NICU Mama Must Haves
Zaky Hands www.nurturedbydesign.com/en/thezaky/parents-hospital.php (We slept with ours so they smelled like us before we brought them to the NICU). It's funny how the little things can make you feel better, Leaving Brooklyn every night was so hard but I liked the idea of my smell and my husbands wrapped around her with our "hands".
Octopus for a Preemie octopusforapreemie.com
NICU Diary www.amazon.com/Our-NICU-Journey-Activities-Intensive/dp/B073DPY1CF Writing in a journal while in baby is at the NICU is very helpful! We use to look back and see what she weighed a week prior or how many self resolves she had a month ago. I still look at my NICU journal and cry reading everything we wrote about our journey!
Preemie Clothes www.preemiestore.com/Itty-Bitty-Baby-Preemie-Pink-Hearts-NICU-Shirts--3-5-lbs_p_12992.html Some are WAY to big and not preemie at all haha but this store has true preemie clothes!
Milestone cards tags4tots.com/collections/milestone-cards
Carseat tags tags4tots.com
Preemie Book www.amazon.com/Preemies-Second-Essential-Parents-Premature This book helped me a lot! I'd read it when I was at home pumping and away from my baby girl. (Good tips on bringing home baby on oxygen). I actually passed it along to my best friend who just had a preemie as well.
www.amazon.com/ My sister found this on Amazon and gave it to me for Brooklyn to use for her head. The Nurses ended up loving it so much they asked where it was from so they could get it approved for all of the NICU babies.
Bring books to the NICU and read to your sweet baby. Anthony and I read books everyday to Brooklyn. Sometimes we would laugh so hard from the silly books we read. It really helped lighten things up at times.
Bring your favorite baby blankets to cover up your little ones isolette! We would bring a clean new blanket every week. The small things really help when your baby is at the NICU. Setting up her "room" and adding a cute new blanket helped me.
And bring your favorite thin soft blankets for their "sheets". (If you don't bring any don't worry the NICU will have you covered!)