Kangaroo Care

Now that Natalie is in the SCBU and Mum has a family room on the unit, Dad can stay over at the hospital too and start to experience sleep deprivation! We can also pick Natalie up and give her a cuddle more easily now. Her feeding tube has been removed from her mouth and replaced with one via her nose now she is off CPAP, and so she can start breast feeding. She tends to fall asleep on the job though. It is often said by parents to their children that they don't seem to realise they've been born, but in Natalie's case I think she has a point! Apparently she will start waking up a lot more in a few weeks. So for now we are practising 'kangaroo care', a technique used to comfort premature babies (and their parents!). This involves undressing Natalie (apart from her nappy for obvious reasons) and cuddling her inside our clothes rather like a kangaroo baby in the mothers pouch. The baby finds the skin to skin contact reassuring, as it is reminiscent of the womb where they should ideally still be at this stage of development. As part of doing this, Dad had his first experience of changing her clothes. She seems so delicate, but can still put up a fair fight when Dad is trying to get her arms and legs back into her babygrow!

Here she is with her new nasal feeding tube