I am new to the preemie section...

[Sakura-chan]

Hi all

I just introduced my baby, Shion (pronounced shee-on- It`s Japanese) Isaac in the VIP section but thought I better introduce myself as well.

I live in Japan but am from Australia originally and have one son, Noah James aged almost 13 months and a second son, Shion Isaac born last Thursday night almost 9 weeks early weighing 1730 grams.

He is now in the NICU at a university hospital with an expected stay of anywhere from 4-9 weeks.

I am expressing milk for him (although currently he is on just 25ml every three hours) six times a day and getting 600-750ml daily. Due to the commute to the hospital (not to mention running around after my 13 month old) I am finding it hard to express more times than this but try to do it every 2.5-3 hours during the day (except where there is a 4 hour gap when I go to the hospital) and pumping at 11pm then waking up once overnight to pump at about 3am. I am concerned my supply won`t be enough when he does finally get to come home.

It is such a scary time- I went into labour suddenly and quickly (and he was born less than 15 minutes after I arrived at the hospital and when I kept asking if he was alive before he came out the doctor told me they couldn`t get a heartbeat which was incredibly scary) and we are not at all prepared for his homecoming.

My first son is finding the whole thing very hard as I have to leave him for a couple hours each day when I go to the hospital and also because he was sick when I was in the hospital when I gave birth he didn`t see me for 3 days and each day I feel like I abandon each of my sons at different time.

Hopefully I can find comfort and support here (I have to say that my friends and family in RL have been fantastic but I know it is hard for them to understand exactly what I am going through)

Thanks

 

[AP]

Hi there! Congratulations on the arrival of Shion, what a lovely name!!!
Expressing and visiting is hard enough without having added responsibilities of a sibling, but a few members have managed ( i guess we just do, as mummies )

We're all here with support hun

 

[katy1310]

Hello and congratulations

I found the expressing and visiting really hard as well because we live a 120 mile round trip from the hospital, so taking into account the travelling time and not wanting to use up valuable visiting time it wasn't easy to fit it in. I did manage to exclusively express for 10 weeks then went on to breastfeed Sophie till she was 5 months old. You learn to be very discreet at it and I even used to sit in the back of the car on the way home from the hospital and express, lol!! We do have blinds on the back windows for the sun for Sophie so we just put those up even though Sophie wasn't needing them yet!

It's not an easy time but you'll get there and there's always plenty of support in this section xxxx

 

[Sakura-chan]

Thank you both so much for welcome and for sharing your experiences.

I am driving myself to the hospital (as hub has work) so I can`t pump during the commute but I am fitting in 7 pumps a day and expressing over 900ml a day now so hopefully this will be enough for when Shion can come home. I have no idea when I will be able to attempt to breastfeed him normally...I guess it still won`t be for a couple of weeks but at least I am building a stockpile to give to the hospital.

As everyone here knows the experience of having a child in the NICU is such a draining experience but all I can hope for is that Shion will be well and home with us soon.