Monday, Mom and I went to lunch before heading up to the hospital, and I was on edge, checking my phone every ten seconds, in case the hospital called to say "Today is the day!" They did not, but we came home Monday night knowing that Tuesday would be the day Travis would finally come home.
I'm not really sure how we got any sleep that night. We arrived at the NICU Tuesday, mid-morning, and discovered that Travis wasn't where we left him Monday night.When Travis was born, he was in the "E" room, all the way on the far end. As far as I could ever tell, that was one of the two rooms with the babies who needed the most care. About 10 days after he was born, he was moved to the "B" room, which was much closer to the door and a lot less restrictive. Now, on the day he was coming home, he was back in the "E" room. For a moment, I was nervous. Had something happened in the night? Were we not taking him home after all?
Thankfully, it turned out to be a space issue. Someone else needed the "B" room, and since he was only going to be in the NICU a short time that day, Travis was moved where there was room for him. Thank goodness. We changed him into his coming home outfit and then...we waited. The nurses and doctors were going through their morning meeting, notes on all the patients. In the meantime, a few nurses emptied the freezer of my breast milk stash. I don't know why, to this day, I felt embarrassed by how much there was in that freezer. It took up almost the entire little red wagon. It would have filled it, but that's where the car seat had to go for our walk-out. After what seemed like ages, we signed a few pieces of paper and were walked out of the hospital. FINALLY.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice how bumpy every road seems to be, until there is a newborn in the car, right?
I feel sad to say that a lot of his first few weeks are kind of a blur. I remember bits and pieces. Unnecessary diaper changes, totally overdressing the baby. Sleeping the first few days with the bedroom fan off, the A/C set warmer than we were used to and, believe it or not, with the light on. All we knew was that it was a comfortable, consistent 78 in the NICU and it never seemed to be very dark. We didn't know better, we just wanted to make our home HIS home, and make him as comfortable as he seemed to be in the NICU. We got over that phase within the first week, we were tired and it was already hot.
NICU parents are given a lot of instructions when leaving the hospital. We were lucky that the only things Travis had to deal with when we came home was a stuffy nose and prescription nose drops and the (very expensive) formula that he was still on. No equipment or major health issues, we were (and are!) very blessed. Something else that the NICU staff recommends is to limit travel. With any newborn, but with preemies especially. With RSV, whooping cough, colds, flus and you name it, limiting exposure to germs is pretty important. Some parents are urged to not travel anywhere for a year. The only trips out of the house Travis made in his first month home were trips to the pediatrician for more frequent-than-normal checkups. Matt or Mom would go grocery shopping at first, since I wasn't cleared to drive until about 8 weeks after delivery. Socializing was cut down to nothing. If you invited me somewhere, I'm sorry, but I'm staying home with my son. I spent too long just trying to get him BORN safely, then long enough with him living somewhere else, to just up and leave, and I wasn't about to bring him out to a noisy shop, restaurant or bar. What kind of parent does that? And a friend who would expect someone to do this is not a friend at all.
Travis was home for a month before I was able to start nursing. That was hard. The formula he was on was very expensive and only sold by the case. At $140 per case, it was really digging into our budget. There was a reason I had hoped to breastfeed: beyond the many health benefits, formula is expensive, and the only one he'd been able to tolerate was more than double the cost per can than the store-bought stuff. It still hurt to know that the ONLY thing I'd felt able to provide for him - breast milk - this whole time, when he was in the NICU, when he came home - was something he couldn't have. Around 4 weeks after bringing him home, we had our first visit from the Neonatal Intensive Care Program nurse. The NICP is a program offered in the state of Arizona for any child who spends more than 2 weeks in the NICU. The nurse helps with the transition from the NICU to home, and helps track infants in a number of areas (growth/health, development, etc) to make sure things are going well, and if not, to refer the parents to the proper care.
Our nurse, Jackie, is amazing. She's also a certified lactation consultant, and she helped me immensely. Her first visit was on a Friday. By Monday, Travis was nursing exclusively. No more $140 cases of formula! Which was great, because around this time, he started eating a LOT more. We'd have been going through multiple cases per week, and our insurance only reimbursed us for approximately ONE CAN. Gee. Thanks. Travis doesn't see Jackie very much anymore, but he knows her by name and loves when she comes over "to play". She was really a Godsend, and it was great to have someone to call on when I had a quick question, without feeling like I was driving my pediatrician up the wall.
I would say it took all summer to really feel like we'd gotten into a good, regular groove with Travis. By the end of July, he was tipping the scales at almost 11lbs. I'd had to figure out how to carry Travis on my lap or in my arms and still push my chair around one handed. Until he was able to sit up on his own, it took me a good while to get that under control. If I went anywhere with him on my own, even to the mailbox, it meant putting him in his car seat, then on his stroller. Sometimes, that was the only way I could even get to the bathroom. He didn't much appreciate being left in a room alone for a potty break. He still seems to think he has to help me in the bathroom, but at least he's already learned that we ALWAYS wash our hands after we go potty, lol.
We learned that he loved Elvis and most of the pop/rock from the 50's. He hated classical music. He loved to cuddle and loved his bath. He was generally a happy baby, and we were certainly enjoying every second of every day. More than anything, Matt and I were just thrilled to finally feel like a family, when "touch time" was whenever WE wanted to. When looking into his crib meant only sitting up in my own bed. When he was home.
No comments:
Post a Comment