A Few Things For Mom's of Preemies

Here at AvaBaby's we are striving to make your experience in the NICU a little less stressful. While looking after your little one is the primary concern, taking care of mommy is important too. We all know that the NICU experience is stressful to a degree few can imagine. One desire that is fairly common among mom's is wanting to be able to provide the nourishment found only in breastmilk. The NICU environment is not particularly conducive for doing that.
Most commonly preemies are to small and or weak to nurse themselves and they are generally feed through a tube for at least some of their stay. That means that mom must pump her milk in order to provide not only the liquid gold, colostrum, but their infants daily and every few hours feedings.
That is a tall order, but add to that the stress, the lack of personal contact with your infant, the lack of a soothing environment, and the mechanical nature of a breast pump, chances are your milk supply may not come in like you would hope.
I remember when my granddaughter was in the NICU, watching mom's come in with about 1/2 inch of breastmilk in the bottom of a bottle. They had worked so hard the night before, but that was about it. I felt so bad for them.
But then there was my daughter, who produced enough milk to probably feed half of the babies in the NICU. From the moment her daughter was born, she started taking herbs that were know to increase breastmilk, and boy did it ever! She would hook up and in about 7 minutes of pumping she could fill 2 bottles to the point of overflowing.
I became a true believer in these herbs. As I have increased my inventory at AvaBaby's I have sought out a few carefully choosen products that I believe would be useful to our mom's. I am also a believer that whenever possible we should try to use organic products. For this reason, a company called Motherlove, caught my eye.
Motherlove's products are often certified organic, in fact they produce the only USDA Certified Organic Nipple Cream available in the USA.http://www.avababys.com/servlet/the-446/MotherLove-Nipple-Cream/Detail They also have a product that contains a combination of the herbs that my duaghter took in order to increase her breastmilk supply, plus a few that we were not aware of. It is called More Milk Plus. http://www.avababys.com/servlet/the-445/MotherLove-More-Milk-Plus/Detail
Motherlove has a whole line of exceptional products http://www.avababys.com/servlet/the-CERTIFIED-ORGANIC-%26-NATURAL-cln-MotherLove/Categories
Hopefully these products will help to remove one less thing for you to worry about, so you can focus not on whether or not you will be able to provide enough breastmilk, but on being with your little one.

Is Breastfeeding A Micro Preemie Possible?

There are so many challenges that come with being the mom of a preemie, and figuring out how you will feed your preemie in the end is one that can be most distressing. Will you bottle feed or nurse?

I believe it is the goal for many to be able to nurse, but there are many things to consider and hurdles to jump when you are in the NICU. Is it realistic to believe you can actually nurse your baby, let alone never see a bottle feeding?

Being in the NICU isn't very conducive to nursing, that is for sure. BUT with A LOT of determination it can be done, even for the tiniest of preemies. How can I say that? I watched my daughter with her 26.5 weeker, who never saw a bottle feeding!

My daughter had fierce determination that this whole preemie experience was going to have something go as it "naturally" should. She wanted to nurse her little girl and right off she made that very clear to her daughter's medical team. Some were thrilled with the idea and others were less than optimistic, after all this little one started out at 1 lb 15 oz.

So what did my daughter do? One of the greatest problems with preemies that makes it so difficult for them to nurse is that they are just simply to smal and weak, and nursing takes a lot of energy. For many weeks, nursing isn't a consideration, but then neither is a bottle. Preemies are feed with a gavage tube. That time was used to prepare for nursing and no time was wasted. Immediately after Ava was taken off the vent, after about 5 days, she was given a pacifier and this is an important key. We worked with her day and night whenever we were there in order to get her sucking down and get those little facial muscles strong for nursing. Particularly when she was being tube feed, she was given the pacifier. That way the feeling of full tummy was connected with sucking.

That went on for many weeks all the while my daughter was pumping for Ava and she was a real tropper, every three hours, around the clock, just like reality when home. Eventually the first "real" hurdle came along. The doctors wanted Ava to start bottle feeding. She was still to tiny to nurse and bottle feeding is so much easier. So what now? My daughter insisted, begged, and pleaded, she wanted no bottles, she was going to nurse this little girl successfully! Amazingly the doctors said ok, with the nurses backing up my daughter. All you may have to do is ask to try something different.

The lactaion nurse was thrilled that my daughter was taking this stand. It was something they believe can happen for more mom's and babies than it does. The NICU is intimidating to say the least, remember, even the doctor's are just people like you and me, but they often just see things from a more clinical standpoint, and are actually open at times to trying new things as long as there little patients are not in any danger. So they were willing to give this a try and continued to gavauge feed Ava.

Eventually we got to the point where it was believed Ava might be strong enough, at about 4.5 lbs. to begin nursing. This is where things start getting a bit more complicated and just how bad you want this will be tested to the fullest extent. Ava's medical team said, "let's start out with one feeding a day, and see how it goes." Oh, my daughter was so nervous, but so exceited at the same time. Would her little girl be able to do this? One question though, how will they know if ahe was getting anything while nursing? Nurses devised a plan to weigh Ava before nursing and then weigh her after! Simple solution, a bit more time consuming, but they were willing and happy to see if this worked.

