nervous to bring baby home
caranichole
member
i'm hoping this is a pretty normal feeling -
sophie has been in the nicu for almost 2 weeks now. she was born at 35w 1d. her only issues have been taking a whole feeding by herself without falling asleep and occasional oxygen desats. she hasn't had a desat in 2 days (maybe 3 days now) and she is taking a pretty consistent 25-30mL out 60mL by herself every feeding. The doctors/nurses have been talking a lot about preparing for discharge and now I am starting to get nervous.
Of course there is nothing I want more than to bring this little girl home with us but it scares me at the same time. She is so quiet most of the time. Her last desat she was in my arms asleep. She was totally quiet through the whole thing and her body practically turned blue. If this type of thing happened in her crib at night, I would never know. There is definitely a comfort in knowing she is all hooked up to monitors 24 hrs a day.
Has anybody else had similar anxieties? How did you keep yourself sane when bringing baby home? I could foresee myself never putting her down and checking every few minutes to see if she is still breathing.
Re: nervous to bring baby home
Hey Cara, just thought I'd say hi (another high-risk/May mommy here)! I have the same fears, though we're not ready to discharge yet. Will be curious to hear responses. That's great though you're so near to bringing Sophie home, despite the trepidation!
(love her name, by the way! Sophie was a top choice for us if we had a girl!)
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Our jbunny born April 17, 2011 at 34w 1d (EDD May 28) due to irritable ute + early dilation
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I second this. I was totallly scared when we came home (though LO came home on oxygen and a monitor). It was terrifying, also, to finally let go of the monitor 4 months later. I just kept reminding myself over and over that the doctors know what they are doing, and they wouldn't have sent him home or taken him off the home equipment if there was any chance he wouldn't be ok.
Your feelings are definitely normal and it will get better!
Yes, yes, yes to the angel care! We got two, one for each of our twins' cribs. We also ordered the "Snuza Halo" (motion detecting diaper clip) online, so when they aren't in bed I feel comfortable leaving the room to change laundry, got to the bathroom, etc. You could even skip the angel care and just get the Snuza, because it senses movement, vibrates after a couple seconds of no movement, and if it has to vibrate to stimulate the baby 3 times an alarm goes off to notify you to check the baby.
I swear I have PTSD from seeing DD turn blue so many times in the NICU. I tried really hard to convince the docs to send us home with PRN O2, just so I could have a tank in the closet in case of emergency. I can tell very easily when her sats are low, it made me really nervous to not have any way to remedy it if needed. The docs pretty much said the same thing as PPs, they wouldn't send her home if she wasn't ready. They've been right! We've had a lovely uneventful 3 days with her finally home, and I'm getting more and more relaxed all the time!
I also had to pray that God would watch over her. I had to give that anxiety up to Him, otherwise I would be going crazy trying to watch her all the time! Good luck!!