Firstly, let me start off by saying how incredible grateful we are that Victoria General had a space in the NICU for Aiden. When I went into early labor on December 20th, there was NO NICU space available in the province. (There are 4 hospitals with level 3 NICU’s for very preemie babies.) There was mention of the states! Apparently women have been sent to Calgary. If you don’t have enough emotions running through your body, the last thing you want to worry about is there not being anywhere for your baby to go. Lucky for us, a NICU doctor at VGH said they would take me as they had a bed for me and were expecting a baby to be discharged from the NICU soon.

The NICU team at VGH is amazing. The nurses and doctors all really care and support Aiden and myself. The first 3 days in the NICU we were not allowed to hold Aiden. They call it a 72 hour sensitive handling period as brain bleeds are a risk in preemies. It is so incredibly hard to not hold your baby. Every time Aiden would cry, I would cry. We were quite the duo. We are blessed with a strong feisty baby, which they nicknamed Mr Feisty. He has not problem vocalizing when he is not happy about something. I’m sure later on in life we will have fun with this trait, but it the NICU is happily received.

On the evening of Dec 27th, we got to hold Aiden for the first time. It was amazing, he loves his snuggle times. I just went straight to sleep and was so content sleeping on my chest. Skin to skin is very important and beneficial to preemies and it really helps to bond with your baby, and helping to bring in my milk supply. We are now allowed to hold Aiden once a day. It’s our daily highlight and look forward to this time every day. The nurses have also taught up how to do his temperature checks, diaper changes and his oral hygiene.

Dec 29th, day 5 in the NICU and Aiden was taken off the CPAP machine and switched to a nasal cannula. The CPAP machine gives the babies pressurized air to aid in their breathing. It supplied Aiden with a consistent air pressure in his lungs. We were very grateful that Aiden never needed to be intubated or to have oxygen support. Lung disease from prolonged respiratory support is a potential complication, so the faster he’s off everything the better. This was a huge milestone and so exciting to reach within the first week.

To wrap up our first week in the NICU, Aiden had his IV removed! The IV was placed when he came into the NICU. It runs through their umbilical chord and into the belly button. This gives them extra support during their first week. Our other excitement of the day was Aiden reached his full feeds which is 19ml! Once they have reached full feeding, the nurses start to in HMF which is to increase the calorie content in his milk. The preemies use so many calories for life that there are not many calories left over for growth. The HMF gives them the extra calories to help the preemies to grow. Aiden also gets a probiotic added to his milk, Flora Baby, as well as caffeine once a day. Yes caffeine. It helps to stimulate the babies and reminds them to breathe. I had no idea the importance of his daily cup of joe, until the one morning when his done was delayed. Aiden was sleeping on me and he got way to chill. His vitals all dropped and I had to keep poking him to remind him to breathe. As soon as he had his caffeine, vitals went up!

We had a really good first week in the NICU. Aiden continues to impress the doctors with his progress. We were upped to 2 holds a day! We go to the hospital every morning and evening to do his care and hold him. We hold for his feedings. The nurses say it helps with digestion to. He gets fed over 75 minutes through a feeding tube, so we hold him for his feed and then for 30 minutes afterwards as he digests. The week has been filled with a rollercoaster of emotions, we are exhausted and trying to find our way into parenthood.