The moment arrived, I was not present as I was with Ava's big sister just outside the hospital. My daughter was gone for about an hour, and I will never forget her face when she came out of the hosptial after trying to nurse Ava for the first time...............she was beaming! glowing! smiling ear to ear! Ava had done it!!! She latched right on and nursed! Everyone was so exceited, including the doctors! After about 2.5 mths of being in the NICU Ava did it.

For the first couple of days, Ava was nursed just once a day so as to not tire her out, and she was gavage feed the remainder of the feedings. Eventually Ava was being nursed during all of the day time feedings and some one got the idea that instead of weighing Ava at every feeding, they could pull back what she had eaten through the gavage tube that was still in place and measure her intake that way, now that was really easy.

My daughter eventually nursed her at all feedings except one in the middle of the night, where she slept and the nurse gavage feed Ava. This was not easy, but my daughter was determined and we were staying in a hotel about a half a mile from the hospital. We were in and out all day long, every 3 hours.

It was truly an amazing thing how supportive everyone turned out to be, all that really had to be done was to ask with determination. This will never be possible for everyone, and that is ok, you do what you must to get through this really tough time. But, for those of you who are in a position to do this and can, go for it! Even a micro preemie can be nursed and never, ever see a bottle feeding!!

A HUGE New Shippment of Swaddle Designs

Just got a very large shippment of Swaddle Designs in and there are some beautiful NEW things I have added to my selection। We brought in some fuzzy stroller blankets that are perfect for tucking your little one in when out and about.

Swaddle Designs has received numerous awards for their new prints, including the prestigeous iParenting Media award. There is the Circle on Circle design which babies love to focus on and the Mod Squares on Pastels, also sure to catch your little ones attention.

Swaddle Designs has added to their organics, bringing in new prints in lovely colors. They have also added a brighter whiter fabric, ivory. It is really nice and doesn't look like what you expect to see in organics.

A very interesting new addition is their is the Marquisette Swaddling Blanket. It is made of a fabric similar to muslin but softer. It is light and airy which makes it perfect for warmer climates. It is 42" square and has the familiar swaddling instructions sewn right in.

So there is a lot of new things to look at, and I have just barely touched on a few new items. Come on back and see for yourself. Rebecca

http://www.avababys.com/servlet/the-456/Swaddle-Designs-Stroller-Blanket/Detail

What's New? Organic clothing for micro preemies!!!

I am very exceited about this news. I have been searching the market constantly for more organic products. Up until now, there were only a few things for preemies, and only in sizes 4-6 lbs. But, I have found them, Sprout Organics! Clothing that is organic and made for preemies for preemies sizes 1-3 lbs!

They are beautiful too. They are of very similar high quality as the Australian brand, Earlybirds. The pure organic cotton will be silky soft against your micro preemies extremely fragile skin. The NICU shirt is NICU approved, because it opens up into a completely flat position without every having to move your baby. There are snaps at the shoulders and ties in the front making for instant release if needed.

I trully believe that when ever possible organics are the way to go. They are even more important for preemies and the earlier a preemie is, the more important organic clothing is. Why? I am sure that you realize the purpose of organics is to provide goods free of chemicals and pesticides. Did you know that cotton is the most chemically dependent crop there is? All of those chemicals end up in our clothes touching us constantly, for most that means nearly 24 hrs a day.

Our skin is our largest organ, and it works to protect us from the outside. But still, our skin absorbs everything that is put on it or against it. The thicker your skin the better the protection. In the case of babies though, their skin is much thinner, and chemicals and pesticides are able to penetrate much easier then in the case of an adult. Then if you are talking about preemies and even more so micro preemies, their skin be so thin it is almost translucent. I remember be warned that their skin was so thin that it could be easily torn. Imgine the difference in how long it would take water to pass through a piece of cardboard, compared to the time it would take to pass through tissue paper. See what I mean?

Even dressing your little micro preemie in organic clothing could protect them as an added barrier from the bedding and other preemie positioning tools that are used in a hospital NICU environment. Think about the harsh chemicals that must be used to keep things bacteria free in a hospital. So having an organic option is fantastic. I will contiune to add organics to our stock her at AvaBaby's as I find them, and little by little we can make our home the earth, a healthier place for these little ones who are already in a fight for their little lives.

http://www.avababys.com/servlet/the-CERTIFIED-ORGANIC-&-NATURAL-cln-Sprout-Organics/Categories

Welcome to Our Blog

Finally launching our blog, and there are so many ideas that I have to talk about. But first off, I am so glad that you are here at AvaBaby's. Recently I have been working on a newer version of our store that you have likely come through. Hopefully it is a little more functional and works better with various browsers, meaning you can all see it like it is expected to look no matter what computer you are on.

I have had you and your family in mind when putting the store together. I remember so clearly as I look back at our NICU experience, being in such a blur. I was so exhausted, emotionally drained and needed things to be simple. I didn't have the where with all to navigate a complex website. All I knew is I wanted clothes for our little girl. So I have tried to draw from that experience in making our store easy to navigate.

I am trying to pull together all the resources I think you might feel useful into one concise place.

So please, look around and then if you have a minute, please come back here and let me know what you think. I am open to all of your suggestions, pro or con. My goal is to make this preemie place work for you.

Rebecca