The NICU

It is amazing the things you think about at 5:30 in the morning while feeding a baby. This time it was a very clear thought that I need to write down our NICU experience with Makayla. I was thinking about all the little details of the NICU and I realized that if I don't write them down I am going to forget them really soon. Makayla spent 5 1/2 weeks in the NICU. I guess the best way to document this is to go through a typical day. I would go visit her in the morning around 10 or 11 depending on her current feeding schedule. I would have to check in at a window. I very rarely had to say who I was, because the nurses were amazing and knew me from day 1. They would give me a tag and let me in. Then I had to do a 5 min. scrub before I could go see Makayla. (Longest 5 min. of my life) It turned out that I was allergic to the soap they had. I broke out in a rash that itched like crazy. I finally talked to the nurse about it and she immediately got me a different soap.

Makayla was in bed space #25. The nurses taught me how to do her cares so that I could just start on that while they finished up with the other babies. I would change her diaper, take her temperature, and move her oxygen monitor to the opposite foot. We had to make sure to not throw away the diapers because they weighed every diaper to monitor that she was staying regular.

(ok I must admit I started this post 2 months ago but never finished and then I ended up having my gall bladder removed and I just realized I never finished it, so here are my attempts at remembering the details that are fading fast.)

Her nurses were so great. Even though I am sure they had a million things to do, they always took time to talk to me and get me a drink and to really just make me feel like they cared about me and Makayla on a very personal level. All her nurses were great, but there was one day shift nurse named Heather, that I just may never forget about. I got along with her really well. She would always make time to talk with me and just made the whole environment seem less stressful and more enjoyable. She took extra care to make sure that Makayla was the cutest dressed baby in the NICU. She even told me really quietly that she really did think that Makayla was one of the cutest babies she had ever worked with. :) She would make her out fit, bow, blanket and snake bean bag all match. (Makayla loved to cuddle her snake bean bags) I loved the days that Heather was her nurse.

I would stay for an hour or two and then go back home until about 7 or 8 at night when Lyil and I would go down again to see her. We had to do the 5 min. scrub in again when we got there. That scrub in time turned out to be our bonding time with other parents. I wish now, that I had thought to find a way to stay in contact with those families. I think about them all the time and I wonder how their little babies are doing. I would nurse Makayla every time I went to see her. They would weigh her first and then again after she ate to determine how much she had gotten. Then we would top her off with a bottle. My favorite night nurse was probably Tamara. She was a little older, but she was full of spunk. She would spend lots of time with us, making sure we had everything we needed.

Every 3 days, they would give Makayla a bath. It was usually done at night since it is less busy then. They had me help with her baths sometimes, which I was grateful for later. Not that bathing a baby is hard, I was just nervous about all that new stuff. Every time Makayla moved up a diaper size they made sure to give me one of her smaller diapers so that I could remember just how tiny she was.

One of the coolest things the NICU staff did for Makayla was on her 1 month birthday, they made a little balloon sign that said happy 1 month birthday, and did her foot prints again and put them on a really cute card for me to take home with the ones they did at birth. In my current state, I don't think she would have gotten that much attention that day at home.

We really hit the jackpot with our NICU experience. I shed minimal tears during those 5 1/2 weeks and it is all the whacked out hormones fault. I found this little song on pinterest and I think it describes the NICU pretty darn accurately. (my favorite lines are they count every milligram he grows and measures all the poop and the pee, and the nurses in cloggs make their rounds every hour, cause they are just so darn true!) I seriously just love this song so much and I plan on sharing it with Makayla when she is older.

If I think of any other details I will have to add them later, cause this is all I can remember at the moment. I love my little preemie Makayla Beth!