NICU/SCBU stay?

[Erika]

Did your baby have to spend time in the NICU and/or SCBU following the birth? For how long?

How are they now? And how are you? Did you find it hard to get over the experience?

[Beka]

none of mine have (have all been lovely little porkers blessed with good health and simple births- very lucky in deed as we didn't do anything magical to achieve that, just blind luck they'll all been so healthy) BUT my nephew Ryan was in for the first 10 days of his life after being born early (5.5 weeks early) as the result of pre-eclampsia which was so bad the drs treating SIL couldn't believe she hadn't collapsed etc as they'd never seen it to that extreme in a non-hospitalised woman when they chose to induce!

Ry was quite poorly- he was on a ventilator at first, then in a hotbox, then under the lights with monitors before eventually passing oxygen level tests to be allowed home after 2 weeks.

it was made worse as they origionally told SIL (who was only 19 at the time) he was profoundly deaf as a result of his birth complications- we raised him (as an extended family) as a deaf child until 6-7 months old when we (SIL,mil and i) all began to suspect he could hear and it wasn't purely vibration he was responding too, at 10 months old they confirmed he is one of the v.tiny % of preemies who's nerve damage hearing loss effectively fixed itself... Ryan now hears fine but it had a big effect on his first year of life.

[Erika]

Sasha spent 8 days in the neonatal unit - 1.5 days in NICU and 6.5 days in SCBU.

She had severe hypoglycaemia after birth. She fed well from me immediately following the birth but I couldnt' get her to latch on that evening. Her blood sugar level was 0.8. They start worrying when the levels are around 2.4. She was sent up to the neonatal unit at around 2 in the morning. Once up there, they found out that she also had thrombocytopenia and polycytopenia. Her platelet levels were very low and her red blood cell count and white cell count were way off. She had an unspecified infection and was put on antibiotics as well as glucose for the hypoglycaemia. She also developed jaundice and was on the billi lights for a few days.

I was given the impression that she would be back down with me after a day or 2 so it was a shock when I was told that it would be at least a week (in fact it was 8 days as she failed a test needed to leave but passed it the next day). Watching her have near constant heel pricks plus full blood tests (a horrible thing to witness) was awful. I blamed myself (I was on heparin for the pregnancy but was subsequently told that that wasn't the cause). Breastfeeding helped somewhat because I felt I was giving her the best to get better. That said, due to a few of the staff, I nearly gave up and nearly had my parenting confidence destroyed. It was also awful not being able to really be left to mother her and feeling like I almost had to ask permission to hold my child. Taking her home was the most amazing experience.

Sasha has come through it with no problems. She is a little warrior and even went through 14 weeks of antibiotics (she was exposed to TB from one of the neonatal staff) without more than an angry yell most nights. She is very healthy now and you wouldn't think she had ever been sick.

As for me, I found it tough to get over. I still get upset and dwell on it. I shouldn't really since there were babies who were far sicker than Sasha and she is thriving now. But I really do feel I failed her that first week of her life. She shouldn't have had to go through that and I just hope that I never have to go through that again.

[wendygrace]

Ds was in the ICU (mix of NICU and PICU, two hospitals) for the first six months of his life.

He's had major complications from his stay (sepsis is bad) but doing amazingly well for all he's been through.
I'm ok. Still can't stand to hear the song they play on the phone at the hospital when you are waiting for a transfer but I do ok.
Dh still has severe issues. He can't even go into the hospital, or even think about the hospital, without going into a tizzy and getting an anxiety attack.
Yes, getting over it has been very hard.

[Erika]

:squeeze Wendy.

[Lori]

Thomas had to have some tests run in the NICU because he wasn't doing so hot when he first came out, although they did let him stay with me and Sean for about an hour or two before they took him, which was nice. He was only gone for about 6 hours, and we knew he was going to be fine, but it was still really awful, and I cannot even imagine what people who have their child in the NICU for long periods go through. The NICU part wasn't traumatic for us, although it was annoying because they wouldn't tell us anything about how he was doing for the six hours he was there, but Sean was really traumatized by how much trouble he had when he was first born. It only took a few minutes to get him to where he was okay, but Sean was right there and found it really terrifying. I was so tired I didn't really notice what was going on.

They had to give him some antibiotics, and they had a lot of trouble finding a vein. One of the nurses told me they poked him about thirty times before they found one, and he came back with bruises all over him. They ended up putting it in his head. Here's a pic of him with the little thing sticking out of his poor tiny head (although not that tiny, because he was a big baby!):

[Erika]

Aw, your poor little mite, Lori. I never realised that Thomas had to spend some time in the NICU. The blood tests are the pits. Sasha had so many pricks and prods and some you can still see in her hand.

Here is a pic of her with the billi lights. I call this the modded look (after the modded race car look with the lights on the underside LOL). At this stage, her IV was in her foot (which looked awful).