Bringing a prem baby home - STRESS

[rascal1979]

Hiya

Well after 9 long weeks my prem baby finally came home yesterday (on her due date!) but rather than enjoying her I'm so stressed, because;

1. Since she has been home her temp has been hovering around 36.5 to 36.7 (once it has been 36.8). SCBU always said that 36.7 was 'just about acceptable' so as she is lower that this despite having a hat, vest, babygro, cardigan and a million blankets and the heating turned up I'm stressing there is something wrong cos she is 'cold'.

What was your baby's temp like when you first brought him/her home?

1. She can only feed from my right breast - which the bFeeding counsellor said was fine until we are established more and to just express the left in the meantime - which I am doing and have been for just under a week but now I'm home I'm stressing about it. I'm trying her on the left at every feed before offering her the right and she does have a go but can't latch on. Think it might be my positioning with her so will persevere today. Stressing tho.

1. Since she has been fully breastfed she has been sickly after a feed (could be previously with tube feeding and this was more forceful sick), not projectile just kind of overflows and spits it out. Think it's wind but despite me winding and burping her and baby going to sleep, as soon as I put her down in her crib 95% of the time she spits up again. I've raised the head end of the cot as she prefers not to be completely flat but this hasn't seemed to help.

Arrrrrgghhh I've waited soooo long to get her home and now I'm stressing like mad.

Any advice or suggestions. I'm scared to ring NICU in case they say she has to go back cos too cold etc

God I remember it.... you wait for weeks to bring them home and then you're so stressed when you do.
Agree with the advice about not taking the temperature. I never did with mine - I think you're just going to agonise unecessarily. Re: feeding - dd was still so small when she came home that I literally needed help from a third party to get her to latch on otherwise she fell off! I'd get her into the right position and then DH would have to hold the back of her head and kind of guide her on. I remember having to wake him frequently in the night for this, and for day time feeds when he was at work I'd enlist the help of my (very neighbourly!)neighbour

callieco why on earth wouldn't you take a baby out?? I just don't uunderstand why you might think twice about this. OK DD was brought home in the summer, but I didn't treather any different than I woudl treat any baby. If they couldn't regulate temperature they wouldn't be home

crunchie - I can quite understand reservations about taking a prem baby outside straight after they've spent several weeks in SCBU. My dd was a winter baby and it started snowing the day she came home. No way would I have taken her outside for the first week or so.

really?? OK them alfiesbabe I just wouldn't have occured to me not to IYMWIM.

However I am a different sort of parent to some, I tend m=not to stress or even think about stuff like that

I think it's one of those situation where until you're in it, you really don't know how you're going to feel. I'm a fairly laid back person most of the time - with dd1 (full term) I even got told off by the midwife when she did her home visit and I was putting dd in her carrycot my side of the bed by the open bedroom window . But dd2 being prem wasa totally different experience - I found the whole coming home thing very hard.

Crunchie ... er, I didn't say I wouldn't take a baby out - I did take DS out, as I said in my post. I just said if it was very cold you might think twice for that particular day, if you are already worried about the baby's temperature as Rascal clearly is. The reason some people might think twice about it is it is one thing a premature baby regulating its temperature in a very warm environment like SCBU, and another coping in freezing temperatures just a few days later. I don't think that's too difficult to understand even if it's not something that would worry you personally.

Alfiesbabe, it was snowing the day we were supposed to bring DS home the first time, and i think there was still some stuff on the ground the day we actually did, although it wasn't as cold.

This talk of snow reminded me about my own coming home (not that I remember it, Mum's told the story a few times).

I was born some time around now and it was snowing. Mum had been in for two weeks before hand because I had stopped moving and they were monitoring me because they thought the placenta had stopped working. Eventually they told her they would induce her if I didn't come in the next couple of days, it worked and she went into labour.

Because of the problems I had before birth I was quite poorly and suffered severely from jaundice, spending most of two weeks in goggles. Mum was begging to go home and every day the answer was no because it was still snowing and too cold. One day at 3pm they said "if you want to go home you have to have a car here for 5pm" she rang Dad desperate for him to get there as quick as he could (he worked in another hospital about 4 miles away).

Sorry, got carried away there. Leave the thermometer alone Rascal!

i too've just come home yesterday with my little cherub - was born at 33 weeks and is now 37 (gestational age). we were told at our SCBU that any temp between 36 and 37 is fine...