Our GGG were 30 weekers (29 and 6) - and were in the NICU for a couple of months. We also have a 3 year old (2 1/2 at their birth) who needed our attention. We kept our 3 year old in day-care while the babies were in the NICU. Once they were ready to come home, we pulled her from day-care to keep germs out of the house.

General Pointers: The NICU is busy and bustling at times. You can often feel overwhelmed. Keep a pad of paper or a journal with you so you can write questions down when the doctors are around, and you can write notes of what they said (you won't recall everything). Don't be afraid to ask questions and challenge opinions if you're not feeling good about something. The NICU we were in had a two different medical teams made up of Attending docs, residents, medical students and nurse practitioners -- get to know whose on the teams so you can feel more comfortable with whose looking after your babies.

What was helpful: having the teams explain what was the going concern and what they were doing about it. Getting to do stuff with the babies -- tube feeds, diaper changes, isolet changes, holding the babies.

How often were you there: - we went every day, often in shifts. Some days we'd go in the morning and then again in the evenings. We got onto the feed schedules and tried to be there when they were being fed. Some days we were there too long and we exhausted ourselves - but in the end it was worth it.

Dividing time: The first 2 weeks the babes were all in different areas of the NICU so I would start with one and work my way around. After 2 weeks, we got moved to a level 2 hospital and they were all put into the same room (that was AWESOME!!)...once they were able to keep their temperatures up, they got moved into a "triplet" crib so we could be with them all at the same time!

Sanity: Keep the positives in mind and at hand no matter how small. We kept a blog daily for the first 2 months or so -- it was like journaling and allowed us both to get our thoughts, hopes, fears, and wins out. Blogging also allowed us to look back at how far the girls had come and the milestones we had all crossed.

Dealing with staff: There will be some that really connect and others that just don't. There will be the "technical" nurses - interested in the monitors and other that are more rounded. At the end of the day, I had to accept that they were good at what they did and had the best interest of my girls in mind. Someone mentioned "primarying" the babies. If you find someone you really like, ask them if they would like to primary your crew...many do!

Visitors: We were limited by policy to parents, siblings and grandparents. With the onset of H1N1, the NICUs here really cracked down and don't allow anyone outside of those parameters. The babies don't need others, they need you. Ours ended up with meningitis - so, be cautious and vigilant about the choices you make for visitors.

One of the other families on this forum took a bunch of video and had signs for each "marker" -- one week, one month etc...they took pictures of each time with all three girls. They made a video of it at the end of the one year marker -- it was really something to see and, I wished that I had started with that from the beginning.

Try to take each moment at a time -- there will be some that you won't want to repeat and others that you'll want to last forever. The time in the NICU will go by quickly...hang on and trust those looking after your babes!

Congratulations and good luck!

Janet
G - 12/07 35 weeks
GGG-04/10 30 weeks