Tour of the NICU

Last night Phillip came to stay with me. Around 9:15 we decided that we wanted to get out of the room for a little bit. The nurse came in and since my blood pressure has been better they will let me leave the room in a wheelchair for a short amount of time. So while the nurse was in we asked if we could have the wheelchair for a while. She was very nice and told us that she was actually trying to set up a tour of the NICU for us to go on around 10:00. So we got the wheelchair and headed down to the cafeteria for a quick snack before heading back up to go see the NICU. You never know how good it feels just to get out of the room until you are stuck in one all day long every day. The ride to the cafeteria was pretty good. Phillip is a good driver and there wasn't that many people out that late at night. When we got to the cafeteria I decided on a grilled cheese on wheat with pickles on the side. I was in dire need of some pickles. I haven't had any pickles since being admitted and you know for me that is a long time. Well, we came back and the NICU was ready to give us a tour. They did the tour for us not to scare us or to tell us that our little boy will have to be in the NICU but just to prepare us for the worse. There didn't seem to be too many babies in the NICU last night, which is a good thing. If our little one has to stay in there then we will have to have ourselves bussed in and then go straight to a scrubbing station to wash our hands. Once we have done this we will be taken to our little one's bedside. They were kind enough to show us all of the types of beds that he could possibly be placed in. They also gave us the criteria for him getting to leave. The policy use to be that the baby must weigh 5 pounds in order to leave the hospital. This is no longer the situation. In order for a baby to leave he or she much be able to breathe on his own, hold his body temperature, show positive weight gain, and be able to eat on his own. All of the information they gave us was very helpful. We are praying that we do not have to use the NICU and the nurses in there last night were saying that since I am so far along already that things do look good for him. If we can just make it to the 36 week mark then he may not even have to stay in the NICU for any time. If I was to deliver today he would probably be in there for atleast a week or longer. If he does get sent to the NICU then my insurance will pay for me to stay in the hospital for two days. If the little one would need to continue to stay in the NICU then we would be able to stay with him all day except between the hours of 6:30-7:30 in the morning and night. Also, family and friends can go into the NICU but they would have to be accompanied by either Phillip or me. There is also a limited time frame where friends are allowed to be in the NICU.

Once back to the room from our tour we basically just got ready for bed. The doctor did finally come by around 11:30 to see us for the night. She was pleased with my blood pressure and blood sugar levels. She also wrote orders that my blood pressure did not have to be taken every 2 hours while I was asleep and they could go to a 4 hour schedule while sleeping. That was nice not having to get woken up every 2 hours. The nurse did have to come in around 5:30 to take blood. If you don't know I am a very hard person to get blood from. For some reason my veins love to hide from the nurses when they need blood. Luckily they only had to stick me once to get it. Well, we are waiting on Phillip's parents to get here to stay with us for a while but I will update everyone later in the day as we find out any information from the doctors. Please continue to pray for us that I will be able to keep the little one in until atleast 36 weeks, which by the way is the week of Christmas!