Nesting at the NICU
Yesterday about an hour before Mr. Tldz and I were going to head out to visit Cardinal Cadette, the nurse practitioner called and said they wanted me to come in and spend the night to do the Cadette’s nighttime feedings. Since she’s been giving the night nurses trouble with desats (drops in oxygen level) and drops in heart rate but doesn’t do that when I’m feeding her, they wanted to see what would happen if I feed her at night in order to prepare her to go home. So I packed some items and we headed off. Mr. Tldz stayed the couple of hours we’d originally planned, then came home to take care of Agent Murphy.
We arrived for Cardinal Cadette’s 3:00 p.m. feeding, which included a consult with a feeding specialist. It was with the woman I really liked from the day before. She observed both me and Mr. Tldz feeding the Cardinal and said we both did beautifully and our little girl didn’t have any problems during that feeding. Cardinal Cadette and I moved to the nesting room starting with her 9:00 p.m. feeding. When the nurse practitioner called she hadn’t explained any of this, so I’d thought I’d be camped out in the recliner in the Cadette’s pod. But it turns out they have a private room/bath for these “nesting” sessions. It’s still in the NICU and the little one was still on monitors with the nurses, but we were somewhat removed and on our own — a lot more like what it will be like when she comes home. I fed her in the nesting room at 9:00 p.m., 12:00 a.m., 3:o0 a.m., and 6:00 a.m. I had to pace her a few times when she got to guzzling, but mostly she paced herself. And she didn’t have any desats or drops in heart rate during these feedings. Maybe Mommy’s familiar heart rate, breathing, scent, and all that help her to regulate herself.
Although she did so well, because she had such a hard time Friday night/Saturday morning, they want to watch her for another day. We’re hoping she’ll be able to come home tomorrow afternoon. Oh, and I should mention that her cord stump fell off yesterday. Hooray!
Tags: cardinal cadette