Ahh the NICU

Ahh the NICU...

Boy did this take me back, and it is so true! I'm so thankful I can laugh now!

-babysitting costs you $1-2k a day-you present your child's wet diapers to the nurse as a prized gem to be weighed-you only get worried if your baby stops breathing for MORE than 20 seconds…
-you kiss plexi-glass goodnight-you start to wonder if it's possible to wash the skin right off of your hands
-you find yourself making a phone call about twice a day, just to see how your baby is doing
-all of the sudden, preemie clothes look huge…and you notice your baby could share clothes with the stuffed animals she's getting as gifts
-you get excited over ounces and cubic centimeters
-you begin to refer to non-preemies as "fat babies"
-changing your baby's diaper becomes a highlight you call your friends and blog about
-you spend more physical bonding time with a breast pump than your baby
-the blanket your child is wrapped in weighs more than she does
-you know people who have children in their stomachs who are older than your child
-visiting your child includes surveillance cameras, being buzzed in over an intercom, a few sets if doors, giving a code, and other steps that make you wonder if you are seeing your baby or stealing the hope diamond
-you know enough medical jargon to at least be a doctor on ER or Grey's Anatomy
-you start to wonder if babies can communicate with each other through alarms on their monitors
-you wonder if you could somehow fit into your baby's isolet...because it just looks so dang cozy!
-your child bundles up like an Eskimo every time you come to hold her
-your child's foot could guide Santa's sleigh any foggy Christmas Eve
-you have a tendency to jam your knee into the cupboards at home trying to turn on the water to wash your hands
-you have scolded your child for having too low oxygen saturation or heart rate
-you sweat bullets when you change your child's Kleenex sized diaper
-you look forward to the night that your baby's cries wake you up
-you find yourself wondering if it's petty to hope your child doesn't develop a toaster-head, when it's a miracle she's even breathing!
-you see pictures of friends taking their kids to Build-a-Bear…and you think you've spotted a good Halloween costume for your baby (or a dog costume from Target-lol)
-you can tell when a picture of your child was taken based on the color of bedding
-you find out about cluster care the nurses are doing with your child, to avoid too much interruption, and wished your parents would have taken the same approach with you as a teenager
-people ask you if your child will need to pass a car-seat test to be able to come home, and you just smile as a picture comes into your mind of your baby and 4 of her friends from the NICU all sharing the same car-seat.
-you have a running game of "steal-the chair" with one or more nurses/respiratory therapists
-you have see angels wearing scrubs, and have looked through the windows of heaven by peering through the glass of an isolet