Love, Alyssa
“Dear NICU Mama, your birth story tells the story of a mother’s love.
Your story doesn’t start with a smooth labor and delivery; it’s one of urgency and uncertainty. Your story doesn’t feature a birth plan and the oh-so-coveted golden hour, but rather a magnesium drip and 24 hours of bed rest.
Keep reading, mama.
This isn’t the story of the picture perfect breastfeeding journey you dreamed of but instead one of IVs, tube feedings, and pumps. Your story doesn’t take place in the hazy first days at home but in the blue lights and beeps of the NICU.
Keep reading, mama.
When the grief of losing your ideal birth fades and the clouds of the initial NICU stay start to clear, your heart will grow in ways you’ve never imagined.
Just keep reading.
A NICU mama grows a love unlike any other. This love helps you face your deepest fears and persevere through the most uncertain of times. This love makes you cherish every small milestone and enables you to work through any setback.
Keep reading, mama – because one day, you’ll turn the page, and you’ll close this NICU chapter. That unwavering love, that get-through-anything love, it stays with you. That’s a NICU mama’s love.
Keep reading, mama. This sisterhood is right here with you.”
Love,
Alyssa
More of Alyssa + Maddox’s NICU Journey:
“Our little warrior princess, Maddox, joined us at exactly 34 weeks. While out of state, I was convinced my water broke, so my doctor urged me to make the 4 hour road trip home and come in to our L&D. After a very lengthy triage and a visit with MFM, I was induced. I delivered Maddox in the early hours of my fourth day in the hospital. She cried like the small purr of a kitten and I held her for a few minutes before she was whisked away to the NICU. I didn’t see her for 28 long grueling hours, but that first 48 hours shaped me as a mother. The pain of leaving the hospital without your baby still makes me catch my breath. Life in the NICU brought on the most severe PPD and PPA, but through communities like this one and a little help from my doctor I’ve handled my symptoms and the clouds are lifting. Maddox is small but mighty and hitting all her milestones. We can’t wait to celebrate her 1st birthday in May 2023.“
