NICU – Dressing my Little Preemie

DAY 41! After 41 days of no clothing, D. was dressed in a super cute onesie by the nurses.

I was told by the nurses a few times that if I wished, I could have brought her own clothes. The truth is until then I had never gone shopping for her. I was scared to go and get involved in that territory. I guess I did not want to jinx the good progress by getting her new, cute outfits. We could start acting normal (like dressing her properly) at home and leave all that NICU days behind. I was protecting MYSELF.

I also did not feel comfortable bringing in clothes to NICU due to the risk of infection. They already had a sanitizing system in place and I did not want to interfere with that. I was protecting my BABY.

I let the nurses dress her as they wished for a week. They did dress her so nicely every day, I loved it. They cared. They wanted her to feel like normal. They also gave this worried mom some time to get used to a different routine and overcome her fears. I appreciated it.

After a few days, I gathered enough courage to go for a quick shopping hoping they marketed clothes for tiny/preemie babies.

Of course, they did😊 So many of them with cuteness guaranteed! I finally purchased a bunch, went home excited.

My sanitization process included washing and drying them in the washing machine. I covered the ironing table with a big piece of clean cloth and placed D’s newly washed and dried clothes on it. I wiped the base of the iron with an antibacterial wipe. There I was ready to complete the last step of the sanitization: Ironing😊

Ironing probably took the least amount of time during this entire sanitization process😊 Tiny baby outfits were so little that it took like 30 seconds to iron one piece😊After ironing, I placed them in another clean wrap and folded the wrap firmly so that the clothes were not in contact with the outside world😊

Brought it to the NICU the same day. Next day I went in, there she was in her new clothes looking at me, looking forward to coming home to many more😊

And for me, it was another move out of my comfort zone as we got closer and closer to our big day: DISCHARGE DAY😊