NICU baby coming home TONIGHT - so nervous!!

[LittleOnes]

Hi ladies. Its amazing, Ive wanted so badly for him to be home but now...its almost like Ive grown comfortable with the NICU environment? I want those nurses to live with us!! He's only been in there 5 days...it felt like a long time a few days ago but now, is it enough? He's nearly 36 weeks.

I am so nervous that something will happen while he's home or he'll eat terribly while at home vs when he was here. Anyone else feel this way? He didnt have any difficult medical conditions, just was there establishing feeding. Still, he had his various bradys and desats, which are so scary when you see them on the monitor. What if we cant tell his oxygen is decreasing?

How will I sleep without standing over him staring at him??

Logic tells me they wouldnt let him leave if he wasnt ready, but logic goes out the window with these things

 

[Dinah93]

How exciting, congratulations! They wouldn't send him home if they weren't confident he'll be fine. Apparently most babies throw their heartrate around anyway, we just can't see it. Keep an eye on his colour as they change so quickly when they're doing something silly, whitish with the bradys and purple when her o2 sats go low in my daughters case at least. If he stays that way or isn't wriggling or just seems unwell, take him to the hospital, but you know that that's really unlikely. And I think it's normal for even non-preemie moms to stand over their baby panicking that they're going to stop breathing!

 

[dizz]

It's normal - we brought our girl home the other day (think she was 35+5 when they let her out - was 33+6 when born and like yours was only really in there sorting out feeding and jaundice)... the ride home was terrifying - she looked swamped in the car seat so badly!

I'll admit I do keep checking she's still breathing - doesn't help she could sleep for England (just not at night - gah!), and I'm really overly worried about stuff - the hospital's need for precise quantities of milk taken and the like has rubbed onto me so badly now that my ability to go with the flow is utterly destroyed - taken us till now to work out that she's basically hungrier at night - so needs more, isn't a morning person so wants a light breakfast, and can scoff it up all evening... the hospital's "thou shalt feed X ml every 3 hours on the dot" approach just doesn't work with the reality of the situation when they get out into the real world... I've relaxed a bit since the midwife came out on Tuesday and weighed her and she's gained since being discharged at the weekend - so we haven't done anything to cause her weight gain to halt - which reassured me a great deal.

We have largely been forgotten about by the unit though - they don't want her back in for follow-up, they're not bothering to get their continuing care team out to do a follow up (surprises me since we were told they would)... while my head says that they're obviously confident in her progress and our parenting (which since they rang social services with concerns over how distressed I was in a - totally unexpected, premature, badly handled and treated by staff - labour... I guess I should take as a compliment of sorts)

But yep it's frightening - and you get inconsistent advice about how to behave - I've been told to jump into normality and get out and about, I've been told to stay indoors, I've been told everything in between etc!

 

[daisybby03]

I know it's scary! My guys spent 7&9 weeks in NICU, my boy came home on a monitor because he kept having desat spells. But even through the fears and wanting to call the NICU every second for help, we made it!
So glad your little man will be home where he belongs!

 

[heyyady]

:happydance!: Congrats!
We just celebrated one year since I got to bring them home!
You will do fine- and yes, you WILL stand over his bed- a lot. And then a little less, and then a little less- I still do it on occasion