A Few Preemie Mistakes (In My Opinion)

These are just a couple of things I was surprised to discover as we ventured into the preemie world last summer.

"Preemie" Carseat: We thought we needed a preemie carseat and headed off to BabysRUs to check out what they had. They carried one brand that was "preemie" and it was a whopping $400. We looked a little closer and discovered the only thing that qualified it to be a preemie carseat was that it was rated for babies as low as 4 pounds. The other carseats were rated as low as 5 pounds. A whole pound difference. Ok.... so instead of throwing down 4 big Benjamins, we decided to wait and see how big Little Bug would be when we left the hospital. Sure enough he hit 5 pounds in no time. And if he was under 5 pounds the hospital would have rented us a "car bed" (like a car seat but it lays down) for next to nothing for as long as we needed. Problem solved.

Preemie Clothes: We did end up with two preemie outfits that we cherish dearly. But I am glad we didn't buy a whole set. They only fit him for a week or so. When he was first born they wouldn't let him be dressed because of his IV. Once the IV came out, we dressed him in his two outfits and the hospital had oodles of clothes to put on him besides that. When he began to fit into newborn clothes (at around 4.5 pounds) we brought in our own. It was still risky though because if a nurse didn't know they were our clothes (we had an ID sticker on back) and tossed it in with the other baby clothes laundry, we would have never seen it again.

Breast Pump: Ok, this isn't exactly a mistake, I'm just glad I waited to buy one. The hospital had a couple to use in postpartum, and a couple to use in the NICU. They gave me my own parts so it was sanitary, don't worry. Also, since it was "medically necessary" for me to pump since Bug was in the NICU, the insurance company covered the cost of a rental pump. It weighed about the same as a small car, but it just stayed in the guest house room anyways. I did tons of research and waited until the last few days before buying my Medela pump. I waited so long because I wanted to be sure Bug wasn't going to be nursing as often as we wanted (make sense?). It ended up that my milk supply far surpassed his daily intake so I probably would have gotten mastitis if I gave up the pump after coming home (sorry if that's too detailed for you). I plan on posting about pumps in the near future, FYI.

Not Packing a Proper Hospital Bag: I made the mistake of packing one change of clothes when I unexpectedly ended up in the hospital for a week. I ended up sending Michael back up to Logan for a bit of make up, more clothes, shoes, my flat iron, ect. I won't pack that much next time I have a baby, but I will pack more than one change of clothes. If it fits, it ships. (har har har)