NICU Visit

Our nurse arranged for Trey and I to go down and visit the NICU. The NICU is located on the 8th floor directly below us. She said that is the floor that Labor and Delivery use to be on so that is why the NICU is down there. We were able to talk with a NICU nurse and she explained the procedures to us. Basically when the baby is born a NICU Nurse Practitioner will be at the delivery and will do the initial check up on the baby. If the baby is breathing and on it's own or at least with our being incubated and everything else seems good at the time they will send the baby to the intermediate nursery here on the 9th floor next to the regular nursery for observation. They will do observation for a few hours and if any problems arise such as the baby not breathing well, not holding it's body temperature or unable to eat on it's own they will send the baby down to the NICU. Otherwise it can go to our room or the nursery. Once the baby is done in the NICU it does not leave the NICU until it is ready to go home. So even if everything looks good after 24 hours and I am still in the hospital they will not transfer the baby back to the 9th floor. We would just be able to take it home when we leave. They showed us where the babies are placed and the family visitation room. Trey and I will both receive a security badge that allows us access into the room. There are two neonatologists and they do around at 9am and we are welcome to be there when they do their rounds to hear what they have to say. They also told us that if we are breastfeeding they will supply bottles to put the milk into so they can feed the babies and that will take any amount of milk you can give even if it is just a few drops. They also have a deep freezer that they will store milk in to feed the baby. Here are the rules of the NICU:

1. Only two visitors at a time one being a parent. Either Trey or I have to be there for visitors to enter the NICU.

2. Only parents are allowed in the NICU when they are doing a new admit or a shift change from 7-7:30 am and pm. This is for security and HIPPA reasons.

3. No wondering around to look at other babies unless the parents invite you over.

4. No one under the age of 13 is allowed in the NICU. Siblings under 13 are allowed to visit when the baby is first admitted and on Sunday's from 11-4. They also ask that the siblings only stay to one minute for every year old the child is. So Cecelia could be there for about 2 minutes. This is very understandable since their attention spans are so limited and they don't need kids running around the NICU.

It was very nice to be able to see the NICU and become a little more prepared for what may lie ahead. The nurse said again as we have been hearing that there is a chance that at 34 weeks we may not be down there. I just like to be prepared and know what the possibilities are.

Our nurse also arrange for the lactation consultant to come and visit with me tomorrow to help me get my pump setup and give advise on how to make it more successful. I pumped with Cecelia for about 6 weeks but did not get much so I was supplementing also. I know with this baby that breast milk is going to be of much more importance especially for the antibodies so I want to do what I can to be as successful as possible.

Dr. Cumminsky came up this morning for a short visit and said everything was still looking good and that Dr. Balaskas would be up in the morning to do another round of ultrasounds and we will go from there as to if we will look at delivering or waiting a little while longer. We are at a very tough crossroad. They don't want things to start going down hill with the baby but they would also like to keep it in for as long as possible. So of course if anything starts to go down hill we will start the process of delivery but if it everything continues to look good it makes the decision of when to take the baby not so black and white. So we will wait and see what the results of the ultrasound are tomorrow and go from there. It really is a day to day situation.

I also had a great surprise visit from two college friends this morning one of which has been bedridden at St. Mary's for a pregnancy and gave me a few tips for staying sane here. She is also the one that suggested visiting the NICU. My other friends brought me a bunch of dvd's to watch to help pass the time. Most of which I have not seen yet but have wanted to and now that I have the time will be able to. I am actually going to watch one right after I finish this post. Thank you Kyle and Emily for the visit and the gifts:)