NICU – One last night in the hospital!

Sad! Thrilled! Excited! Nervous! Betrayed! Scared! Doubtful! Confident! Not So Confident!

How I felt the very last day in the hospital? All of the above and probably some more😊

Remembering the day still gives me tears in the eyes and makes me stop for a moment and feel gratitude for everything that I have today. Because the new mom then had so much uncertainties in mind with a great deal amount of love kept inside waiting for the discharge day.

We were going to spend the night only the three of us in a room. Our first night together as a family after two months of separation was going to be in a hospital room. Sad, right? On the contrary, we felt it was a gift from the universe. As much as I wanted to take D. home asap, I was scared to death. How could I possibly take her home with no monitors, no screens showing her vitals, no nurses to ask for help, no doctors to bother?

We were discharged when D. was 36 weeks, and still premature. However, since she met all the discharge criteria, we were ready to go home. We had one last step to complete: Spend the night at the hospital as a family.

Hospital’s policy was to let the family stay a night and see if they are ready to take the tiny one home. What they do is basically they let you do your thing all night long, observe you and interfere where it is only necessary.

From our perspective, it was a HUGE an opportunity. We got to practice being away from monitors yet still staying close to the hospital staff.

As you can imagine, we didn’t sleep at all. It gives me a smile writing about it now. We were this couple with all the good intentions in the world to do the best for our little D. Funny part, we had no idea this was only our FIRST sleepless night😊

We did well! Medical team led by our NICU doctor came over to do a visit in the morning. It was such a big team this time, I am pretty sure it was sort of class in session for the attending doctors😊

We were like a mess but a beautiful happy proud mess looking forward to get the hell out😊