Did you celebrate Christmas in the NICU?

kck329

What was it like? What tips would you give families who are in the NICU for the holidays this year?

I'd like to put together a post for the blog about surviving the holiday season. Please share your wisdom!

jacque_z

Yes we did and it really was awful for us.  Right around Christmas I had gotten to the point where I wasn't crying all day every day.  My MIL put up a little tree in Channing's room which all the nurses loved.  She decorated her room and hung up a stocking.  My H and I pretty much boycotted Christmas last year.  Sorry I don't have any cheery advice.  We were total downers last year BUT it's making Christmas this year that much sweeter! 

kck329

jacque_z:

Yes we did and it really was awful for us.  Right around Christmas I had gotten to the point where I wasn't crying all day every day.  My MIL put up a little tree in Channing's room which all the nurses loved.  She decorated her room and hung up a stocking.  My H and I pretty much boycotted Christmas last year.  Sorry I don't have any cheery advice.  We were total downers last year BUT it's making Christmas this year that much sweeter! 

I'm looking for honest so this is helpful. Is there anything that would have made it better?

jacque_z

You would have to know the circumstances involved with C's NICU stay but no, I can't think of anything that would have made it better. 

lemen99

I was on very strict bed rest upside down from 24w-26w (when I delivered), durign which time was Christmas.  Our families brought us dinner in the hospital.  A friend decorated my hospital room and brought a mini tree. 

My biggest tip woudl be to try to find ways to bring some holiday cheer to those people.  So maybe try to meet up with them for a nice dinner, or a holiday-ish coffee at the hospital, a nice card to decorate their baby's cube, or a holiday story to read to their LO,  etc.

Cara03

LO was 12 days old at Christmas and it also seemed to be the height of my emotional post partum mess. Honestly I struggled just to get out of bed on Christmas day itself. However, the Christmas season wasn't all bad. PP's have already mentioned many of these things but I, too, received a mini christmas tree during my hospital bedrest that really cheered me up. Also we took gifts that LO received into the NICU and opened them by his isolette. We hung/placed the stuffed animals where we could in his space trying to personalize it a bit but it was still a really hard time.

ladybugbella24

We were in the NICU for our first Christmas with baby. The nurses were wonderful, they bought her a red velvet Christmas dress and took tons of pictures. They decorated the NICU and had a holiday party. I put up a little people nativity scene in her pod. I bought those gel cling to the window Christmas decorations and put them on her isolette. I played Christmas music in my drive to the hospital, drank warm chocolate milk (reminds me on Christmas time). My friend dropped off some tamales (traditional mexican Christmas dish). I think what helped the most was not ignoring that this was our first Christmas. We didn't treat it like any other day. We spent the day together, we read Christmas books, we took family pictures dressed in our holiday best. The best advice I could give is to celebrate the holiday. We bought a little Santa hat for baby, 1st Christmas ornaments, all the typical stuff. Just because you are in the NICU doesn't mean you and baby dont deserve to celebrate the holidays. We are now celebrating our first Christmas at home. I look back on last year and I'm so grateful she is now home. We decorated our tree with pink and green ornament, practically all the gifts under the tree are hers, and my family is visiting. I look back at our first Christmas and while it was different. Honestly, that's part of our life story and it makes us who we are now. I'd like to think we are more grateful of life because of it.

kck329

Thanks ladies! I'll work on this tonight. I really appreciate all of you being honest about where you were in your journey, it sounds like it was a really hard time for many of you. We had Easter and my first Mother's Day in the NICU and I cried all day on both days so I do understand a little of where you are coming from. I'm so glad you have your LOs at home to celebrate this year.

I'll check back later if anyone wants to add more!

kaylaaimee

Our days was really happy, actually. I mean, as happy as any day other than discharge can be in the NICU We celebrate on Christmas Eve in my family so that was harder for me- seeing all the little kids and knowing by baby was in the hospital. But Christmas Morning we took her stocking up to the hospital and when we got there the nurses had put her in a little Christmas hat and made us a card with her hand and footprints in the shape of a reindeer. And she was holding a pacifier and sucking it. It was the most awake and alert we'd ever seen her. We opened her stocking and showed her her gifts. And then it snowed! It NEVER snows on Christmas in Georgia so the nurses helped us push her isolette near the window. I cried the whole way home but spending the day there with her was still one of my favorite Christmases ever.

That little hat meant so much to us that this year we asked friends and families to make Christmas hats and we are taking about 100 up to our NICU this week to package up and give the families so they have special little holiday hats for pictures