Before and After

Will

Matt

Tomorrow Chris and I are participating in our local March of Dimes Walk to support their mission to help prevent premature births through research and education. We will be celebrating the health of Matt and Will alongside many other parents and their precious NICU grads.

The boys were in the NICU for 5 weeks before we finally brought them home on May 31. Though it sounds like a long time, we were blessed to be surrounded by an incredibly caring NICU staff. I vaguely remember the neonatologist coming to my hospital room in the wee hours of the morning after I delivered Matt and Will. He stayed with Chris and I for quite a while to explain Matt and Will's condition and answer any questions we had. Over the next 5 weeks that same neonatologist was one of my biggest cheerleaders; he always had a word of encouragement for me.

In addition to the neonatologists, the boys were cared for by incredible nurses. They were competent, gentle and kind. For quite some time the boys had one-on-one care, so two nurses were only responsible for our children. It was comforting to know that when we said goodnight at the end of each day, they would be in the care of such loving women.

I never would have been successful at breastfeeding if it weren't for the amazing lactation consultant at the hospital. How lucky was I to have consultations with her every day for 5 weeks!

We saw many of these staff members when we visited the NICU on the boys' birthday. It was like a mini-reunion in the hallway with a dozen or so doctors and nurses surrounding Matt and Will. On this day they didn't see them as baby A and baby B, they saw them as Matt and Will- two healthy boys full of life.