In total we spent six weeks in NICU - two weeks were in Level II NICU, a further three and a half weeks were in PIN (Parent Infant Nursery), and a final four nights in the Parent Room - before we could take Nate home. With the care of the NICU team at Auckland Hospital, Nate continued to slowly grow, and his personality began to show itself as he spent a little more time each day awake.
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| Little wee Nate in his man cave |
Over this six week period, we spent as much time as we could with our wee boy. I spent every day, and Robin came every evening and over the weekends. Initially we were feeding him by tube, and then increasingly by a combination of breast and tube, and eventually all breast feeds. We were enjoying doing all of his cares, and spending lots and lots of time cuddling and chatting.
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| Daddy doing all the work.... |
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| ...while Nate chills out :-) |
Like many premature babies, Nate was jaundiced at birth. At first I thought it was my Mediterranean skin coming to the fore (?!), but eventually we had to accept that his orange skin was not a good look :-). As a result Nate spent many a contented hour in his blue light disco with his sunnys on :-)
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| Snoozing in my blue light |
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| Sun baking in my sunnys |
Not too long after our shift into PIN (where there are 4-5 babies to each nurse), Nate graduated from his incubator to a cot. This was done at a time when it was felt he would be able to maintain his temperature and when it became evident that he wouldn't need as much monitor support. At this time, he was also allowed to put on his first outfit! Wrapped up warm, he adjusted quickly to his new bed but seemed to swim in it :-)
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| My first garbs |
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| A big boys bed! |
As Nate continued to grow, we had a few more visitors, and a few more 'firsts'. Nate's big sisters (Mia 15y, Ruby 13y) stopped by a few more times to chat with their new bro, and proud grandparents (Jen's parents) made many a visit.
We kept everyone else close to Nate through a stream of emails and photos updating on Nate's latest wins (a weight gain, increased platelets, a solid breast feed etc), as each of these wins and 'firsts' came and went.
Nate also had his first bath while in NICU. Initially wrapped in a nappy to help keep him calm, he slept through the whole thing in a blissful state. I was unwell at the time, so being careful to avoid spreading my bugs on.
But in addition to the excitement of having Nate in our lives, we felt that much of that time was characterised by a continual stream of pressure around a variety of different things.....why Nate had stopped growing in the womb, why Nate's platelets took so long to increase, establishing a milk supply after a c-section and then maintaining the three-hourly expressing, why Nate didn't seem to gain weight at the typical weekly rate, where we were going to live given that we had yet to find a rental home (our house was about to undergo a major renovation, and our rental had fallen through when my Dad was so ill), challenges of feeding as Nate learnt to suckle, both Robin and I getting sick at various times, transportation issues with Jen unable to drive while recovering from the c-section, why Nate had failed the infant hearing screening test, and so on and so on.
That six week period was culminated by the final four nights in the Parent Room, where parents are required to stay full-time with their baby in a room close to nursing support but without nursing support, and with no tubes or monitoring.
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| At one with my new dummy |
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| Blissfully peaceful |
While it was fantastic to have finally reached that stage, the Parent Room exists to ensure parents can not only manage the care of their premature baby, but primarily to ensure that the baby can maintain his weight, and in fact continue to grow. Four days and nights in one very small hospital room, feeding and expressing every three hours, and living on hospital food, is not for the faint-hearted. And inspite of our best efforts, Nate grew only a very small amount over this time. While we were at pains as to why, we were eager to get into our rental home and into a more settled environment, where we felt sure he would thrive and grow.
And so on Sunday the 21st of April, Nate's original due date, we were finally discharged from Auckland Hospital's NICU unit. We were still no wiser as to why Nate had been IUGR and premature, but we were discharged with only minor things to follow up on - a possible hearing loss in his right ear, a clicky hip (that was expected to right itself), and a undescended testes (also likely to self-correct). What a relief after six long weeks!
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| Heading home, but not too pleased with my car seat! |
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