Baby in NICU, what do I need?

BlessUrHeart29

Hello, everyone! I just have birth yesterday to a beautiful little boy. Unfortunately it looks like he'll be spending a few weeks in the NICU about an hour away due to meconium aspiration. My husband reports that he is making good progress, and I am hoping to get up there this afternoon after I get discharged from the hospital where I delivered.

My question is this... Friends and family want to know what we need. I don't know what we need. I wasn't anticipating this at all so I am a little bit overwhelmed. Any thoughts or suggestions about what we might need during this crazy time?

thedash

Will you be going home each night? If so gas cards would be helpful. If you have pets at home someone to watch them and take them out for you. If anyone you know has a lot of hotel points from work travel they could get you a few nights at a hotel near the hospital so you don't have to drive back and forth.

Congratulations on your sweet baby! I hope you are all home together soon!

ETA: Someone you are close to could stock your kitchen with basics and easy snacks to grab and go. Fresh fruit, granola bars, juice and soda, and stuff to make sandwiches. That way you don't have to take time to go grocery shopping or cook after a long day.

BlessUrHeart29

Those are great! Thanks!

BlessUrHeart29

I'm not sure if we'll have to go home every night. It depends on the availability of rooms at the hospital.

BubblyDevil

Money for the parking ramp. Someone to clea n your house and make sure baby's things are ready to go. Snacks for at the hospital, maybe a magazine or two.

Good luck! Ours spent 10 days in NICU.

ashleymarie512

We just got out of the NICU after nine weeks and some change. Our biggest issue was traveling back and forth and the gas we used. We also ate out a lot as we were too exhausted to cook. Spent a fortune on food alone! Gift cards were always appreciated, as well as meals we could heat up at home. Help with the dogs was nice too.

Good luck, I hope your little one has a short stay!

iHeartVan

Our LO was in the NICU for 9 days. We were there everyday, just about all day. It would be nice if meals could be brought/prepared for you and also if you are okay with someone cleaning your house, that would be awesome too.

Hang in there. It was a very rough time for us, but the NICU staff was great!

IfMamaAintHappy

If you are planning to BF, you will need a small cooler and ice packs to transport from home to the NICU so your LO can start taking your milk. The nurses should be encouraging this if you plan to BF.

As pp states, you will be exhausted. As you are trying to heal from your delivery, you will also be worrying about LO and spending lots of time away from home. Make sure your friends and family are aware of the visiting hours and procedures for your NICU. Most are restricted hours and limited to 2 visitors at a time (usually one of those is the parent). You don't want to spend your precious time with LO entertaining well meaning guests. Have a family member spread the word that visitors aren't a great idea now and limit it to close family and friends.

Gas and meal cards will be great, especially if you anticipate a few weeks stay. If your nursery is not complete, solicit someone to help you get the basics put together and set up. You both will be exhausted and become like walking zombies if the stay is as long as you state.

What you will need most is emotional support. My SIL and 2 of my best friends went through extended traumatic stays and the hardest part was leaving the hospital every night without your baby. But the care is excellent and you need to ask your family and friends to support you emotionally. The nurses in NICU are also highly trained to deal with your emotions and they look out for signs of depression or struggling parents.

I hope your LO's stay is short and all goes well.

Colada584

IfMamaAintHappy said:

As pp states, you will be exhausted. As you are trying to heal from your delivery, you will also be worrying about LO and spending lots of time away from home. Make sure your friends and family are aware of the visiting hours and procedures for your NICU. Most are restricted hours and limited to 2 visitors at a time (usually one of those is the parent). You don't want to spend your precious time with LO entertaining well meaning guests. Have a family member spread the word that visitors aren't a great idea now and limit it to close family and friends.

This was my main problem with baby in the NICU. We were only allowed 4 people on the visiting list but had others who wanted to come and just see us. Even with the 4 people who were our parents it became overwhelming. My breakdowns became more frequent the more people were around. Although everyone's intentions were good I just wanted to be alone with my baby and my husband. My parents were very helpful in asking people not to come to the hospital and asking visitors who were there to leave.

Also like pp's have mentioned, food is helpful. Our hospital had disgusting food in the cafeteria so even something like my mom bringing us subway was extremely helpful.

I wasn't able to breastfeed the first couple of days my LO was in the NICU but if you are planning on breast feeding and are able to I would definitely do it as often as possible while baby is there. If you are not able to make sure you pump every 2-3 hours. I pumped but am still having issues with not enough milk and baby not wanting to feed that way.

Good luck and congratulations! Hopefully his stay there will be short and you will be able to bring him home soon!!

BlessUrHeart29

Thanks everyone. This has certainly been a week... We're still in the NICU and we've received a lot of support from friends and family. We asked for gift cards for food and gas, and also set up a paypal account where people could just directly send money if thy wanted to. I felt tacky doing that, but it made sense.

I don't know how long we'll be here. I am hoping just through the weekend since he's made such good progress, but they initially told us 2-3 weeks. So who knows?