A Celebration for Gompers

Specialties NICU

Published

To my fellow NICU forum posters,

As the countdown indicates, Gompers is getting quite close to motherhood!

Since we are scattered far and wide, and unable to come together to celebrate, I thought it would be fun to throw her a "cyber-shower".

Let's post our good thoughts, wishes, helpful hints, and gift ideas for her,, hubby, and the wee one. (Labor stories are strictly forbidden!)

I'll start:

My best wishes for an uneventful last few weeks of pregnancy, a comfortable labor with her loved ones at her side, a beautiful, healthy bundle of joy, and a good night's sleep before she goes home.

My gifts to the new family would include: 1. A Snuggli (I don't know how I lived without one with my first baby. My second LIVED in it, and was soooo happy and content!) 2. A CD player for the baby's room and a copy of Kenny Loggins "House on Pooh Corner", which contains beautiful lullaby music.

Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

my cyber gift for you gompers is a dvd camera to catch all the sweet moments motherhood brings

wishing you a happy and healthy delivery

keep us posted

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I also second the boppi pillow and lots of onesies! Also get a large freezer if you on't have one and take a day and cook tons of foods that can be put into tupperware and freezer bags, so you have ready made meals when you come home with your little one. Enjoy every minute because they truly do grow at an incredible speed. I can't believe my "baby" just turned 6 this month. Sniff....

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Specializes in NICU.

thank you, everyone!!!! :)

you are all too sweet to me! i really appreciate all the warm thoughts and advice.

i can't believe it's almost here. i spent so much of the pregnancy being terrified that something would go wrong, that i put off getting anything ready for fear i'd "jinx" myself. many of my coworkers and high risk doctors understand and did the same thing.

so now it's getting to crunch time. i am actually supposed to be cleaning out our bedroom right now - family is coming over bright and early to paint both our room and the nursery. we are having our new bedroom set delivered on wednesday - been married a year and still sleeping on hubby's old squishy full-sized bed from his apartment. :( my husband's job tonight is to clear out this room, which is currently our office but will be baby central in a few weeks. we have a lot of junk and our garage is packed right now! we only have a tiny condo so things are really crazy at the moment!!! i keep thinking...by this time next week, things will look so great and we'll be so much more relaxed since at least our home will be "ready" for the baby. not so sure about us though! ;)

i have most of the stuff you guys mentioned already, thanks to our generous family and friends! got my boppy pillow, onesies, sleepers, blankets, halo sleep sacks, cradle, nursery furniture, swing, hip hammock carrier, corificeat, stroller, rocking/vibrating bouncer, diapers, wipes, bath stuff, etc. most likely not able to breastfeed due to certain medications and a previous breast reduction with fibrous internal scarring, but i have good starts formula and dr. brown's bottles all ready to go!

again, thank you all for your kind thoughts and for cheering me on! it means so much to me!

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HALO sleep sacks, those look like great inventions. I'd love to be the nurse who patented those...

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Congratulations!!! Babies are a true miracle and a joy to our lives.

My gift to you is a Britax Marathon. Dont' even bother skimping on the convertable corificeat. Go right for the Marathon. It will hold baby snugly and safely for many years to come while being SO easy to get in and out of just about any car. They're pricey but someone was just complementing me on my choice of corificeat yesterday and I said, again, just how happy I am with them and how I would do it over again if I had to. The Marathon will hold them in 5 point restraint until they are 65 pounds. My daughter is still in one and she'll be 6 in February! ;)

Good luck. Here's wishing you a wonderful, happy, HEALTHY little bambino!!!

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

here is wishing you a safe, quick and painless delivery. new babies are so exciting.....do we know if it is a boy or girl!!!!

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Specializes in NICU.
do we know if it is a boy or girl!!!!

nope, it's a surprise! i've had ultrasounds up the wahzoo - 5, 6-1/2, 8, 20, 25, 29, and 33 weeks - because it's high risk, and i could have found out at the last four scans. i'm trying to be strong!!!

we actually got most of the painting done today and i'm so glad! just need to do some touch-ups and trimwork now. our room is a lovely lavendar-gray color, very soothing. the baby's room is buttercup yellow, very cute. i am starting to get so excited now!

thank you all again for your well wishes!!!

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

Being as my "baby" is probably older than most of you, I find that I have no idea what most of that stuff you are mentiong is! We had blankets, sacques and cloth diapers..... bopsi, onesy, halo? Huh?

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

Well I'm right behind you.. I'm high risk as well and go for my third sono next week but we already know this is a little girl... Ill be delivering in Feb not March if history proves correct and my PIH goes wild like normal....Why am I talking about me...good grief.....enjoy all this pre-baby stuff....

Nope, it's a surprise! I've had ultrasounds up the wahzoo - 5, 6-1/2, 8, 20, 25, 29, and 33 weeks - because it's high risk, and I could have found out at the last four scans. I'm trying to be strong!!!

We actually got most of the painting done today and I'm so glad! Just need to do some touch-ups and trimwork now. Our room is now a lovely lavendar-gray color, very soothing. The baby's room is buttercup yellow, very cute. I am starting to get so excited now!

Thank you all again for your well wishes!!!

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Specializes in NICU.
Being as my "baby" is probably older than most of you, I find that I have no idea what most of that stuff you are mentiong is! We had blankets, sacques and cloth diapers..... bopsi, onesy, halo? Huh?

LOL! Baby lingo sure has changed, hasn't it?

Boppy pillows are shaped like a "c" and can be worn around a mom's waist to help support the baby while feeding. When the baby gets a little bigger, it can sit inside the "c" and is supported by the pillow.

Onesies are the T-shirts that snap at the crotch, basically. I prefer them by far to the kinds that wrap around the baby because those always seem to ride up on them, especially when they're sleeping.

Halo sleep sacks are fleece or cotton sacks, kind of like blanket sleepers but they are sleeveless and the bottom is one big sack. You put the baby in a onesie or thin sleeper, then zip them up inside the sack. This way, you don't have to use a blanket over the baby, which is a SIDS risk.

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Congratulations Gompers! I am so unbelievably happy that you have this chance after being told you'd never conceive. This baby is your miracle. I don't need to tell you to treat him/her as one, because you already know.

Though I'm not a mom, after taking care of my twin nieces when they were born I found out a few things that work:

1) During fussy times, when baby isn't hungry, diaper dry, etc. Turn the radio on to an AM station (or any other station that is very staticy) and turn it up loud. I'll guarantee you the baby will be relaxed or sleeping w/in 5 mins. It will drive you nuts, and when baby is sleeping, slowly and I mean slowly turn the static down until it is off.

2) I burned a CD for my brother that had Mozart, some Opera, Beethoven, etc and he turned it up loud also. Relaxed my nieces until they were butter.

3) Never too early for Baby Einstein. My nieces would sit in their bouncy seats and watch it when they were weeks old.

4) Vacuum cleaners seem to soothe babies.

5) Learn the lyrics to "Blackbird" by The Beatles. Every cranky baby I have sat for, I sing this song and they go to sleep. It's a miracle.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly

Into the light of a dark black night.

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly

Into the light of a dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

And when you sing it, tears will come to your eyes because you are holding your precious miracle.

And one last quote:

Before you were conceived, I wanted you

Before you were born, I loved you

Before you were here an hour, I would die for you

This is the miracle of love.

- Maureen Hawkins

I hope you find true happiness in looking in your newborns eyes and seeing what God can create. Good luck Gompers, you deserve it.

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One day I saw quite a sight in the NICU. A baby had onesies with an opening for his umbilical stump. They were made that way, by Gerber I believe.

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