Hi ladies,
Thanks for all the welcoming and supportive responses to my intro earlier in the week. I love this board already!
I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I'm pretty new, so please excuse the repeat! My son, Jack, is 8 days old. He was born at 32.5 wks. He's doing well; he just needs to start taking a bottle.
What kind of time did you spend at the NICU? I've been visiting once or twice a day for about 3-4 hours at a time. I feel super guilty when I'm at home, but we have to get almost everything ready for when he comes home. I've heard of other NICU moms who spend the majority of the day there. How did you balance NICU and homelife?
Re: Balancing NICU and Home
Daughter born at 34 weeks due to PPROM, July 2012
Expecting baby #2, May 8, 2015
May 2015 signature challenge for January: "You had ONE job!"
I am up there about 4-5 hours every day and trust me, I get the guilty feeling all the time...especially now that he is being more active and is feeding so well. I make sure to stay through shift change and that I get a chance to do his cares and get a feeding in.
I also, got the guilty feeling when I saw the moms who were up there all the time, 24/7 with their babies. I talked to one mom who finally this weekend, went home after being up there the entire time for almost a month. I know for my own sanity, I would not have been able to do it.
On Friday, I got to the hospital later than I wanted because I had taken a nap and slept through my alarm. I was telling the nurses how guilty I was feeling that I got there later than I wanted to. The nurse told me that I needed to take care of myself b/c if I didn't, I wouldn't be any good to my baby.
I do not think the guilty feeling ever goes away until the baby actually comes home.
Baby #4; 7/7/2018