The NICU is a great way to break in your baby. Your baby will come home on a three hour schedule. Your baby will sleep through any kind of noise, up to and including the loudest barking dog you can imagine. Your baby will drink formula at any temperature, from any bottle or nipple, and will also breastfeed as long as you did that in the NICU, too. Your baby will be used to crying and not getting immediate attention. If you have a preemie, that crying will not be too loud or disconcerting, and it almost always means hunger, so there is no mystery to it.
And as a bonus, the NICU breaks in parents, too. When your baby comes home, you will already know how to take his temperature, feed him with breast or bottle, give him a bath, swaddle him, and change his diaper. You will also know his personality and how to read his signals.
Still, I don't recommend it.
"And as a bonus, the NICU breaks in parents, too. When your baby comes home, you will already know how to take his temperature, feed him with breast or bottle, give him a bath, swaddle him, and change his diaper."
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have thought that would be a problem for you, after Sammy.
Brianna - Every baby is different -- often times, *completely* different -- and so feeding, bathing, swaddling, diaper changing are different as well. For instance, Sammy was a very easygoing baby, but Leo is extremely feisty and fidgety, and so this makes all of these activities quite a challenge with him in a way these activities weren't with Sammy. Also, Leo's a boy -- we didn't have to worry about being shot with pee when changing Sammy. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're right that the basic principles are the same, and so if one has had a baby, one picks this up faster with a follow-on child, but there's still a learning curve.
Funny, Adam. Now that we have Leo, I'm thinking Sammy wasn't such an easy baby after all. Not difficult - just different.
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