Premie Birth Plan*Updated*Baby was born - Page 2

[Amys1st]

Also, visit our sticky threads up top to get all the update on abbravations that fly on MDC (motheringdot commune) and in the NICU. Your neo and nurses will do it and you wont know what they are saying.

I am a very friendly and forward person normally so I didnt have any trouble making friends in the nicu. I would read the parents for a while before intro-ing my self. With exception to a set of micro twins who came in next to Maggie and their mother got in that evening. I made a point to say hello and introduce myself. It was funny imo, here they were each under 2lbs and that is what Maggie was. She saw Maggie who was all of 3lbs 10 oz at the time and 8 weeks old. she said to me "Your baby is sooo big compared to my babies." The nicest thing I ever heard We chatted before she went back to her room. After the fact about a week later, she saw me in the hall and I heard her say to her dh- "thats the lady who was nice to me in the nicu!" that made my year.

[ksera05]

Originally Posted by homewithtwinsmama

"I just find that so many women get into a mindset where they won't dare do what their heart tells them they should because some staff person is opposed to it even though Hospital x and y down the street have no problem with it or its actually well documented in the literature,but this caregiver is a stodgy stick in the mud who doesn't grow and change with the times. My decisions were based on the idea that unless they could provide actual evidence or scientific literature(and I usually had perused all the current literature on that topic before we had the discussion) or a really convincing argument against what I wanted to do - I did it. Not everyone wants to go to battle for things the way I did and there is no judgement against going with the flow on my part, but my AP mama lactivist heart made it important enough for me to want do so. Our results with Kalleigh have only made us feel in hindsight that we did a really great job advocating for her.

Trust me, I had many things I did against the flow and fought my NICU on. I advocated hard for my daughter. I just wanted to prepare the mom in question for opposition that she could hit.

In my case, breastfeeding was not the most important thing to me. Bringing home my baby ASAP was my most important thing. My daughter had many lung issues and was aspirating. Yes, I could have picked to fight them on that. Instead I picked battles like the fact that I was going to hold my daughter when I wanted to and not by the clock and the fact that I was going to wait to vaccinate until she got home. We were there for 16 long weeks. You can't fight the entire time. You have to be willing to go with the flow or it just saps the energy out of you. To the mom in the OP's post - please remember this. You'll be there almost as long as we were. Remember that it's a marathon, not a sprint.

And another random note...our NICU doesn't send babies home on NG tubes anyway - they have to be nippling ALL feeds every day, every night. And gaining weight. Every NICU has different policies. You can't fight them all. And in our area all of the local NICUs that are at all worth being in are run by the same neonatology practice and they have one of the highest success (read: babies who make it) rate on the East Coast. Transferring wouldn't have done us a dang bit of good and with a rate like that I had to respect their opinions too. They were going with the times also - they just had different opinions than I did on some things.

[ksera05]

Originally Posted by Amys1st

I am a very friendly and forward person normally so I didnt have any trouble making friends in the nicu. I would read the parents for a while before intro-ing my self. With exception to a set of micro twins who came in next to Maggie and their mother got in that evening. I made a point to say hello and introduce myself. It was funny imo, here they were each under 2lbs and that is what Maggie was. She saw Maggie who was all of 3lbs 10 oz at the time and 8 weeks old. she said to me "Your baby is sooo big compared to my babies." The nicest thing I ever heard We chatted before she went back to her room. After the fact about a week later, she saw me in the hall and I heard her say to her dh- "thats the lady who was nice to me in the nicu!" that made my year.

Aww that's so sweet!!

I became good friends with a mom who had 23 week girls. We still talk all the time. In fact I just got off the phone with her.

[choose2bgr8]

She had the baby tonight. She would have been 27 weeks on Monday.

The baby does not have a name yet, but he is healthy.

He was born at 10:16 PM by Emergency C Section
He weighed 2 lbs 4 oz and was 13 inches long.
He looks great!

I will post pics tomorrow (after I get them printed for her) if it is okay with her.

Keep him in your prayers.

[Amys1st]

Congrats to the new mama! I hope things work out well in the "honeymoon phase" the baby is in right now.

[munkeesmama]

Congrats to her! Send her here when she is up to it. We'll continue to support her. Can't wait to see pics, and now her journey begins. Prayers fror the baby and for strength to his parents!

[tbavrbab]

Congratulations to momma and family. Many thoughts, prayers, and

[acamile14]

Congrats to the new momma...many thoughts and prayers being sent out

[felix23]

Congrats on the new baby! Please keep us updated on how things are going and if you can post pictures. I never get tired of looking at babies.

[intorainbowz]

Congrats to the mamma and baby as well!

[DoubleLove]

Speaking as the OB nurse that I am, here are a few suggestions:

If your friend goes into labor that is unstoppable, even if a c-section is needed d/t positioning etc, encourage her to fight to labor as long as she can (and as long as the baby can tolerate) because many hormones are stimulated with labor that significantly benefit the baby in preparing for life out of the womb, including the process of amniotic fluid reabsorbtion in the lungs.

Many hospitals now have wireless fetal monitoring, but you often have to ask for it, so if she will be laboring this will give her more freedom of movement.

Also, I'd encourage her to skip the pumping for the first few times and go straight to hand-expression of colostrum into a teaspoon. A lot of the initial precious liquid gold can be lost onto the walls of the pump horns. Have her ask a IBCLC for help with it, or show her how to do it if the baby comes in the middle of the night and an IBCLC isn't available.

HTH

OOPs, I guess I should have read the rest of the enteries first... Guess my sugestions are a little late...Congradulations to her!

[choose2bgr8]

Thanks mamas!

Here is the baby a week ago.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...Picture069.jpg

He is doing well. He lost weight, but has gained most of it back. She started Kangaroo Care yesterday and he is getting breastmilk now.

[alliteration]

Aww. He is so cute. He looks like mine did at first, red!

Hope he and the mama are doing well.

[felix23]

What a handsome little man! Thanks for the picture and keep us updated.

[choose2bgr8]

Kim told me yesterday that they took him off the breast milk because he has a heart mumur. He is on the Cpap now and has had five or six spells on that so he is doing okay, but definitely needs positive thoughts.

[tbavrbab]

They are still in my thoughts! I will keep thinking of them.

[choose2bgr8]

Keep the prayers coming!!!

They are transfering Isaac to Ann Arbor (Michigan) from Kalamazoo because his kidneys are shutting down.

Send love and prayers and positive thoughts.

Thanks everyone!

[felix23]

: Keep us updated.

[choose2bgr8]

New news!

They are keeping him here and treating him for a kidney infection. I will keep you updated.

[Breathless Wonder]

I'll keep the sweet little guy in my thoughts.