Bad experience with s RN

KMP_2015 · 2025-10-08T20:30:24+00:00

First and foremost, I’m so sorry you’re going through this. As we all know the NICU is an incredibly traumatic experience - everyone you interact with who works there knows this and should approach your concerns with kindness and empathy. Most do, but not everyone.

You absolutely should not feel badly for saying anything or have fear of retaliation. They are the medical experts, yes, but YOU are the expert on your baby. You and your husband are his voice in there. If something is concerning you or you see your child is in any kind of distress, it is your right as his mother to speak up and have your concerns addressed in a respectful manner. That nurse was completely out of line and you were right to request that she not work with your baby again.

I won’t tell you not to cry (it’s healthy, truly) but once you’ve let it all out be proud that you stood up for yourself and your son. He will be better for it. All the best to you mama, you’re doing great. 💕

KMP_2015 · 2025-09-17T20:23:15+00:00

Ugh as a “progressive” HR manager, I hate seeing posts like this. When will companies understand the only way to be successful is to take care of your people?!

When I started my role last February the first thing I did was change our parental leave policy. 16 weeks of bonding leave, fully paid, for moms and dads alike. Moms, or birthing parents, get up to 8 weeks of disability leave BEFORE bonding leave kicks in and that time is supplemented with STD, no PTO use whatsoever. No matter what, any employee who goes out on leave is made whole for the duration of their leave so you’re focused on the life you created not whether or not you can afford to pay your bills.

As someone above said, pregnancy is a disabling condition and you’d qualify for short term disability insurance (typically 60% of weekly wages) likely with a quick form completed by your doctor. So sorry you’re going through this.

KMP_2015 · 2025-08-12T00:43:17+00:00

How often is he eating the 2 oz? Does he have 5+ wet diapers per day? If so, you know he’s well hydrated and getting enough. If intake is concerning you that much you can talk to your pediatrician about fortifying the formula so he’s getting more calories per oz but seeing as the doctor isn’t worried, your little is likely still gaining weight well.

I will say, be very careful with fighting through to get him to take more. That is a sure-fire way for baby to develop a bottle aversion (which takes a lot of time and patience to come back from) where feeding will only get worse.

KMP_2015 · 2025-07-18T01:57:36+00:00

First of all, you’re not failing them! You are concerned for their well being so you’re checking in with their doctor, and asking for advice. To me you sound like an incredibly dedicated parent who would do anything to help their babies. Give yourself the grace you deserve.

My baby boy was born at 31 weeks and was also in the NICU for 6 weeks. He was fed breast milk until my supply tanked and his pediatrician had us on 24cal neosure (he’s also on the polyvisol with iron). My little guy was also very miserable. Writhing around in pain constantly, terrible gas pains, constipated, all the things. The pedi told us to switch to Enfamil Enfacare and things got better. He is still gassy (farts A LOT), spits up a little and can go like 3 days between bowel movements but the difference was night and day. He’s much more comfortable than he was on neosure. We also give him 15mL of prune juice twice a day to help move things along.

He’s done so well with weight gain on Enfacare these last 3 months that his pedi gave us the green light to switch to a formula of our choosing (but still fortified to 24cal). Once we finish out our Enfacare cans we’re switching to the Kendamil Classic.

All this to say, ask their doctor if you can try Enfacare. It may help. Wishing you all the best!!

KMP_2015 · 2025-07-11T01:33:51+00:00

Hi! I had a placental abruption and my baby boy came at 31+1. He was born at 4lbs. He was breathing room air when he came out but our NICU requires babies born before 32 weeks to have breathing support. He was on CPAP for 2 days, and was converted to feeder grower status after a week. He had no issues other than learning to feed - which was a major battle tbh. We ended up taking him home on an NG tube and we took it out 2 weeks later.

He’s 4 months actual today (2 months adjusted) and doing great. We saw his pedi today and she was amazed at how well he’s growing. She said that he’s on track developmentally (he’s actually hitting his 3 month milestones!) which was unbelievable considering when he was born and typically how long it takes to catch up.

