Greetings from my hospital bed

[onceinlovewithamy]

Hello Ladies!
 I thought I would introduce myself quickly, I will probably be lurking around these parts soon.  My name is Amy (if you could't tell) and I hail from the Philly area.  I have a 3.5 year old son, whom I lovingly call my monster.  This is my second child, but my fourth pregnancy.  

 I was hospitalized on March 13th with severe pre eclampsia and now the plan is to deliver my little girl next Wednesday at 34 weeks.  Hopefully i will be released by Saturday, but the little lady will probably be here in the NICU until mid-April.

I am sure I am going to have a million questions after she is born, but right now I am curious how other moms are splitting their time between home and the hospital.  I know I am going to want to spend every available second here, but I also have to be home for my son, and as a real estate agent, I need to be available to my clients.  So how much time do you all spend at the hospital?  I'm lucky that the drive time is only 6 minutes-- 10 minutes during rush hour.  

I look forward to getting to know you all! 

[irishvodkagrl]

In the beginning I only spent about two hours a day. I could only hold them for an hour so there wasn't a lot of good in me just staring at them.

Now that they are off the cpap and starting to learn feedings I try to be there at least four hours a day so we can try to breast feed at least twice. They get fed every three hours now.

[rels09]

Hi there! My DD was born at 34w0d, and she spent 11 days in the NICU. I spent about 1.5-2 hours at the NICU by myself in the morning (about 8 AM to 10 AM), and then another 2 hours or so with H in the evening (from about 5 to 7). Occasionally, if I got there later in the morning, I would go for a bit, go eat lunch in the hospital or nearby, and then come back after lunch. She was my first, though, so I didn't have a kid at home to worry about. I just wanted to say that whatever schedule works best for you, you should not feel guilty for tending to your own needs or the other members of your family!