31 for 31 Fundraising Run
OurStory is a series of posts about the real life experiences of NICU families.
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"I’ll never forget one of the scariest moments of my life. I was 31 weeks pregnant, and the doctor said, 'you are delivering this baby right now.' As the doctors and nurses rushed in, I wondered if our baby was strong enough. Through all the uncertainty, the hospital staff were kind, calm and caring. God gave me an unexplainable peace that told me she was going to be okay. I believe with all my heart that He placed me in that hospital with that staff and they would take good care of her.
Evie was born at 31 weeks gestation; she was only 3 pounds and 4 ounces. I didn’t even have a chance to hold her before she was whisked away to the NICU. When my husband and I saw her with tubes and monitors, it was unnerving, but she was alive! And she was beautiful.
Evie spent five weeks in the NICU and the nurses handled her with such care as they gently placed her in my arms each day. They were encouraging to me when I was having difficulty producing milk since Evie wasn’t strong enough to nurse. She began her life being nourished through an NG tube. The nurses decorated a cute little sign for her isolette. For five weeks, I went home every night without my baby, and came back the next day. As difficult as this was, I also felt assured that she was in good hands with the staff at Garnet Health NICU. I am so grateful to all of the NICU staff for caring for our daughter and making our experience the best that it could be."
-Angela Anderson
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They immediately took her away to begin checking her and running tests. At this point, I haven’t held her, heck I hadn’t even seen my daughters face yet. But she was here!
They finally brought Elizabeth over to me so that I could hold my baby girl for the first time. And I did. All the loses, all the hopes and dreams we had, it was all right there in this tiny bundle of perfection. I had never felt so much love and emotion in one moment in my entire life. It was everything. Suddenly, she turned grey and stopped breathing. They ripped her out of my arms to try to save her. In that moment, we thought we lost our baby girl. We almost did.
Thanks to the incredible team of doctors and nurses at Seton Medical Center, we did not lose her. She was immediately moved upstairs into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where she would spend the first month of her life literally fighting for her life.
I’m not going to go into all the details, but our daughter is a FIGHTER. She is my superhero.
Elizabeth is still on her own unique journey. She fought to be here, she is here for a reason, she will change the world one day. Lord knows she has changed ours."
-Ashlee Barrett
"I don’t know what I expected when I went into labor with Elizabeth. I was almost four weeks away from my due date and I was so insistent that I was not in labor that I refused to even acknowledge the pain I was in for almost twelve hours. I’m not sure if I was scared to be in labor early, or to just be in labor, or if it was the fear of losing another baby.
Greg finally convinced me to go to the hospital. Things seemed to be going fine [until] her heart rate kept dropping and they needed to get her out. If I didn’t get her out then we would need to do an emergency C-section. One push and the help of forceps, she was here. Our beautiful baby girl let out a cry and our entire world changed in that moment.
