one coming home from nicu before the other - how do you do it?

txdaisygal

It looks like one of our girls is going to come home from the NICU sometime next week, but it will be a little while longer before her sister comes home. If you went through this, how did you manage visits to the NICU, etc. We are able to bring the discharged baby with us back to the NICU, but I can't fathom the logistics right now. I'm already starting to worry about not being there for the baby in the NICU enough. Any advice is much appreciated!

preheatedoven

We were not able to bring H when E was still in the NICU. We had to have someone come and watch her so we could visit. Or, we would just go one at a time. It was really hard:( E was there 2 weeks longer and there were days when I couldn't get there to see him and it broke my heart:(

I hope you guys figure out the logistics, its great that you can bring the discharged baby back with you:)

lisa&andy

DS stayed in NICU for 26 days, 2 hours from home while DD came home with me. We had no family close by to watch her and she couldn't go back with us so we had to take shifts. DH would go back, talk to the nurses, hold/cuddle/talk and then we would switch. It was hard, I had so much guilt about not giving one or the other enough time, in the end I had to accept that they were caring for him and I had to focus on him getting his breathing done.

We found a schedule that we had to compromise on and just stuck to it. It's great that your baby will be able to go back into the NICU, ours didn't meet again until DS was discharged. Once it happens, I would sit down with DH and see what your schedule looks like, if he has to go back to work, maybe you and the baby can go in the morning and then at night someone watch your DD and you and DH go back see her together.