitoring the night before we went home.

Definitely this!

andthatmakes4

Thank you all for your replies. I'm about halfway through my room in and I can say this has been very helpful. Thanks for all the encouragement an I will definitely ask a lot of questions at discharge on Sunday.