world prematurity day
- jennybjerken
- Nov 17, 2020
- 2 min read
... world prematurity day. not something i ever imagined i would have a connection to. until the day tucker was born. seven weeks early. and that was nearly 15 years ago.
he was healthy + strong, but needed some time to ripen up + learn out to eat. he stayed in the NICU for two weeks. that two weeks is nothing compared to how long some children stay, but in my world, it felt like forever. i will say, we had some of the most amazing staff in the NICU that made the entire experience much easier. there were nights we were able to stay at the hospital, but many nights i would drive home, only to come right back down in the morning. it was so unnatural to leave the hospital without tucker. i cried rivers of tears during those car rides.
one thing i wanted to say that not only do premie babies need extra care, but so do the parents! they are going through a TON of emotions. i remember everything about that day, the labor + delivery ... and not even getting to hold tucker after i gave birth. i got this one image with him after he was born + already loaded on the stretcher to be transported to the other hospital in town where they had a higher level NICU. talk about devastating. this was not how i imagined this playing out. i had gone into labor so quick they couldn't transport both of us. being so naive then, i didn't realize that i probably could have pushed to have myself released. i did end up switching doctors after this because mine gave me about a five minute visit the following day. not curious as to what had potentially happened + not giving me options to discharge to go be with tucker.
tucker was born on wednesday night. i didn't get to hold him until friday. i will never forget how bad those days were + the weeks after. having everything you dreamed of basically being flipped upside down.
any parent of a premie has their own story. if you know premie parents, support + love on them. if you are the parent of a premie, i have nothing but mad love for you + know how badass you are. celebrate your strong little fighters today.
mine is now taller than me + in driver's ed. they grow fast! ❤️
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