Our First Cuddle

NICU 6

Day 7 - 9

Gestation 24 weeks

We are starting to do a few more of his cares. It’s pretty scary though, he is so fragile and tiny. 

Together with the nurse we cleaned his head, eyes, ears and mouth with a bit of warm water. We changed his nanoprem nappy and his bottom is quite red. 

A few more days and he will get a rescan of his heart and head. He will get one of his umbilical lines removed today, one step closer to a cuddle. 

He is on 4ml of milk every 2 hrs and the doctor is keen to give him more. He dropped a little bit of weight, which is normal, down to 540grams. 

His right eye is starting to open just a little bit on the far side, half one eyed peeping. 

On day eight and he is now getting 6ml feeds and his weight has gone up! He is over his birth weight at 579 grams, a small milestone. One of many milestones and we will celebrate them all! 

I did some more of his cares and his bottom is still pretty raw.

On day 9 I came in to see him butt up, airing out. I laughed aloud, he looked so funny, like a little humiliated frog. Of course I took a photo. 

The last umbilical line is gone, today is the day for our first cuddle!

I’m so nervous cause he is small but also so excited. I have waited days for this, so patiently. We didn’t want to disturb his lines or the IVH brain bleed.  But now we are ready and he is stable.

Two nurses help me to get him out, we bring the incubator down low so I can lean all the way over. I slide my hands under his head and butt and lift him only a few centimetres to my chest. The nurses help me sit down and sort out all of lines. They tape his ventilator tubes to my arm. We tuck his little legs into my maternity bra and he fits perfectly. 

He settles in, I can feel his body relax. I finally get to feel his heartbeat on me again. And I gave him a gentle kiss on the head, our first cuddle and our first kiss.