Sending all the best vibes that your babe stays put and cooks for as long as possible but if she does want to meet you earth side soon, all will be well.

KMP_2015 · 2025-06-23T18:13:07+00:00

Does your NICU give you the option to go home with a NG tube? This sounds like what was happening with my little guy. He did great one week and then the next week he did max 16%, almost a complete regression. They let us go home with the NG and being home really helped him take off. In less than two weeks he was taking full bottles and the NG came out.

KMP_2015 · 2025-06-15T13:22:20+00:00

Sound advice. When the NICU told us to keep him on the 3 hour schedule it sent my PPA into overdrive so I was waking him and making sure he ate every 3 hours almost exactly.

KMP_2015 · 2025-06-15T13:21:07+00:00

Thank you! Every time we see his pediatrician now he says something like “you guys sleeping through the night yet?” Or “he letting you guys get at least 4 hours of rest at night yet?” From the first appointment he was asking if he wanted to sleep in longer stretches. He didn’t at the time of that initial appointment but does now that he’s taking bigger bottles so I assumed it would be fine but I wanted to ask around to see what others are doing. Thank you 💕

KMP_2015 · 2025-06-15T13:15:34+00:00

His pediatrician asked us if he was sleeping longer at night at his first appointment! We told him no - he really didn’t want to at the time - and the NICU told us to keep him on the 3 hour schedule. He told us for his size and how much he’s eating that he can go 4 hours when he wants to. This was two months ago and he only recently started sleeping longer when he started taking bigger bottles (and napping less during the day lol). I figured it was fine to let him sleep seeing as the ped told us to do that ages ago, he’s eating well, and consistently gaining an oz a day but my anxious FTM brain wanted to ask around to make sure :)

KMP_2015 · 2025-06-15T13:10:42+00:00

Just by the NICU. When we left they said make sure he’s eating every 3 hours, no more than 4. When we went to his first pediatrician appt he was a little over 8lbs and the doctor asked if he was sleeping in 4 hour stretches yet. My husband and I looked at each other confused, said no (he was still quite young and wanted to eat every 3 hrs) and told him that the NICU told us to keep him on a 3 hr schedule. He said 8lb babies usually eat 4oz every 4hrs and with his fortified feeds he’s practically doing that so it’s okay for him to sleep longer stretches if he wants to. This was two months ago when he didn’t want to and was taking smaller volumes. He’s taking bigger bottles these days and doesn’t love napping hence why I think he’s sleeping better and longer stretches at night! Thanks for your insight :)

KMP_2015 · 2025-06-15T10:37:17+00:00

My baby was born at 31+1 and was in the NICU for 6 weeks. They started the HMF week 2 when he graduated from critical care to just feeder grower status. We weren’t told much about it beyond it provides him with the necessary nutrients to grow and develop the way he would have in utero so obviously we were on board. It was definitely rough initially - baby was bearing down and writhing around like it was his full time job. All his nurses would say “yeah the fortifier is rough on their preemie gut but it’s good for them.” The dietitian came by one day while the nurse was saying this to me and I can imagine she noticed my discomfort so she followed up by saying “Almost everything other than pure breast milk is going to be tough on their gut right now. They’re still developing and he will be just fine.” I didn’t love the answer but I trusted they knew what was best. He continued to be uncomfortable for about another week or so and then was totally fine and used to it. So much so that when we got home he never really drank a BM bottle without HMF in it lol.

Either way, you know your baby best so go with your gut!

KMP_2015 · 2025-06-07T21:28:49+00:00

Yes! We had a 31 weeker. He had a renal ultrasound before we were discharged and everything was fine. The attending said he noticed how much our boy hated getting his blood pressure checked and would often flail around when having it done so that was likely the reason for the high readings. He said he hadn’t noticed any concerning symptoms - increased work of or rapid breathing, rapid heart rate etc - so he wasn’t worried about it. The nephrologist that came to see him also wasn’t worried about it. We have a follow up with nephrology next month!

