Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The NICU

Hunter was in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) from March 9th to the 21st. He was in the NICU because he wasn't feeding all that well in the beginning and wasn't gaining the weight they would have liked. By the second day, he was using the haberman bottle and we would end up gavaging the rest of the food. The gavage or g-tube is a tube that they place inside the nose and runs down all the way to their stomach.

The NICU is an amazing place with amazing people. There are a few nurses that I will never forget. They were absolutely amazing in helping my husband Kelly and I take care of our little bundle. I don't know what we would have done. They taught us how to bath him and feed him. Because he can't breast feed they taught me how to pump, it was great. Best of all, as much as we hated leaving Hunter in the NICU every night, Kelly and I were able to get a good nights rest while he was there and I was able to recover a little better.

By day 10, it was getting a lot harder to go to the hospital. Kelly and I just wanted him home and we weren't seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It was really hard. We just felt like we weren't getting the answers we were looking for. Most of the time we would just get answers like "Its all up to him when he can come home." We finally had a nurse on the 10th day talk to us and really help guide us how to get Hunter out. She basically told us that he is a term baby but was being treated like a premie. On a regimented feeding schedule that newborns don't generally follow. Newborns will eat when they want to eat and most of the time we were forcing him to eat and he didn't want it. She told us that she was going to talk to the neonatologist about it and after that two days later he was home!!! Thats all it took! Getting him off the schedule and onto his own! Amazing!! We were so grateful!

Paige Barclay Photography

Paige Barclay Photography

Paige Barclay Photography



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