Surviving NICU Life as a Parent

The NICU is hard, and that's coming from someone who had it relatively easy in there. There's just no other way about it. The hospital my boys were in had a very nice NICU with a great staff of doctors and nurses. I'm not really sure how to organize my thoughts on everything regarding this experience, so I'm just going to list them as best I can.

OUR NICU EXPERIENCE

- our NICU was very upfront about things from the beginning (i.e. they rarely send babies home on monitors, tubes, etc.) and I was glad about that because it was one less thing I had to question and worry about

- they were very accommodating to parents' needs
    - there was a pump in every room for mom's, as well as a 'pumping room' if you wanted privacy/
       supplied a water and ice machine to keep mommies hydrated :)
    - they made notes on what parents liked to do for their babies- give baths, change diapers, feed, etc.
    - there were 'sleeping rooms' that you could 'hold' for a day to take naps, stay the night, or just go lay          
       down and relax in if you were staying at the hospital for a long amount of time. I used this once,
      when I stayed for a 12 hour shift
    - we were given a direct line to the NICU for updates, and the nurses were excellent in keeping with
       security precautions as far as making sure we were the parents of the children we were asking about
 
- there were a variety of resources to go to and staff welcomed questions
     - there was social worker who helped look into pediatricians and contacted us with discharge info
     - the doctors who were on staff would always come and see us to see if we had questions
     - nurses never dismissed our questions

TIPS

- ask questions, no matter how stupid you think they are; the more you understand, the more
  comfortable you are with what different numbers mean, what different tests are for, and what alarms
  are going off!
- dress in layers, I think this unit is typically kept very warm

MOST IMPORTANTLY
- put blinders and ear muffs on: don't peek in other rooms, don't try and listen to what is happening to
   other babies, focus on your baby(ies) or you will go crazy