Sunday, September 14, 2008

Rooming In

Shawn and I were supposed to room in on Friday night, but there was some confusion and the wrong date was written down so we roomed in last night (Saturday) instead. It was so much fun! We even got a few hours of sleep. We got to the NICU at 8pm and by the time we got Kennedy transferred to the rooming in room and settled in it was 9pm and time for a feeding. The rooming in room was way different than Shawn and I expected. We were thinking it would be more sterile. Instead it was like a little hotel room. It had a nice size bathroom, a closet, a day bed with trundle, a glider, a TV and sink and counter space to fix up formula and organize her meds and supplies. After the feeding Kennedy fell asleep so we waited for her to wake up and then gave her bath. She promptly ripped off her nasal canula and pulled out her NG tube. I finished her bath as quickly as possible while Shawn held her canula in place. Soon as she was out of the bath and wrapped in a towel Shawn got some more tagaderm and we taped her canula back in place. She was hungry and crying so we decided to go ahead and feed her and deal with the NG tube later. Lucky for us she managed to take the whole bottle except one cc and even took her meds by mouth. After a couple hours our night primary Jasmine helped me place a new NG tube before her next feeding. She did well with that feeding also and we only had to gavage 5 ccs. I was glad we got the NG back in though since she had quite a few meds due with that feeding and I doubt I would have gotten her to take all of them by mouth. I think Kennedy was really enjoying having us there. She was up most of the night and gave us quiet a few smiles (a skill she has recently acquired and I have yet to catch on film). We were all having so much fun we really didn't even try to sleep until after the 3am feeding. Up to that point her med schedule only allowed for about 45 minutes to an hour of time between feedings and more medications. All in all we had a great time and other than all the meds and checking the monitor when it alarmed I think it went much like the first night with baby for any new parents. We are scheduled to room in again next Friday night if she can't come home before then.




The Rooming In room





Shawn and Kennedy


Kennedy Playing




2 comments:

Jo said...

That's so awesome! I also loved rooming in. We actually did two night in a row. Our room was just a regular hospital room with a hospital bed (for one of us), a chair that reclined (for the other), a tv, and two small cribs for the girls. We also only had a half bath - a toilet and a sink that was stopped up for hours. I had to shower down the hall - and only when someone else was in the room. I couldn't leave at all.

Your room sounds MUCH nicer! It's fun finally feeling like a mommy, isn't it?!!

Johelen

Anonymous said...

she is so cute, its nice that you got a picture of her without the ng tube, im so happy you got to spend a night with your little girl.