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Interesting. Our baby arrived 10 weeks premature and although it wasn't immediately after birth (as I'll explain why below), the hospital strongly encouraged t

Interesting. Our baby arrived 10 weeks premature and although it wasn't immediately after birth (as I'll explain why below), the hospital strongly encouraged the kangaroo care as mentioned in the article, which mom did daily until we could take our baby home. In a week it will be a full year since birth and the baby is in no way behind developmentally compared to other 10 month olds (when adjusting age due to prematurity). So although anecdotal, I can believe this can be a very helpful practice. Due to arriving mid-pandemic and because neither of us had COVID tests prior to the unexpectedly premature birth, we weren't allowed to visit the baby in the NICU until our tests came back negative, which was about 30 hours later. I wasn't even allowed to be with mom during delivery, but the doctor did allow me to see the baby for a couple of minutes from a distance and under the proviso that I touched nothing in the NICU (including things like walls, windows, doors, handles, etc). Anyway, somewhat superfluous information at the end there, but it was quite an experience and I'm just happy everything turned out fine.

bredren 5y ago
I’m so glad to hear your 10 month old has been making out well. My wife and I are weeks away from our first. While very lucky—our close friends and family have not had serious encounters with covid, We’ve been most affected by regulations that have interrupted what would have been normal parts of a couple’s first pregnancy. I’m sorry to hear you were not allowed to be with the mom during delivery. And that you were delayed in visiting the nicu by those tests. That must have been very difficult. I remember being told I wouldn’t be able to be there with my wife for the first ultrasound. I attended via FaceTime. I was a little more accepting of the circumstances at the 28 week, but still not happy about it. One of the bigger bummers has been having no I’m person social interaction with other new parents approaching the same life stage. It’s just not the same over zoom and it feels like a pretty big miss. Always trying to keep these things in perspective. As of now I’ll be there for the birth, and really just want a good outcome after all.
- jonathanlydall 5y ago
  Congratulations and I'm glad to hear that things seem to be good as could be hoped for considering the pandemic. With everything else that happened I kind of forgot about not being allowed to join for check ups and ultrasounds, it definitely sucked. Fortunately they made an exception on the day of the birth (where we made an appointment only because my wife was feeling uncomfortable), otherwise I probably wouldn't have been with my wife at all before she was rushed off to theatre. Good luck and enjoy.
thanatos519 5y ago
Congratulations! My kid was also a preemie and got kangaroo care alternating with being wrapped in a UV-emitting blanket. Now he is 8 and still blows me away every day with his kindness, smarts, skills and ... uh ... argumentation. :) The benefits of kangaroo care are worth studying, but the results of the study are about as unexpected as the 'your cats love you back' study.
- CPLX 5y ago
  > the 'your cats love you back' study Hold on, your cats love you back?
  - thanatos519 5y ago
    I don't remember which study it was, but a quick search will find quite a few, e.g. https://www.inverse.com/science/how-do-i-know-if-my-cat-loves-me https://www.inverse.com/science/how-do-i-know-if-my-cat-love...
prionassembly 5y ago
We had a 35-week baby stay a couple of weeks in the NICU too. Our maternity ward was far less paranoid over COVID, and we got to hold the baby during the C-section and for a while afterwards. Baby is just two months (unadjusted) and it's already annoying to always be explaining adjusted age and where people should be counting from for developmental placemarks. I find as a father that sometimes the only way I can soothe the baby (mom breastfeeds and has to sleep during the daytime) is to take my shirt off and place him on my chest. I can almost code one-handed this way. I think babies somehow imprint to your smell or taste.
- syntaxing 5y ago
  Totally hear you but the bright side is that they catch up extremely quickly. My kid “caught up to average” within around nine months or so.
- jonathanlydall 5y ago
  Yes! I just read this to my wife and we had to laugh a little as the adjusted age thing has definitely been a bug bear at times. At this point when people ask our child’s age, we almost always just say the adjusted age as it’s easier, especially with my wife’s gran who doesn’t speak English as her first language and then is worried about her being behind developmentally. In regards to the bonding, for me it’s a feeling like no other to have your baby see you and mom as the greatest two people in the whole world.

bredren 5y ago

I’m so glad to hear your 10 month old has been making out well. My wife and I are weeks away from our first. While very lucky—our close friends and family have not had serious encounters with covid, We’ve been most affected by regulations that have interrupted what would have been normal parts of a couple’s first pregnancy. I’m sorry to hear you were not allowed to be with the mom during delivery. And that you were delayed in visiting the nicu by those tests. That must have been very difficult. I remember being told I wouldn’t be able to be there with my wife for the first ultrasound. I attended via FaceTime. I was a little more accepting of the circumstances at the 28 week, but still not happy about it. One of the bigger bummers has been having no I’m person social interaction with other new parents approaching the same life stage. It’s just not the same over zoom and it feels like a pretty big miss. Always trying to keep these things in perspective. As of now I’ll be there for the birth, and really just want a good outcome after all.

jonathanlydall 5y ago
Congratulations and I'm glad to hear that things seem to be good as could be hoped for considering the pandemic. With everything else that happened I kind of forgot about not being allowed to join for check ups and ultrasounds, it definitely sucked. Fortunately they made an exception on the day of the birth (where we made an appointment only because my wife was feeling uncomfortable), otherwise I probably wouldn't have been with my wife at all before she was rushed off to theatre. Good luck and enjoy.

thanatos519 5y ago

Congratulations! My kid was also a preemie and got kangaroo care alternating with being wrapped in a UV-emitting blanket. Now he is 8 and still blows me away every day with his kindness, smarts, skills and ... uh ... argumentation. :) The benefits of kangaroo care are worth studying, but the results of the study are about as unexpected as the 'your cats love you back' study.

CPLX 5y ago
> the 'your cats love you back' study Hold on, your cats love you back?
- thanatos519 5y ago
  I don't remember which study it was, but a quick search will find quite a few, e.g. https://www.inverse.com/science/how-do-i-know-if-my-cat-loves-me https://www.inverse.com/science/how-do-i-know-if-my-cat-love...

prionassembly 5y ago

We had a 35-week baby stay a couple of weeks in the NICU too. Our maternity ward was far less paranoid over COVID, and we got to hold the baby during the C-section and for a while afterwards. Baby is just two months (unadjusted) and it's already annoying to always be explaining adjusted age and where people should be counting from for developmental placemarks. I find as a father that sometimes the only way I can soothe the baby (mom breastfeeds and has to sleep during the daytime) is to take my shirt off and place him on my chest. I can almost code one-handed this way. I think babies somehow imprint to your smell or taste.

syntaxing 5y ago
Totally hear you but the bright side is that they catch up extremely quickly. My kid “caught up to average” within around nine months or so.
jonathanlydall 5y ago
Yes! I just read this to my wife and we had to laugh a little as the adjusted age thing has definitely been a bug bear at times. At this point when people ask our child’s age, we almost always just say the adjusted age as it’s easier, especially with my wife’s gran who doesn’t speak English as her first language and then is worried about her being behind developmentally. In regards to the bonding, for me it’s a feeling like no other to have your baby see you and mom as the greatest two people in the whole world.