My Serious Side: Leaving My Heart in the NICU

Foxy Wine Pocket is a (sometimes completely ridiculous over-the-top) humor blog, but I also write serious pieces. Today, I’m honored to be at Scary Mommy sharing one such story about the birth complications we experienced with my first-born child. I hope you’ll follow me there. Here’s a snippet:

My husband and I had finished packing our things and were leaning against the hospital bed holding hands when the pediatrician returned from the discharge exam … without our newborn daughter. The serious expression on her face sent a wave of panic across my body. I squeezed my husband’s hand and braced myself for the doctor’s words.

“Your daughter started seizing during our examination. We’ve had to admit her to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit,” she informed us.

We froze on the edge of the bed, speechless. My head was spinning; my heart was racing; my breath was short. This couldn’t be happening. We’d already dressed our daughter in her special Going Home outfit. We were ready to begin our exciting new life with our first child. We were ready to take our baby home…

Please read the rest on Scary Mommy.

 

 

 

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4 Responses

  1. Saw this on scary mommy, and OMG. I could have written it myself, except my son started seizing the second day of his life and didn’t get to go home until day 8. So he stayed 4 days in the NICU without me. That sucked worse than I could’ve possibly imagined. He’s now 10 and on an overnight camping trip with daddy. How old is your daughter now? Does she have any lingering deficits? Ryan has very severe ADHD, fine motor and coordination issues, sensory processing issues, and Asperger’s/social skills difficulties.

    1. I’m so sorry you and your family when through that. It is so so very hard. My daughter is now almost 12. She has had neurological follow-up throughout the years. She’s had some language and sensory issues (still has the latter), but the doctors can’t directly tie those to the stroke. Sending lots of love to you and your family. xoxo

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