Ok, so you have just delivered your baby early, very early. They are premature beyond your imagination (13 weeks early for me) and they take your child(ren) to the NICU. This situation was a little different for me than most I assume. I am sure there are some out there who might share in this journey with me; however, I would think most cases are different than mine. When I went to deliver the girls I had to be put to sleep because I was given blood thinners early that morning and they honestly thought they might lose me while delivering the girls. No one was allowed in the room, not even Matt, my husband. I can’t imagine the feelings going through all of my family members as we were all worried about losing one or both girls because of delivering so early and now there was a chance they could lose all three of us.
Brooke
Kendall
After the girls were delivered they were taken immediately to the NICU as they normally are, however, my circumstances made it that much more difficult because I was put to sleep so when I woke up so many hours later I still hadn’t seen, felt, or embraced my two new beautiful babies. One thing that kept us feeling better was the nurses we had. NICU nurses can sometimes be a little pushy as they are there to protect the babies so they want to make sure everything is up to code, (you are washing properly, not touching too often, or making the baby uncomfortable), but I can honestly say we had about 8-10 great nurses, 1 horribly unfriendly nurse, and 1 nurse that was exceptional and went above and beyond what we ever could have expected from her.
I remember each day when I would go see the girls hoping nurse Nancy was going to be on duty. When you go to see your child most nurses are welcoming and friendly. They will greet you for the day and give you a rundown of what is going on with your child (in medical terms most of us don’t comprehend) but Nancy was different. As soon as we walked in she would greet us with a hug and ask how we were doing first, then she would do a rundown of how the girls were doing. This was anything from their bowel movements for the day (which is a big deal in preemie land) to how many times their alarms went off for the day. Nancy not only kept us informed and feeling welcomed but she would explain everything in medical terms (again, what most of us don’t understand) and then she would turn it into everyday people talk so we could get a much better understanding of what exactly was going on with our children. She took time out of her day to hold the babies when they were allowed and really made us feel that she loved our girls as much as we did. She always made sure that we had everything we needed and answered any questions we had. She let us cry, laugh, and smile with her as we watched our girls struggle, fight for their lives, and get better. I am so grateful that we had a nurse like Nancy who put not only our babies first but us first.
To this day, we still keep in touch with Nancy. We use to take Brooke to see her when Kendall was still in the hospital and now we send her cards every couple of months as well as Christmas cards. She truly made an impact on us and we could never repay what she SAVED for us!