NICU

Henry's first five days were spent in the NICU treating low blood sugar.

As far as NICU stays go, we had a best case scenario, yet it was still an emotional 

roller coaster. 

The feelings of leaving your baby at the hospital are hard to describe. I felt so helpless 

seeing my tiny baby boy hooked up to so many machines, monitors, and tubes. I felt robbed of 

my chance cuddle and get to know my sweet new baby peacefully in our hospital room. 

Once I was discharged as a patient, we had to leave him there and return 

as visitors during his feeding times. Even though I

 never felt like his life was in critical danger and I didn't really even know how to take 

care of him myself, it was still scary leaving him in the care others. 

This experience allowed Michael to give our son two blessings shortly after he was born - 

first a father's blessing and later a blessing to be healed. After the second blessing

Henry's numbers almost immediately started increasing and he stayed on a steady path of 

improvement until he was released. What a testimony of the power of faith and the priesthood!

One of the hardest things for me was the visitation rules. Because we were only allowed 

to have two people in with him at a time and he needed to rest in order to 

be able to get better and come home, we decided to only have our parents be able to

meet him while he was in the hospital. It ripped my heart out to not have him meet

his aunts and uncles and our close friends right away! One of the things I looked 

forward to the most while I was pregnant was introducing our little bundle to our siblings 

for the first time. It killed me to have to wait for this moment and to not have it as I had 

envisioned. 

Now that we are on the other side of this experience, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

But during those lonely nights in the hospital when I ached to hold my baby

it seemed like one of our hardest trials. But isn't that how it is with most hard things in life?

We did manage to find a bit of humor in seeing our almost ten pound baby next 

to the little preemies. It looked like he could have eaten one of them for lunch! 

We feel so blessed that Henry was a fighter and able to come home after only 5 days. 

Thank heavens, literally, for modern medicine and caring doctors and nurses!