NICU nurses… I’m almost speechless as I reflect on my
gratefulness for men and women like you. The emotional weight of your job
overwhelms me. You see some truly miraculous things, but you also see devastatingly
hard things. You nourish and care for teeny tiny babies for months until they
can go home. You give your blood, sweat, and tears for your patients and their
families to give them one more day, one more hour, a few more minutes. I saw
you running through the halls of the NICU, I saw you work hours past the time
your shift had ended, I saw you rush off on a transport call to save another baby
just like you did mine, I saw you leaning against the hallway wall because it
had just been a really tough week for you. While my entire world was wrapped up
within the 4 walls of that NICU for 11 days, you acted like yours did as well…
but then you went home to care for your own babies.
NICU nurses, you literally kept my baby alive. I handed over
his life to you from the moment he entered this world. You did what I could not
do. You saved my baby. Then, you nurtured him until I could do so on my own.
Then, there’s us; the man and woman that stand next to the
bed of the baby you are giving your all to. We are new parents. We are devastated.
We are lost. We are scared. We are worried. Our world is laying on that tiny
bed, hooked up to what seems like a million machines. We are on auto-pilot,
doing the next thing we are supposed to do. You, amazing nurses of the NICU,
give us hope, you give us peace, you give us comfort. You come along-side families
like ours and bless us with your care for our babies. You bless us with
reassurance. You bless us with hope. We are incredibly grateful for you.
Nurse R,
We will be forever grateful for you. You are a
seasoned nurse. You are a realistic optimist. You called out the good things
you were seeing, but you didn’t give us false hope. You were perfect. All of
our nurses were wonderful, but Nurse R, we waited for you to come on shift.
When you walked into the nursery, my heart felt at rest, my nerves eased, I
breathed a sigh of relief. We know you have worked in the NICU for a very long
time and because of that, we could see your amazing instincts. The way you
loved our boy was stunning. You fought for him; you fought for us. You loved on
us, and when it came time for us to walk out of the four walls of the NICU, you
celebrated with us. You walked with us to our car. You waved at our family as
we drove away with our son to live the life you helped to give us. There are not words to thank you for what you did
for our family.
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