Respect. Lived the NICU life myself with twins. 133 days was our stay. Only 1 twin (my son) made it out, his brother was too small. Everything you said is spot on. The NICU is a special place I hope most never know about.
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It was an eye opening experience to the medical world. Of course while we were there it was constant fear and worry. Now looking back m, pure admiration and respect for those going through it. We stayed at the Ronald mc Donald house, so always make it a point to pay for someone’s stay there a few times a year anonymously. Someone did it for us, and we needed it desperately at the time 🤍 I’m sorry for what you went through. 🤜🤛
We were very fortunate to live close to the Children’s Hospital, but several friends (funny how you bond with folks sharing your trauma) stayed there too. Fear, anxiety, helplessness. Dylan weighed 1 pound, 10 ounces at birth. Wife was only 23 weeks/6 days into pregnancy. But he fought, clawed, endured, suffered his way into survival. Brain bleeds, surgeries, transfusions, ventilators, and on and on. But, he survived. So much gratitude for those that cared for him. We had a plaque made for them a gave them on his first birthday. Surreal, 20 years ago.
🤜🏻🤛🏻
Feeling so much respect and respect rn 💜
My cousin is a NICU nurse and she’s one of the most heroic people I know
NICU people go above and beyond on the regular.
We don’t have kids yet, but both my wife and I are unfortunately familiar with serious, scary medical stuff.
My mom passed when I was a teenager, from ovarian cancer. Her mom had it too, but it took her getting diagnosed for our family to learn about the genetic (BRCA) component.
Doctors, nurses, hospice workers… honestly all are one of the easiest reasons to believe in the goodness of humans.
I’m so sorry to hear that happened to you mom. That must’ve been soul-crushing at such a young age.
Thank you 💜 it was really rough. In some ways, took years to get “okay”.
In other ways, I’ve been okay the whole time. She was her own kind of hero — she worked with severely special-needs children, and helped them to discover the ways they could shine. She would help them go to “normal” school, or otherwise find the right program and support, and she touched hundreds of lives.
She’s an angel for me without a doubt and I feel that every day ✨
That’s amazing. We felt strange at first in the nicu. Nearly full term babies. Healthy weight. But caught a virus are birth the led to liver failure. One twin deteriorated quickly and led to multiple organ failure with the sepsis and brain bleeds. One blood clot they couldn’t touch as it was too close to the spinal cord. We are fortunate both made it through. One is the smartest and most crazy kid I know. While his twin struggles day to day. We give him baths, change his diapers. Basically they told us he will need help for life. But am so grateful he is here. Sure we have bad days where he can’t control it, but I love the days we get happy moments. I honestly can’t imagine what you went through as I know how close we were, thank you for sharing your story 🤍
It’s funny when you talk to other NICU families. Without even sharing much, you just know. That’s an experience that has to be experienced to understand. Life really does come to a stop, and you live life moment to moment in a way you may never experience again, I call it “when life is happening to you, and your helpless to effect it”. I’m glad to meet a fellow NICU alum. It’s not something I ever really talk about 20 years later…but that one summer in 2003 the world stopped, for a few weeks, and became very simple. I know you get it, and am so glad both your twins made it. Cheers to you all.
😧 my singleton was only there 6 days and my twins (boy/girl) spent 17 and 28 days there and that was long enough. Unfortunately we know the NICU life all too well, but those nurses kept us sane. It was a struggle to start, but man we were luckier than 95% of the babies in there!
You don’t get this on Twitter…this is the real Nostr! Family!
Well you are right! Y’all did way better than most that pass through the NICU. God bless you all, and I’m so happy that it worked out. That doesn’t discount the fear, anxiety you felt there…it really does leave a mark that will never fade. And anytime you hear about someone being pregnant and childbirth going perfect…you are thankful, because you know.
3 kids all with NICU stays…y’all must have nerves of steel at this point.
I haven’t had to personally experience the hell of being on the other side of it as a parent, but I still have dreams of when I worked in a NICU as a resident (one brief rotation still sticks with me years later).
I remember the new students and residents that would rotate through. Most folks have no idea humans can be so small, and seeing how it affected even them was telling. I remember Dylan’s first day I was able to take my wedding ring and it could have fit all the way up to his shoulder without touching him. Of course I didn’t actually do this because we weren’t allowed to touch him for several days. But I never forgot how small that was.
After NICU I was assigned to OB/GYN and delivered babies.
First week I was like WTF is with all these giant babies. They were normal sized babies. I just wasn’t used to it yet.
Beeps definitely stick with me. The hours and hours of that beeping of a heart monitor and the alarms that go off for any weird reason. You find yourself constantly staring at a monitor and then looking for one when you get home. Luckily when we went the second time, we knew that they knew what they were doing so that helped, but definitely stressful!
