Thursday, December 29, 2011
When I had my son at the end of 30 weeks it was
pretty clear that he’d be living at the hospital for a while. I wouldn’t get to
feel his skin against mine right away and we certainly wouldn’t be able to
breastfeed during his first hour of life.
What happens when a neonatal hurricane whisks your
baby out of an OR and it is hours before you know what he looks like? Then, on
top of that, it might be days or even weeks until you can touch your little
one.
How can you be an attached parent when you’re
separate?
Parenting a preemie was the section you probably
skipped over when reading about having your baby. I know I did. Those chapters have come to haunt me as well as any other section of a book that references what to do just after birth.
There are things you can do while living separately
to aid in AP. We practiced kangaroo care every day to get as much skin to skin
contact as possible. I slept with his hats or carried them around so he’d have
my scent with him. I read him books and had discussions with him and also
kept long periods of silence.
We live in the city without a car so I’d been
planning on skipping the stroller and wearing him exclusively. I was really
excited to find out that BabyHawk carriers are not only
preemie-approved but are also used by a NICU in Florida! It felt good to
support such a supportive company. Nine months later (and seven adjusted) we're still BW'ing and moving onto a sturdy German wrap.
It’s really hard to adjust to a preemie plan when
you had envisioned something so different. That’s how it is for all of us,
whether AP or otherwise, but I'd like to think that the extra time we spent together
in NICU only strengthened our bond.
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