Everything We've Learned About the NICU So Far!

Since we received the Mono/Mono diagnosis, we’ve known that the babies would be coming at least 6 weeks early and that they would require some time in the NICU to ensure all their systems were working properly before going home with us. We’ve considered a whole host of ways to prepare for parenting premature babies. My initial reaction was to prepare and learn and study and seek advice and knowledge anywhere I could find it. That strategy lasted all of about 2 hours before I completely exhausted myself. And since then, I decided to try to go with the flow, trust my instincts and rely on my intuition and the help of the NICU staff to meet these babies where they are when they’re born, wherever that may be.
Two weeks ago, we walked over to the NICU which is just a short walk from where I’m currently staying in the hospital and spent about an hour with one of the nurses there taking a tour and asking a million questions. I wrote a quick note on my phone in the days following to take note of some of the things we learned while we were over there which is what follows below.


Nicu tour
  • 2 week average stay for 34 weekers
  • Babies will have separate rooms that will either been next to each other or across the hall
  • As long as the babies are stable we will be able to wheel one baby over to the other baby’s room to hang out
  • Parents and grandparents get 24 hour access to the nicu
  • There’s no maximum number of people who can visit at one time but they have to ensure a quiet, peaceful environment
  • Each baby’s room has a recliner, locking storage closet for us to keep stuff, breast pump, fridge, bottle warmer
  • There’s a family lounge with fridge/microwave. As well as a family bathroom with a shower. They won’t feed us and we can’t eat in the babies’ rooms
  • Babies’ heart rates, respiration rates and blood oxygen will be constantly monitored
  • They may/will likely need feeding tubes, IVs and respiratory support, hopefully only for a short time
  • To go home the babies will need to be breathing on their own, maintaining their temps, taking their feeds by mouth, gaining weight, must be 5 days free of any heart rate dips
  • Kangaroo care (skin to skin time) is highly encouraged
  • The babies will be fed every 2-3 hours. Each feeding will be preceded by an assessment which will determine how much of their milk they get by mouth versus via their feeding tubes


We left feeling pretty good about everything we had learned. It was good to see the space and to know a little bit more about what to expect. A few days after we left the NICU I started to get extremely anxious about the breastfeeding situation. During the visit, the nurse briefly introduced us to the lactation consultants which I was very happy for but I think it took me a few days to realize that the impression I came away with was that breastfeeding would not necessarily be prioritized by the medical staff. The nurse said something along the lines of needing to track exactly how much the babies were eating which is obviously easier when you can measure the milk in a tiny graduated cylinder (isn’t that what they were called?? Hello, 9th grade chemistry!) and then feed it to the babies. But being a doula, I know that the scales they use to weigh the babies are ridiculously accurate and can measure portions of ounces. I have also assisted a lactation consultant at a breastfeeding clinic so I know that it’s possible to weigh a baby before and after feeding to know exactly how much they have taken in. And I have literally dreamt of breastfeeding my babies for years. I can’t explain why but my desire to breastfeed them is so deep that I want to do absolutely everything possible to establish and maintain a healthy, thriving breastfeeding relationship with them as soon as possible.
With my limited knowledge of premature babies, I just assumed that their prematurity might make it nearly impossible to breastfeed from the get go, something not even worth trying. And no one had ever really told me differently. And then a few days after our NICU tour, a triplet (!!!) mama that I follow on Instagram posted about breastfeeding her babies who were born at 33 weeks and I immediately reached out to her to ask about her experience breastfeeding preemies, and multiples at that! And she shared that she was very clear with her nurses that breastfeeding was a top, top priority and they respected that and helped her work on breastfeeding before they even introduced a bottle. I didn’t even know this was a possibility! So that was incredibly reassuring and motivated me to talk to my nurses about setting up a meeting with the NICU lactation consultants which has not happened yet but I will be sure that it does next week. I think it will help to educate me about expectations for breastfeeding preemies and how to communicate with the medical team about my preferences and figure out how to ensure that my wishes are heard and honored.  
We have so much to learn but I have no doubt that we will come out of the NICU experts, if not in preemies as a whole then at least experts of OUR preemies! Just as we have learned so much about twins and high risk pregnancies throughout my own hospital stay. I didn’t include every detail of what we learned during our NICU tour so reach out if there’s anything you’re curious about that I didn’t answer or didn’t elaborate on. We’ve got less than 20 days to go until it’s baby time people!! Get ready!! Get pumped!!



Comments

  1. I was having withdrawals from your blog. I'm wicked excited. Surrounding you all in white purple healing light. You are going to be great. The babies are going to be healthy, happy and adorable. Blessing to all of you. Laurie the reflexologist

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