My little girl is in the same neonatal unit as Diva Dexie's little one and I agree they are fantastic in there.
Sophie was born at 27 weeks by emergency c-section at 2.44pm on the Sunday afternoon, and I saw her on the Monday lunchtime, but DH saw her about 2 hours after she was born. The only reason I wasn't able to go down earlier was because I'd been so ill right before having her. We didn't get to see her as soon as she was born because with being so premature and so tiny, they had to keep her warm and see what she needed as soon as she was born.
The first time I saw her, the nurse was absolutely lovely. She talked to me about having a baby in neonatal, and she told me to touch Sophie and talk to her, but I was scared to touch her much as she was sooooo tiny.
When I was in hospital, like with DivaDexie they told me I could go down in the night if I wanted to - and I did that once or twice.
The staff really encourage you to get as involved as possible and they are very aware of how hard it is for the parents. Even though Sophie was born at 27 weeks, we've been changing nappies and doing her feeds through her feeding tube since the very early days, and as she has got a bit bigger, we've been doing most of her cares while we visit, eg mouth care, eye care, all feeds, all nappies etc and getting cuddles, especially now she is out of intensive care and into high dependency. We have also been taught to turn her from her back to her front and vice versa and also how to change the monitor leads from one foot to the other, and we are pretty much now left to do everything for her without supervision. She is 8 weeks tomorrow (35 weeks gestation).
They are sooo nice in neonatal, and very very understanding of the fact that it's your new baby who you desperately want to be looking after yourself. They are always happy to talk to us on the phone and they say to phone any time of day or night - they said even if I'm up expressing in the middle of the night and I'm thinking about Sophie, just phone because they are all there! One nurse said even if the nurse we need to speak to is busy, it's only our baby she is busy with so we've not to worry about phoning!
I have to say I was absolutely terrified when I knew we'd have a baby in neonatal, but it's not been anything like as bad as I expected and you do get into a little routine - sad though it is, it becomes a way of life while you're going through it and you do somehow adapt to it.
If you need any more advice, this is the place to come, I had so much help on this section of the forum when I knew Sophie was coming early. Lots of luck and best wishes - keep us posted.
xxxx
