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Preemies
What to expect with my NICU babes
My boys are currently in the NICU. Born on 11/21, one weighs 3lbs 2oz and the other weighs 5lbs 4oz. They were born at 33.6 weeks and are doing well thank God. They did have have the steroid shots for their lungs so they are breathing on their own and seem to be keeping their temperature. They are also starting to feed. The bigger one is drinking a good amount from the bottle and the smaller one is drinking like 4 ccs. The NICU Dr. told me that they will be released when they can keep their temperature, have all feedings from a bottle and gain weight.
I know they won't tell me when they think they will be discharged because they don't know at this point, but if you had a similar situation, how did it work for you? Do you just keep track of their progress and then see before they released you if they could come? Or do you just wait til they tell you? I know that there is a chance they can start having breathing issues and jaundice so did your babies have to wait to see if anything came up?
Sorry if this post doesn't make sense, I'm just trying to see what to expect from here on out. And thank you for all your advice before I delivered.
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Re: What to expect with my NICU babes
I was very similar. Savannah was 4lbs 5oz, she was in the NICU for a week to eat and maintain her body weight. They take their temp 2 times a day and weigh them every night. Once they can stay in a crib maintaining body temp without being in the isolette they can come home.
Callista weighed 2lbs 14 oz and was in NICU for 2 and half weeks. She had a harder time maintaining her body temp. She was in the isolette longer. They wanted her to weigh 3lbs 8oz before they would release her.
My girls were growers and feeders (which is what it sounds like yours are too).
GL it's not easy to leave them every night, but take advantage of sleeping while they are in the NICU:) You won't get much once they are home!
Happy growing babies:)
Savannah
Callista
Baby Trail Blog
"Someday we will look at our babies and know it will be worth it. If it was easy, we would not have had our babies, the babies we were meant to have." From Amy052006
Congrats on your LOs! It's really hard to go home without your baby(ies), but keep reminding yourself that it's only temporary.
My DD was born at 34w2d and weighed 4lbs 11oz. She was in the NICU for 23 days as a feeder/grower. Every baby is a little bit different. She never had any temp, breathing, or jaundice issues. Just took her good, sweet time figuring out how to eat. Also, once we introduced a bottle, she decided not to BF anymore, so I became a full-time pumper.
I hope everything goes well (and quickly) for your family!
My LO was born a lot earlier then yours.. but when she got to the point where she was in a crib (so keeping her temp up) and started to take a bottle.. I think it was about 2 or 3 weeks from then to when she came home. I read on here that once they "get" the breath/suck/swallow down they get it.. they don't forget how to do it. That was how it went for us. LO would kind of do it, but once she got it, she was all over it.. ha ha
We didn't really ask about when she would come home. She had to be over 5 lbs before they could come home and be taking all of her feedings by bottle for 48 hours before they would discharge her. We hit the 5 lbs before the feedings, so we were just waiting for her to get the bottle down. She was getting a bottle twice a day, then four times a day, then every other feedings.. etc. So we had some idea of when she would come home.
I think LO was about 32 or 33 weeks when they started her feedings too. She came home at 35 weeks..
Our LO had jaundice early on, but it was never anything that you could see by looking at her. They caught it early with her blood work.. I think I remember them saying that it was something that comes up in the first week or two. She was under a light for five days total. It wasn't a big deal at all. Once she was over it, it never came back. Our NICU would not have kept her to see if something else would come up..
Congrats!!
The doctors won't tell you when your LO will be home, because they don't know. Generally it's around their due date-ish, but it could be up to a month before or after (like in our case it was 3 weeks after his due date).
My biggest advice is to take care of yourself when your babies are in the NICU so you are mentally and physically prepared for them to come home when they are ready!
Congrats!!!!
I know it is hard, but they will tell you when, and like Lemen said, they don't know till they see it. They may even have to watch after they think it "is time" just to be sure. But it is all for the good of your LO. we were told due datish too, but he was home a little before.
My baby was born at 33w6d at 3lb 12oz. She took 16 days in the NICU, mostly to learn how to eat. She was on room air the whole time and regulated her temp within 5 days.
The NICU people will tell you when your babies are ready to go home. Usually you'll know in advance because they'll have one "thing" left to accomplish before they can go home. For us, that was bottle feeding. Once her NG tube came out, we had to have 48 hours of straight bottle feeds before we could take her home, so once the tube came out, we just kind of counted down from there. We called at pretty much every feeding to see if they'd had to put it back in. If the babies don't have any breathing problems within 5 days, they'll probably be OK. My DD had jaundice and was on the bili lights pretty much right away. After she came off, her levels rebounded once and she had to go back on them. The NICU staff will check the babies' blood levels once or twice a day to keep an eye on that. Our NICU was very proactive about the bili lights - they figured if the babies had to be there anyway, they may as well be on bili lights to get rid of the jaundice faster. I was told that if we had brought her home, she wouldn't have been on the lights at all.