The Robertson Family: NICU and Special Care Nursery

Lee spent Saturday, June 25 through Tuesday, June 28 in the NICU. From there, he was moved to the Special Care Nursery where he stayed until Friday, July 1. The NICU and Special Care Nursery at Presbyterian Dallas were awesome. Lee was taken care of by wonderful doctors and nurses.

The NICU doctor, Dr. Green, and all of the nurses were wonderful! We tried to be there as much as we could, but only 4 people could be back there at a time and I had to go back to the room to rest at times. They also didn’t want Lee to be held a lot and passed around. We would usually try to be back there when he ate and we would hold him while he got fed through the feeding tube. Cole got to hold Lee for the first time on Sunday in the NICU. I know he was so anxious to hold him since he didn’t get to the day he was born. Sunday night when I was so tired and resting in the room, Cole went back to the NICU and just held Lee in the peace and quite. It had probably been two hours and I started wondering where he was. I texted him and he said he was just so happy and relaxed holding his little boy. They were finally able to have some time to bond. What a sweet moment!

We felt so lucky to be at Presby because of the Special Care Nursery. Presby is the only hospital in Dallas to have this transitional nursery to get the babies ready to go home. They still have around the clock monitoring and a nurse watching over them, but most of the babies in Special Care are working on their feeding and so they aren’t needing as much care as the babies in the NICU. The thing that Cole and I loved about Special Care is that we had our own room and I could stay there overnight with Lee. It was torturous to have to go home on Monday night without our baby once I was discharged from the hospital. I know we were so lucky that I only had to spend one night away from him whereas I know some babies born early have to spend months in the NICU. I can now understand how hard that is on the parents!

Cole and I both stayed in Special Care with Lee on Tuesday night because I was a little anxious and didn’t want to stay by myself. Cole was such a trooper and slept on this little cushion on the floor. He didn’t get much sleep and had to go to work the next day. After that, we decided it would be best for Cole to spend the night at our house instead so he could get some rest for work. So, for the next couple of days, Cole would come to the hospital and stay with us until late at night and then come back again in the morning on his way to work to say hi.

When we got to Special Care on Tuesday, Lee still had an IV and feeding tube. Since he was a little jaundice, it was very difficult to find veins and keep his IV in. They were having to change his IV every 12 hours or so. They had put it in his hands and feet. On Tuesday night, when they were having to change it again, they ended up having to put it in his head of all places. This momma was not happy about that, although the nurses reassured me that it was not anymore painful than an IV in the hand or foot. I still bawled when I saw it because it just did not look comfortable. Early Wednesday morning when I got up to do his 6am feeding, I noticed that the area around Lee’s head where the IV was had started to swell. The nurse looked at it and called her charge nurse to look at it and they said it was fine. It did not look fine to me. Luckily, the day nurse, Wendy, got there soon after and I told her to look at it. She immediately said that the IV needed to be taken out because the vein was bad. She called the doctor and told him the situation and recommended that we remove the IV. Luckily the doctor agreed and gave orders to remove it. I refer to Wendy as my angel nurse. I had prayed so hard that night that he could get the IV out. God answered my prayers and sent a wonderful nurse to take charge and do the best thing for Lee. I knew he was not comfortable because he was not eating well at all that night. As soon as the IV came out, he started eating well again and from that point we never had to use the feeding tube again. Wendy worked so hard with us that whole day on feeding and it was such a turning point.

Our feeding schedule was 12, 3, 6 and 9. The nurse would come in and do whatever they needing to at that time. They might have to take his blood pressure, take blood, weigh him etc. Then, I would take his temperature and change his diaper. The nurse would unhook him from the monitors and weigh him before she gave him to me to feed him. Then, when we were done, the nurse would weigh him again to see how much he ate. Since he was a preemie, one of the big problems is that they don’t have the stamina to eat for long. So, sometimes he might get 6 mls (which is basically nothing) and other times he might get 25 mls (still not much, but closer to an ounce at least). We would then have to give him a bottle for the rest of his required amount (this would be such a battle because he was already exhausted). He had to at least get 30 mls but his goal was 50 mls. And we couldn’t have two feedings in a row that were only 30 mls. If we didn’t reach these goals then we had to feed the rest through the feeding tube which we really didn’t want to do. They wanted to see us get through 48 hours without using the feeding tube. Oh, and I didn’t mention that after we did the bottle feeding, I then had to pump. The whole feeding process took between 1-1.5 hours. So, needless to say, I was lucky to get an hour nap in between feedings. I never knew I could be so tired, but we powered through with the goal of wanting to go home. By Friday, Lee had proven that he could eat like a champ and that he was ready to get out of there! He did so well and I was so proud of him for being able to go home so quickly.

We had to go through a whole checklist of things we had to do before we could be discharged (i.e. the carseat test where he had to sit in his carseat for 1.5 hours hooked up to a monitor to make sure he could breathe). Once we got through everything that Friday afternoon, we headed home. I have to say that our stay in the Special Care Nursery made me more confidant taking Lee home. We had a week of practice with nurses all around showing us how to take care of our little boy. Once we got home, we continued our same schedule for two weeks. Cole was a lot of help and would get up with me during the night and give Lee his bottle. We eventually got to the point where I was able to just breastfeed him and we didn’t have to go through our whole process. This definitely allowed for more sleep!

Here are some pictures from our stay in NICU and Special Care Nursery.