Jane spent her entire time of our two day stay at the hospital at the NICU. I saw her at about 12:30 am on Wed. Nov. 23rd and by then, she had out all of the tubes and I got to give her some of the pumped breast milk. It was so nice that she only had an iv for antibiotics and then a heart monitor by that time so I'm so glad that I don't have the "live" memory of her on the respirator- the photo was traumatic enough for me. That was the first time I cried following her birth was when I saw that photo. Only two people could be visiting her at a time so it was either William and myself or my sister Sarah. BTW- there are zero photos of me with Jane at the hospital and I'm ok with that as most of the time I was with her I was trying to breast feed her (which was a different set of struggles). She was primarily fed formula while in the NICU and so she is still great at taking a bottle now :-)
Daddy feeding her
The NICU is an interesting place- this was my first experience with it and I feel that the staff took great personal care of Jane and were so helpful. But, at the same time, it is a painful place to see all of these little babies, many of whom are struggling for their lives. Especially on Thanksgiving day, it was heartbreaking to see the little baby girl next to us end up not being released and her parents walking out disappointed as they had even brought in the infant car seat. I think that it would be so hard to leave the hospital without her baby, yet many of these parents do it for weeks or months on end.
I was beyond touched by the selfless acts of charity provided to these infants. Jane received a hand knitted pink/ivory cap and an ivory blanket that she was able to take home. And then, another parent made a special Thanksgiving gift for each child in the NICU because her two boys spent months there and she was only able to take one home with her. I totally cried when reading the story about these boys and was so moved that someone would take the time to bring some happiness into the lives of other NICU kids and parents. Many thanks to the kind founders of
Pirate Power for doing such a kind act.
The adorable turkey cup
and Thanksgiving bib
We are so thankful that we got to take our little baby girl home and celebrate our first Thanksgiving together as a family at home.
1 comment:
I loved reading this post--and am amazed at the beautiful gesture of making gifts for others in the NICU. What an example for me!
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