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Oh my goodness! Sending good thoughts and prayers their way. I 100% agree with Mercedes about the home cooked meals. My NICU baby was born at 32 weeks and I had not prepared anything and my house was a mess. If you can organize a meal train or cook what you can. DoorDash and Uber are expensive and it caused me to stress more every time we ate. My NICU had a locker room and small kitchen so if they do too buy both her favorite snacks and nutritional snacks so she can get her milk supply up. I would recommend not sending photos of your baby unless they ask of course. If you have the time ask if you can clean their house or empty the fridge and take out the trash. I was in the hospital for a week straight and my husband didn’t leave my side. So if they had leftovers or fresh fruit and veggies in the fridge they will start to rot and make the house smell awful. It will be awhile before the baby can wear anything but I was so happy when my family sent me preemie clothes.
Also if they have a pet maybe you or another friend could take them in for a little while. I kept so guilty for our dog the first few days before we had someone pick her up for a few weeks. Tell her you’re there for them and if she needs a break or wants to go home to sleep in her own bed or shower, that it is okay. 💗💗💗 I hope this all helped if you have anymore questions feel free to message me
Really thoughtful of you to think about all of this. I personally found it hard when she was born that noone really said congratulations - I mean I totally understand why, I don't know that I'd have known what to say in that circumstance, but I think still celebrating that he's here, getting things for him & mum would be lovely. Things for tiny babies: nice muslins (go through them so fast!), NICU octopus (nice ones on Etsy), hand/footprint kits, Birth Poster which are so lovely & personalised with birth details but also has a life-size sketch of baby which is even more precious somehow when they come so tiny (you'll need to get measurements from someone though), storybook for them to read at his bedside, a copy of a newspaper or magazine from the day he is born (it ended up being such a crazy day I forgot on mine!) For mum: a nice journal to document everything through their journey, maybe a small Bluetooth printer so she can print whilst sitting bedside, and anything snack or pampering-wise she likes.
Preemie clothes for sure, there are very few places that make them for the tiny ones but you can get some nice things online, and really nice to have them once they're allowed. The velcro vests are good when they still have tubes. Preemie nappies if their NICU likes you to provide them, as they are also a bit tricky to get hold of in lots of places. Second vote here for looking after pets if they have any, or helping out with any older kids. Mum is likely to be breast pumping so any nipple care stuff / milk storage bags etc.
If you're allowed, offering to swap in to sit at the incubator and update them if they want to go and get food or go home for a bit. Sending lots of love and luck to them all xxx
From my experience, help at home was the one thing I really needed. I wasnt able to go home and dad was working and then straight to hospital, all the while we were unprepared for babies arrival. Wishing you all the best and hope everything goes okay
Thank you all for your advice I truly appreciate it I’ll be letting our family know so we can set up some way to watch their dogs and have some sort of food train. I’ll wait until we have more information on Monday before I consider buying the baby some stuff but I’ll start getting my sister-in-law some self care stuff like y’all suggested. Thank you again I really do appreciate it and will take all your advice to heart ❤️
Are you local to them? Home cooked food was the #1 thing I wanted. DoorDash/UberEats was nice but a hot, fresh lasagna, garlic bread and a salad was so yummy. I would wait to buy stuff for baby for a little bit, but self-care things for mom now would be ok.