NICU Series - a day in the life.
In honor of NICU Awareness month, we wanted to share a mini series of all things NICU related and to start we thought we would share a day in the life of our NICU journey.
On May 15, 2020 our world changed forever. We had 25-week triplets tucked up in warm isolettes at the UNC Neonatal Critical Care Center. Up on the fourth floor in Pod B our 1-pound micro-preemies fought for their chance at life. Our days looked so identical but were always so very different. UNC’s NICU is set up in pod style where there are multiple babies to each “room” or pod, rather than individual rooms for each infant as you may see elsewhere. This meant we would need to come and go from the hospital each morning and afternoon. Our mornings started off with an hour drive to the hospital. Buckled into our Volkswagen Atlas, equipped to bring home 3 little boys in the months ahead, we would stop for coffee and breakfast on the way. Quietly riding together, we held on to each other’s hope that all 3 of our babies would make it through that exact day. We would then pull up to the parking garage across the street from the hospital and make our walk to the front doors. COVID-19 was in full effect by the time we were in the hospital, so we would spend 20 minutes each morning waiting outside of the hospital doors to get checked in and passed to head up to the NCCC. An elevator ride to the fourth floor and we were outside of the double locked closed doors. Here we would need to call in to the front desk of the NCCC, let them know who we were, get COVID screened once again, wash and scrub our hands and arms and make our way to Pod B. Behind 2 more closed doors would be our 3 babies, spots 7, 8, and 9. All lined up on one side of the room, hooked up to monitors, ventilators, IV’s and feeding tubes.
The life of parents in the NICU was formed into 3 hours increments. 8 am, 11 am, 2pm, 5pm…. We spent hours… days… months living hour by hour, 3 hours by 3 hours. The thing about teeny tiny babies is that they aren’t supposed to be teeny tiny babies out in the real world. They’re supposed to be tucked inside a warm womb of their mom growing and developing to make it into the world. They’re not supposed to be touched, prodded, or poked. So in order to try to imitate the life in the womb, they’re put on “care times” in 3 hour increments. Every 3 hours our teeny tiny babies would get their diaper changed, rotated to prevent pressure spots, IV’s checked, feeds filled, and lightly touched by their mom and dad.
And 20 minutes later the isolette would be closed back up, their dark blanket would be put back over it and we would sit in a chair next to them again.. waiting 3 more hours. From 9 am until after their 5 o’clock care at 6pm we would sit next to their little plastic box until we would head the hour back home. Once we got home, we’d try to unwind from the stress of the day, call back to the unit religiously at 10:30pm for an evening update and wake up the next morning to do it all over again.
Day in and day out this is what we did, for months. But those 3 hours in between each care time wasn’t just sitting and waiting for them to get bigger. It was discussing with the care team, watching their monitors go up and down and ventilator changes and meds needing to be given. We would spend time worrying about the things that could happen to them as a result of being premature. Those things included a ton of testing. 10 days after birth we would check to see if they had developed intraventricular hemorrhages, bleeds on the brain. At 32 weeks we would begin to look at their eyes to check for retinopathy of prematurity, abnormal blood vessel growth causing sight problems. Being careful with feeds to prevent Necrotizing enterocolitis, issues in the intestines of premature infants. Keeping everything incredibly sanitary and clean to prevent infections. Setting up and taking down blue lights to keep bilirubin levels safe.
Pulling labs to check oxygen and CO2, blood tests, sugar levels and adjusting as needed. At 36 weeks getting echo’s to check for cardiac function and issues, things like PVS. And for our journey constantly discussing and deciding what to do for respiratory distress and chronic lung disease including steroid trials, ventilator changes, cpap masks, hi flow cannulas and reintubation.
When we were told the life in the NICU would be a constant roller coaster, it was no exaggeration. Especially when you’re talking about 3 25-week infants. Up until the last day there were never ending ups and downs and it was a ride of a lifetime. But despite all of these intense medical needs, we experienced so much love, so much joy, so much hope, and have found how to truly know what things are important in life. We developed relationships and friendships with those that are some of the most amazing people we know. We spent more time with our babies that we could never be ungrateful for. We learned how to celebrate the smallest things. We found a love bigger than anything we could ever imagine. We found hope out of fear. We searched for silver linings in the worst situations. We developed strength to keep each other up. We watched our babies be greater than us or anyone we had ever met. We really experienced the most amazing and powerful place on earth. Having a premature baby, or any baby in the NICU is difficult and its not what anyone pictures when they imagine having kids. But it can be so inspiring and it can, it definitely has, change your life.. even for the better.
