Kangaroo Care

Emmett's birth was definitely an interesting experience. I'm sure if you've kept up on my posts you probably realized I had more than a little anxiety about delivering Emmett too early.

So, when the big day happened, I was excited but a little concerned as well. While he was technically out of the preemie phase, and considered full-term, I still wondered and hoped that his lungs would be fully developed and that he would breathe all right, and that nothing would be wrong.

When he was born, he was breathing okay and you could tell he was getting enough oxygen, but you could also tell that he was working harder to get air. The main reason you could tell this was because he would "sing." That's what they called it anyway. Basically he would make a noise every time he breathed. He also wouldn't nurse. I could barely pry his mouth open with my finger, and even when I did he wouldn't suck on it like the typical baby would.

Of course this concerned me! Right after he was born and I realized that it was going to be a bit different experience than what I had dealt with, with Jeffrey, I called my sister-in-law. She has a lot of knowledge in this area, and if she had the desire could probably be a lactation consultant. Anyway, she came down and held Emmett, and talked to us for a little bit and then told me a few suggestions that she had.

One of her main suggestions was that I do skin to skin with him (also known as kangaroo care). I was like, duh! Why didn't I think of that?! :) So we tried that for about 10 minutes and then a nurse came and told me they were moving me to a different room. So, we moved all our stuff over to the other room, and then I held Emmett again, and here is the wonderful and amazing thing.... he puckered his mouth, and latched on. SERIOUSLY.

Ten minutes! My sister-in-law was still there at that point, and she was as impressed as we were at the rapid response Emmett had had. It was like a switch had been flipped. He only improved from there. He stopped singing, he started to nurse better, and just continually got better and better until we were released from the hospital.