Posted: April 12, 2017, 5:22 AM
My son was born 4/4/17 on methadone. I was on a dose of 110mg for the majority of the pregnancy. He started showing withdrawal symptoms around 24 hours after birth. By 36 hours his withdrawal score was at 8 for too long and jumped to 10. It was at that point that it was decided he needed to go to the NICU. It's been a week and they still don't really have him on a dose that keeps his score down. I have a feeling his dose will go up again. So the process of tapering him down seems so distant from now. He still needs to be stabilized before his dose gets lower and eventually off completely. The doctors have been very blunt about the severity of the situation. One said she anticipated he would end up in the NICU when she read through my charts when I was pregnant. She said considering the methadone and specifically, the other medications I was on, she expects him no be in the NICU for minimum a month maximum months. Another doctor said weeks to months. I was on some psych medications during pregnancy but worked with my doctor to switch some meds so it was a combination safest for the baby. I was on Haldol, Lexapro, and Gabapentin(Neurontin). So I know he has to detox off these as well I just don't know how that will effect the length of his NICU stay altogether. Does anyone have personal stories or advice if your a professional? I'm mostly curious for information regarding how long a baby will likely stay in the NICU with these issues my baby has. But share anything you feel would be helpful for me as a mom dealing with this hardship.