NICU Discharge Class

We attended the NICU discharge class from 9:30 to 11:30, taught by Cheryl.  It was only us and another couple, who had just had a 38 week baby two days before (and was their second child) so their stay in the NICU wasn't going to be longer than a week, at most.  The first 90 minutes or so Cheryl talked to us about the proper way to bathe a baby (clean to dirty, no soap in the face, keep them warm) and various other baby issues (make an appt with the pediatrician soon, avoid crowds due to RSV, how to heat up breastmilk - and not to heat up too much, etc).  The last portion of the class was watching a video on infant CPR (the spokeslady in that was *very* enthusiastic) and a video about the perils of Shaken Baby Syndrome.  I think the latter video was made sometime in the mid 1980's - the hair of the mothers and the glasses on the father were dead giveaways.

Matt still isn't feeling well (he sounds worse today), so we had a lovely lunch at the hospital cafeteria before he headed to work and I headed to the NICU.  Cathy was our nurse again today, and I found out: (a) she loves Disney - is going on a cruise for her anniversary in May; and (b) she has two kids named Matthew and Emily.  Cathy is quite the talker, once she gets to know you.  

We worked on breast feeding again today.  Hazel took to it pretty well; she had a brady off the bat (I heard her gulp), but then sucked for about 10ish minutes until she fell asleep.  Abby really wasn't interested again.  There was some suckage, but not much.  I wonder if using the nipple shield is helping or hurting the cause?  It is easier for me, because then I can tell they are on or not and sucking, due to the milk in the nipple part, but it still hurt when Abby sucked today.  Plus, maybe they'd be better with the real thing?  Hard to tell.

I ended up holding Abby for most of the afternoon, since I held Hazel almost exclusively on Tuesday, and then held Hazel until I was kicked out of the NICU at 6:30.  Both girls are so cute!  I noticed their eyelashes were growing; I hadn't really noticed them before.

Pics for the day:

Hazel

Abby