Tiny hand

Tiny hand
November 20, 2010 (one day old)

Lilypie Premature Baby tickers

Lilypie Premature Baby tickers

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Nuclear melt down

I think the ongoing stress of being a preemie parent finally caught up with me yesterday.  Although I've been feeling like things have been reasonably manageable and the anxiety level about Cayden's immediate health has been fairly low lately, I had a major meltdown over Jamison losing a shoe in Babies R Us!  Granted, there were several other factors that built up my stress level in the hour or two beforehand, but sheesh!  In the aftermath, I felt even more anxiety that if I can't handle a lost shoe, how am I going to handle the rest of this Preemie Marathon? 

Once I was able to get home, eat some dinner, and somewhat compose myself, I made my way to the NICU to see Cayden.  That little boy is the best therapist ever!  All I had to do was reach into his isolette and let him hold my finger and everything suddenly felt better.  Nurse Megan also helped assure me that I wasn't a complete and total nutjob - she reminded me that between the prolonged stress of having a baby in the NICU and the hormones still flowing through my body, my reaction was completely understandable. 

I helped give Cayden another bath and then we cuddled up for some kangaroo time.  His weight was about the same last night but they decreased his oxygen to 1 liter of pressure.  (I think I forgot to mention when they dropped him to 1.5 liters a couple days ago.)  One liter is supposedly the lowest setting they use on the high-flow oxygen, so the next step down will be moving to a low-flow nasal cannula.

1 comment:

gregt said...

I'm pullin' for ya cuz, sending love!