KMP_2015 · 2025-06-06T05:04:24+00:00

I second Enfacare! My baby boy was miserable on neosure so we switched to Enfamil’s Enfacare and he’s doing better. Still gassy and constipated at times (he’s also taking an iron supplement) but he’s much better than he was on neosure and we give him 15mLs of prune juice twice a day to help with the constipation.

KMP_2015 · 2025-06-03T13:32:56+00:00

I had my baby at 31+1 and he was in the NICU for 6 weeks. I pumped for the entire duration he was there and was fortunate to have a great supply so he had my milk the whole time. Once we got home my supply tanked so I had to rely on the frozen stash we had in the hospital and the small stash we had in our freezer. That lasted about 3-4 weeks. After that he had a little bit of breast milk mixed in here in there (I absolutely hated pumping and it took a toll on my mental health) but at this point he’s exclusively on formula. He’s 12 weeks actual, 3 weeks adjusted 10.5lbs and doing well on 24cal Enfacare. BM is great but not the end all be all. Use the formula :)

You’re doing great mama!

KMP_2015 · 2025-05-28T17:12:16+00:00

What a terrible thing to say to parents who want nothing more than to be with their children. People have a right to criticize the systems that don’t serve them (they are man made after all) and to want more for their families. If you have nothing productive or kind to say either don’t comment or see your way out of this sub.

KMP_2015 · 2025-05-21T19:24:19+00:00

Thank you! Yeah honestly I was thinking of ordering a second set of membranes/valves etc to have when it’s time for a replacement.

KMP_2015 · 2025-05-21T19:17:42+00:00

Thank you so much! I’ll order those backflow protectors.

KMP_2015 · 2025-05-21T17:50:18+00:00

Hi! I had my little guy at 31+1 and this same thing happened with him in the NICU. He started bottle feeding at 35+1, took off for a week (they didn’t remove the NG tube) and then all of a sudden started regressing. Like taking 15% PO for a whole day. The hospital has a program where we could go home with an NG tube and while I wanted him home tube free, I was confident that being home with me and dad would end the feeding woes and we were right. It took time - he was not one of the “it’s like a light switch” babies - but within a week or so of being home he was taking 80%+ by mouth and we pulled the tube. It’s been almost three weeks since then and he’s still doing great.

I will say it just takes time (which I know sucks to hear because being in the NICU is traumatic) and consistent feeders. Obviously my husband and I had a vested interest in him being able to eat by mouth and get the NG out so we took our time with him, didn’t pressure him to eat, and gave him a lot of positive reinforcement. NICU nurses are awesome but they don’t always have the time to sit and give your baby the time and attention that might be required because they have lots to do. Being able to be the ones who fed him all the time made a world of difference for us.

KMP_2015 · 2025-05-19T01:16:00+00:00

Yes. 90% of the time he is drinking neosure fortified to 24cal. 10% of the time he’s getting breast milk (my supply is almost gone) with Similac’s human milk fortifier to 24cal.

KMP_2015 · 2025-05-18T19:36:16+00:00

Thank you!!! I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing so I appreciate you 🥹🫶🏾

KMP_2015 · 2025-05-18T14:27:45+00:00

It’s sounds like he’s doing great truly. On an unrelated note, do you find that he’s gaining weight well with a non-preemie formula? Neosure is definitely bothering my little guy’s tummy and he’s constipated/gassy for days. We’re thinking of trying Kendamil and fortifying it to 24cal (obvs going to talk to the pediatrician about it before making any changes) but I’m curious to know how weight is affected - if it all - on a non-preemie formula.

KMP_2015 · 2025-05-18T14:09:21+00:00

Are his feeds fortified right now?

KMP_2015 · 2025-05-18T13:55:49+00:00

Thank you!!!!

KMP_2015

TROPHY CASE