Days at NICU - 1

I was discharged from the hospital a couple of days after the delivery. But my little one had to stay back at NICU. The wait was indefinite as coming out solely depended on him passing some tests! Barely stepped into the world, my baby had to prove himself fit to go home...insane world! Sometimes I felt it was good for him to be there as the nurses at NICU took wonderful care of him in a sterile environment. It was bad for me, to have delivered and not have the baby by my side. I just wanted to breeze through the days and have him home.

The 2 days I was at the hospital, the baby was just a block away. I used to drop by as frequently as possible. Though he didn't have any major issues, he had these 4-5 nodes attached for monitoring his heart rate and other stuff. And was being tube-fed as he was yet to learn to latch. He had his own cozy cubicle and a bassinet. He was so tiny that the nurses used to call him a little peanut!

After I was home, I started pumping breastmilk(BM) and carried tiny bottles to NICU for the baby. We were visiting him twice a day. The hospital was 5 minutes away, meaning we could be there at the drop of a hat. We were so occupied with the new adjustments that we forgot to get him some clothes until there was a note on his cubicle board "Mommy, can you bring me some clothes?" And so, the baby wore his first dress on Day 5, which was also our 5th anniversary! The cute blue onesie had wordings "Mommy loves me" :) A month ago, I had ordered t-shirts for our anniversary that read "Mom-to-be 2012" for me and "Proud Dad-to-be 2012" for S! Well, we did wear the T-shirts, striking out the "to-be" part :)

He was weighed every day. Initially he lost weight and got back to his birth weight by Day 8 which most of the babies normally do. The weight gain was in terms of 5-10 gms per day. And there we were cheering for every single gram gain :)

NICU stay was a learning phase for me as well. I had to learn to breastfeed him and he had to learn to latch on. It was only the beginning and we had to face quite a hardship. His first test was to bottlefeed/breastfeed for straight 36 hrs and not lose weight. We were taking teeny tiny babysteps in that direction. Breastfeeding can be tiring for the babies as they need to put some effort to it.

The nurses used to give bath to the baby every alternate day. The first time I saw him take bath was on Day 6. The nurse effortlessly held him in one hand, moved him from one hand to another, flipped him over while giving him a bath! To this day, the video amazes me. God, was he really so tiny? I was soon to try giving him a bath with the help of the nurse. I almost trembled with fear, trying to handle the baby. That was not easy!

Day 7 was Mother's Day! The previous night we stayed back at NICU and celebrated by cutting a cake at around 12. S gifted me and MIL with some cute teddies and photoframes. The next day, when we visited the baby, there was this little card on the table that had my son's footprint. Another cute moment :) My joy was boundless. The nurses had made it special for sure...my first Mother's Day gift. Another priceless gift, the little one peed on us while changing :D

Day 8 was special because I saw my son smile for the first time. We also tried bottlefeeding him for the first time and he drank about 15 ml. Another yay moment!

During our visits, I did a lot of skin to skin with the baby. The nurses were particular about it. I realized that it gave a lot of warmth and a sense of security to the baby. And I felt super good too, in the warm embrace. I had my personal bonding moments with the baby that way. As per several studies, skin-to-skin is believed to be very beneficial for the baby. Glad to have tried it.

Oh the name! Shall save it for the next post :)

PS: I had scribbled notes everyday, while at NICU. That's how I remember what happened each day.