NICU Babies (prem babies)

I am a mum who has 2 Prem babies in NICU at the moment, they were born at 28 weeks 4 days and they are doing very well. I am wanting to know if anyone else has had babies in the NICU and how they got on with all the medical stuff and the travel etc

I cant answer your question but i just wanted to say a huge congrats on the birth of your wee bubbys

HUGEST CONGRATS!!!!

Hi Chonnni, I posted on your July thread about Ash. I'm glad to hear your bubs are doing well! In regards to travel, you should have been given a form to fill in each day (if not, talk to the NICU social worker) totalling the km's travelled to and from the hospital. Then the Ministry of Health (I think) reimburse you so many cents a km, I forget now how many. We received a nice payment of around $700 when we sent it away after Ashleigh came home. I was lucky that my mother lived about 2km from the hospital so I would drive there in the morning, she would drop me at the hospital then pick me up afterwards to I didn't need to pay for parking.

As for the medical stuff - well it is all very overwhelming at first. But then terms like bradys, desats, apnoeas etc all become everyday language lol! And you'll also get to the stage of barely batting an eyelid when the monitors start beeping and its just second nature to tickle your bubs toes or rub their backs to get their heartrate/O2 levels up again! But hang in there - it WILL get better and easier and before you know it they will be home and it will all be a distant memory

Can't offer much help having not been there myself, but just wanted to say hugest congrats. I have found the tinier they are, the feistier they are... hope your babes get big and strong and i definately second everything Kelly said. Hang in there, it seems a mile away, but when you get to the other end you realise how fast it's been. Take heaps of pics too, it's so amazing to see how they grow each week.. hand and feet prints are great for that too.

congrats.

Hi,

I had my twins at 34+3 and at 1.9 and 1.5kg we spent a total of 36 days in SCBU.......... scary at the start, but use the nurses, I found they were there for me just as much as the baby.......... I guess some of the bigger hospitals are different. Don't be afraid to ask questions, and remember they are YOUR babies......... the day you take them home will be one you never forget.......... so so scary but so cool all the same.

I am based in henderson and babies are in auck hospital.
It is quite hard to deal with all thats happening but I find it easy some days and hard other days. My little girl was 940grams born and now after 2 weeks is 1kg, my boy was 1335 grams born and is now 1415grams. Slow and steady I guess. Sorry if it takes me ages to reply, busy busy me.

Travel yes we have been filling in forms, and parking we have a permit to park in the 8 free spaces and I usually get one there about 5 times a week.

I'm glad they are doing so well Chonnni! Yay for attempting breastfeeding with Teegan - that was one of the most memorable experiences in my life, the first breastfeed! And everyone told me to expect Ash to just nuzzle and lick it aswell. I was just having a cuddle one day before she was due for a feed and she started turning her head toward the breast so the nurse said just to try her. Before she even had a chance to show me how to hold her correctly and position her, she had latched on and was happily slurping away!!! (pity it didn't last but thats another story lol)

All the best for trialling off CPAP. It makes life much easier once they are off that!

Finally had the babies near each other today, was great.