Morgan Kate

Sometimes I feel like our stay in the NICU was a 107 day course for new parents. Really. We learned so, so much during our stay.

Let's think about it..

Holding your baby

How did you feel the first time you held your brand new baby? You may have been anxious, nervous, scared. You probably wondered if you were doing it right or if your baby's head was in just the right position. I'll admit. I used to get very nervous when I would hold a newborn baby. We were super nervous the first time we held our little bundle of joy, but we had nurses standing right beside us each time to assist with anything we needed. They were there to tell us the best position, how to hold her head and anything else we needed help with.

Bath time 

What about the first time you bathed your new baby? You were most likely at home and hadn't a clue what to do. Sponge bath? Submerge in water? Get the hair wet or keep dry? Three times a week for fifteen weeks we got to practice this skill with a nurse standing right beside us. When you do something three times a week for fifteen weeks you get pretty good at it.

Changing a diaper

Now I knew how to change a diaper, but I didn't know the whole "slide-a-new-diaper-under-the-old-diaper-before-taking-it-off" trick. This has saved me so many, many times.

Bottle feeding

How do you hold the bottle? How often do you burp the baby? Again, we had the best nurses on hand to assist when needed. They showed us techniques, tricks, all sorts of things. And when Morgan Kate wouldn't take the bottle for us, her nurses would give it a try.

After our NICU stay there are also things we just can't seem to do any other way. 

For instance...

We think Morgan Kate can only wear Pampers because that's what they use in the NICU.

For a long time I never used a bib when feeding her because they didn't use one in the NICU.

I dress Morgan Kate in the next day's outfit each night. Meaning that she sleeps in her clothes for the next day. That's how they did it in the NICU and it works great at home, especially when we have early doctor appointments.

I think Morgan Kate should only get a bath on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays because that's what we did in the NICU.

I think that at all times Morgan Kate needs to be dressed in socks, an outfit with long sleeves and legs, and at times even swaddled just to stay warm. Again, that's how we dressed her in the NICU. Sometimes I forget that you could probably just put a baby in a onesie and be good.

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We visited Dr. G today. Earlier in the week we didn't have an appointment on the calendar, but I knew we would probably go in for at least a weigh-in. Sure enough today was the day. And speaking of weight...our little gal is one ounce shy of the double digits. She weighed in at nine pounds and fifteen ounces. I was so very excited!