NICU

I have so much to write about and so little time. Preston's birth was AMAZING and I am so in love with him. He was definitely worth the wait. A lot of you have sent emails, texts, and facebook messages checking in on us and I apologize for the delay or lack of responses. After being discharged home on Tuesday, Preston was admitted to the NICU Wednesday afternoon for jaundice. He left the hospital with a 13.7 reading and a follow up with his Pediatrician the following day. They are generally concerned about any reading over 14. After his appointment the Pediatrician sent us to have bloodwork done at the hospital where we delivered and after hearing the results, 19.x he was admitted directly to the NICU. He's doing incredibly well. Within the 10 hours that he's been here, his reading has gone down from 19.x to 14.7. They removed one of the lights and I'm hopeful that he will continue to do well and can be discharged tomorrow or at the very latest Friday.

I didn't understand the set up of the NICU prior to going and feared having to leave him there alone. It was heartbreaking and I'm amazed at the feelings you develop so quickly for your child. Even though rationally I knew that I hadn't made him sick, I felt that I had and felt helpless in being able to make him feel better on my own.

The NICU triage nurse, Stephanie, was a wonderful advocate for us. Because I'm exclusively breastfeeding, she was able to get us a nesting room overnight in the NICU so that both Danielle and I could stay with him but also rest. The room is down the hall from his room but the fact that we can be so close makes a world of difference. Because he's doing well he's able to come out of his incubator every 3 hours so I can breastfeed him. Stephanie instructed me pump in case his levels didn't drop. But because he's doing so well, we use it supplement after he nurses. Danielle was able to bottle feed him for the first time.

I click so well with some nurses and others, well...not so much. Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly appreciative of the work the nurses have done for us but some of them can really make you feel like crap. Once Preston was stabilized in triage, he was placed in his own room and Nurse Mary Ann took over his care. I swear, I was about to lose it if she suggested one more freaken time to give him formula. As a new parent in the NICU, you are already venerable and you really put your trust in the staff to guide you in the right direction but the fact that I was breastfeeding, his numbers were going down AND I had conceded to allowing a bottle of breastmilk, I was downright pissed off that she continued to bring up the idea of formula and it did nothing but make me stress out more about milk output which we all know is counterproductive. It felt like she was insinuating that my milk wasn't good enough. After his last feeding, I went over to pump what was left since he didn't really latch on to the left side and they only want him out for a short period of time to nurse and she questioned why I was doing that, that it didn't make sense, etc. Luckily the nurse who was taking over for her for the next shift, told her what I was doing was right and for me to continue. So then Mary Ann apologizes and proceeds to tell us how she "failed" at breastfeeding her children and doesn't know much about it. I was just so grateful that it was change of shift.

Anyway, it's almost time to feed my love again. I'll post his birth story another day.