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Preemies
Best advice for new preemie parents (for NICU book)
Hi everyone! I am working on a little booklet for our NICU for new preemie parents. I'm also going to post parts of it on my blog. I'm doing a little section of "what I wish I'd known" and advice and tips for other preemie parents, as well as a list of some great outside resources.
I've gotten some good stuff from the people on my unit but I'd love to include some more advice from other preemie parents, so if you are interested please leave a comment with your advice, or encouragement or favorite preemie thing! And if you want me to link back to your blog when I post it, just leave your blog address as well.
Thanks so much! I appreciate the help!
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Re: Best advice for new preemie parents (for NICU book)
Sometimes looking too far ahead gets overwhelming. It helps to break things down, sometimes the next 10 minutes is all we can handle, but you can get through a lot 10 minutes at a time. As my father in law said "Don't borrow worries from tomorrow, you have enough of them for today".
When it comes to your babies development, just keep helping them do the next thing in the progression, let that be your focus.
For isolation. Yes, you can go outside. As long as the elements aren't too much for the little one.
Use the sun shield on the infant carrier to your advantage, it can serve as a germ and unwanted touching hands block.
A back pack styled diaper bag can carry all the baby essentials, and an oxygen tank and apnea monitor really well, leaving your hands free to deal with baby.
Have patience with them as they learn how to eat. They're tiny, and it's really hard work.
"Preemie's: The essential guide for parents of premature infants" is an awesome book. You don't need to read it cover to cover, and not all of it will apply to your little one, but if you want to find out about something, it's a great resource.
If you have a baby with reflux, the fisher price rock and play sleeper can help to keep them elevated as they sleep.
You are still a parent, it's just parenting in the NICU looks different than what we're used to.
Email me at witt0198@umn.edu if you're interested in a print out I made of all the things I learned about pumping, and tips to go along with that. I also have a digital copy of an inspirational article about micro preemies from people magazine, an article about feeding readiness in preemies, and I think maybe some more good stuff.
I can't think of a lot here (good ideas above) but what really was hard for me was that I kept hearing the goal was to have the babies home by their due date. And that at our NICU most kids go home at 36 weeks GA.
Andrew came home 3 weeks after his due date, and I felt like that was so forever. I wish I hadn't had any expectation of when he would be home. They will come home when they are ready!
Also, read to your preemies while they are in the NICU and at home!
I wish I would have known to take more pictures and videos while my son was in the NICU. I feel like we missed a lot of firsts because I did not want to remember it at the time. Now I would give anything to have those moments recorded.
I wish I would have known to share more details about what was happening to our family and friends. I made my blog very vague when I talked about my son. I wish I would have informed people more so they had a better understanding of what we were going through.
* Buy a pumping bra if you plan on pumping. For the first week I had to sit there holding my bottles to my chest, while nurses walked in and out of our area. With the bra I feel more covered and my hands are free!
*Trust your nurses. I freaked out over every little beep, read out, and noise our machines made. Finally I listened to my nurses and just looked at LO. If she was moving and pink, I would count to ten and by then the noise/alarm would stop.
*Be there. Be there as much as you can. My LO is two weeks old today and I swear we already know eachother. Even if I wasn't holding her, I would touch her hand, her cheek, kiss her, read to her, talk to her, hum to her, sing to her....etc just so she knew I was there.
*Eating is not a learned skill, it's a developmental thing. It's not something that really needs to be practiced. They kept telling that it was a light switch that would just turn on one day, and I didn't get it. I kept wanting to try the bottle or I would get upset when she wouldn't latch. Sure enough, just like they said...one day, she just got! She took 5 out her 8 feeding by bottle on Monday. The next day, all 8 feedings were by bottle!
In addition to everything above:
--Be your baby's advocate. Learn about every medical decision and ask lots of questions. The more you do this, the more the medical team will include you in your baby's care. They are caring for lots of babies, you only care about one. This makes your thoughts and observations important.
--Get to know the nurses. Let them teach you things and use them as resources since they will know your baby well. When you like a nurse, find out how to get them assigned to your baby. When you don't trust a nurse, talk to someone about not having that person on your baby's team anymore.
--Meet with the lactation consultants regularly. They will encourage and teach you how to pump and feed your baby.
--Talk to the other NICU parents. They are the only people who can really relate to what you are going through.
Our precious girl, born at 27 weeks.