We made it home!!! We were released on Friday! WOO HOO! We passed the garden center near our home on our way back and my thoughts turned to planting. In the past, time/life has been organized into before birth/after birth. It made me realize... Life in the NICU is this sorta liminal transitional stage of limbo. We've made it to AFTER. That feels so wonderful!
Sleeping last night was scary... and pretty unsuccessful. It's hard to relax enough to sleep, knowing your baby already has a crappy track record with breathing. This was compounded by the fact that she wasn't nursing well. She'd be ravenous to get on the breast, but then slip off after a few sucks- konked out, or push it away after a few minutes, etc etc. GAH! These were all warning signs we were told to heed that might indicate she was having a hard time breathing, and this morning she looked a little blue around the mouth and nose. So, we ate breakfast and took her in to our local emergency room for monitoring. Fortunately, her saturation levels look good-still in the 90's. But it's so damn HARD not to obsess over every little grunting breath-sometimes it looks like she's really working hard! I've never been scared we would lose her while in the hospital. Its never been touch and go... just serious. But now I feel like we're operating without a net.
I think most of our nursing issues are due to oversupply. It's really not hard to choke her, and she doesn't get through more than one boob at a sitting. So, I'm trying to hold off pumping the other one till I'm REALLY sore so we can regulate our supply a bit better. Anyone out there with oversupply issues? I tried sidelying last night, and choked her right off the bat. I can't remember if that's a bad position for this or not. Perhaps I was just too engorged at the time?
Sleeping last night was scary... and pretty unsuccessful. It's hard to relax enough to sleep, knowing your baby already has a crappy track record with breathing. This was compounded by the fact that she wasn't nursing well. She'd be ravenous to get on the breast, but then slip off after a few sucks- konked out, or push it away after a few minutes, etc etc. GAH! These were all warning signs we were told to heed that might indicate she was having a hard time breathing, and this morning she looked a little blue around the mouth and nose. So, we ate breakfast and took her in to our local emergency room for monitoring. Fortunately, her saturation levels look good-still in the 90's. But it's so damn HARD not to obsess over every little grunting breath-sometimes it looks like she's really working hard! I've never been scared we would lose her while in the hospital. Its never been touch and go... just serious. But now I feel like we're operating without a net.
I think most of our nursing issues are due to oversupply. It's really not hard to choke her, and she doesn't get through more than one boob at a sitting. So, I'm trying to hold off pumping the other one till I'm REALLY sore so we can regulate our supply a bit better. Anyone out there with oversupply issues? I tried sidelying last night, and choked her right off the bat. I can't remember if that's a bad position for this or not. Perhaps I was just too engorged at the time?
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