Tips for new mum with baby in neonatal?

[Snufflebabe]

I'm hoping you can all help...my closest friend is around 29 weeks pregnant. She has suffered with a condition called severe hyperemisis throughout her entire pregnancy. This means, for her, she has vomited around 10 times per day, unable to walk anywhere, she is hospitalised every couple of weeks for dehydration and malnutricaan, her liver and kidneys are suffering, her teeth are rotting because of the sickness....horrific. there is noting the doctors can do to help her. The doctor is going to deliver at 36 weeks, if not earlier.

I live 300 miles away from my friend, so havent been able to be there for her during these last few months. (I have my own baby and work ft).

As she is unable to shop, I said I would pull together a list of things she will need for those first few weeks. She can buy everything online, and it can get delivered to her house.

I wondered if any of your little ones had spent time in neonatal, and whether you had some tips for things to buy, things to know about in advance?

My poor friend has had such a miserable pregnancy, so just want to support her in whatever way I can.

Thanks

No tips but you sound like a lovely, thoughtful friend and i'm sure she will really appreciate the offer! X

Bless you, you sound like a wonderful friend!!

My DS spent 2 months in NICU and SCBU and it was a long, hard slog. As far as I am aware 37 weeks is considered 'term' so it could be that the baby can go straight home with it's mother, at worst it should only be a few days/ week.

Anyway, with that in mind this may not apply but things we needed were:

• premature clothes for small babies (fastened with Velcro to get easily on and off whilst avoiding wires)
• nappies (our SCBU didn't provide them)
• cotton wool balls (see above)
• a small teddy to keep in incubator to personalise it a bit
• a special blanket for cuddles/ kangaroo care

Other things that helped:

• good thick hand cream (constant hand washing/ alcohol gelling dried them out terribly)
• snacks such as museli bars so you didn't have to leave the unit
• drinks/ fruit etc (basically portable foodstuffs that don't spoil)
• my Kindle was an absolute godsend! It relieved the tedium of sitting Corsica for hours whilst baby slept and I could also read it whilst expressing, later breastfeeding
• lansinoh/ breast pads etc for breastfeeding

Hope this helps. You're friend sounds to be having a very rough time of it. I hope things improve for her soon.

I second everything that previous posters have said (esp nappies, handcream and pillow), plus.... slippers.

DS and myself were both in hospital, him in neonatal and me on a ward, for 3 weeks, and we were over an hour from home. I only had flip flops and ballet pumps and suddenly just wanted to feel cosy (no soft furnishings in hospital!) so I got DH to buy me the cheapest cosiest pair of slippers from the supermarket (£5) which did the job for the 3 weeks and then I binned because I never wanted to see them again.

I also read some very crappy magazines because my brain was not in a fit state for anything too intellectual, and then when I had read them I gave them to the other mothers on the ward.

DH has just said that his advice would be not to think about it too hard, and hand yourself over to the medics - let them take control and go with the flow because it is sometimes all you can do.

Hope it all goes ok for your friend.

What a lovely friend to have :)

• Another advocate for the Kindle - a life saver!
• Our scbu provided nappies, cotton wool, baby clothes... however using our own clothes made ds feel more 'ours' if that makes sense?
• Asda do tiny baby clothes - best ones we found!
• Eye drops, sucky sweets and a million bottles of water - nothing drier than scbu!
• Loose tops - if baby is in an incubator or in a cot on a heat mat she'll only be 'allowed' to cuddle for short periods - tell her to use every opportunity for skin to skin / kangaroo care (naked baby down her top - nothing more special)

• please, please tell her that no matter how hard it is - just be patient. We were desperate for ds to come home and really pushed for it. Looking back it was too soon, he was too little and ended up back in hospital less than 2 weeks later!

xx