our nicu journey week two

Our NICU Journey- Week Two

One week has passed in NICU and so much happened that it was all a whirlwind. We had the elation of your arrival, the relief of you doing so well but also the sadness of leaving you behind as we went home each day without you. I’m not sure what to expect this week but I have a funny feeling it’s going to be even more emotional as time goes on.

Today (Tuesday) you would have been 33 weeks if you had still been inside me. You are still teeny but still doing so well. After one week you have come out of your incubator and today I can’t find you! I walk into intensive care and there is a space where your cot is. A nurse spots me looking a little bewildered and she tells me that you have been moved to your very own room! How have you come so far in such little time? You are now in one of the cubicles as the four cot room– which should be the next step– is completely full. You are still on monitors to check your heart rate, pulse, and respiration but you are proving to us that you are such a little fighter. You are also off the caffeine which was being used to regulate your breathing. You will have to be closely monitored to ensure this remains the same but I am so happy that it’s another step in the right direction.

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our nicu journey

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So, you arrived early. I expected it, I just knew my body hadn’t felt right, I’d been saying this since week 24 and after my waters broke early I mentally prepared myself for your premature entrance into the world. We had the tour of Neonatal during my first hospital stay… it took me aback. We were shown the incubators and told that was where you would go straight after birth if you came early, it took all my strength not to cry. As a blogger, I have read many stories from others I follow of their premature babies being in NICU and I have been moved by what has been written but nothing can prepare you for for the reality of it all. To see tiny babies lying inside what is essentially a plastic box, being helped with their breathing via ventilators or under UV lights for jaundice is something that makes your heart sink. We were shown the two types of ventilators and the nurse explained why you may be on them and how they work… I couldn’t really take that information in because I didn’t want to picture you on one. We were told how the unit worked and how you would be under 24/7 care. I was shown the expressing room, where I would have to go and sit to pump breastmilk for you to be fed through a tube. Not the image I had for you to start your breastfeeding journey. I think I nodded along and tried to take the information in but it was a bit too much to process at once.

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