Advice for bringing baby home

ndinda

New member
We finally got to bring baby home today! Our girl was born at 32+1 and is now 35+6. She was a PPROM baby so we got to do the round of steroids. Luckily she didn’t have any breathing problems besides being on O2 nasal cannula for a couple of days. Any advice or tips on bringing your preemie home with a pre-k 4 year old that seems to bring home a new virus every week? How did you all deal with this?
 
@ndinda My baby is currently nursing his first ever cold at three months, two weeks adjusted. He’s pretty cross and miserable, but luckily, he eats a lot and is growing well. We got that suction attachment for the vacuum cleaner to clear his nose with, and he gets extra cuddles. To be honest, if you have older kids at home, I don’t think you can realistically avoid baby catching colds and tummy bugs, so just make sure you know what to look out for and try to get through it with the minimum amount of drama. If the medical team don’t think she’s up to weathering a cold, I would put up with an extra week at the hospital now over having to come back later, but if they’re not worried, try not to either.
I’m not an expert by any means, but I have a toddler and a preschooler, so I honestly expected our baby to pick up a bug as soon as school started again. I was initially worried and discussed it with the medical team, but they basically told me not to stress about it. It obviously depends on your baby’s individual circumstances, so essentially just trust whatever her medical team say; they have all the knowledge and experience.
Also, once your baby’s strong enough to go home, barring major caveats, she’s mostly just a baby with added precautions, and you know you can handle a baby, because you’ve done it before.

TL;DR: colds happen, so just know what to look out for.
 
@ndinda Harp on the importance that hands carry germs. My 4 year old hasn’t caught on yet and loves catching baby’s face.

Kindergarten son has brought home 3 colds so far. Baby has had two. One has been more severe, one mild. Has not caught the last one nor did she catch hand foot and mouth from middle brother.

Read an article that said kids catch 36 viral illnesses between 0-6.
 
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