Love, Bethany

“Dear NICU Mama, As you heal and learn to hope again, please remember that it may be hard to imagine life outside of the NICU, but the skills you are practicing now are real. When you go home, you can continue to hold your baby skin-to-skin. You can continue to sing the same songs and read the same books you share with your baby now.

And if you are a mama whose body has needed time to heal before bringing your baby home, remember that this is a tender time. Be gentle with yourself, even as your physical strength returns. You are still a new mom, even if it’s been weeks or months since you first met your baby.”

Love,
Bethany

More of Bethany + Wesley’s NICU journey:

“I was taken to the hospital by ambulance exactly 24 weeks into my pregnancy. We soon discovered that my bicornuate uterus created the conditions for a chronic placental abruption, and I spent the next 5 weeks moving back and forth through different levels of care (15 different rooms!) as my body threatened to go into labor. On December 2nd, 2019, at 28 weeks and 5 days, Wesley was born through natural labor. A team of 20 people were present because a Condition O had to be called for him. 

For the next 71 days, we became a NICU family - with all the driving, pumping, crying, and celebrating it includes. Through all the intensity, bringing Wes home was the scariest part of it all. I had enough energy to go jogging, but I felt hyper-aroused and unable to calm myself enough to connect with him for the first weeks at home. Rescue came from a lactation consultant at the milk bank where I donated, who recommended I try The 24 Hour Cure. It required that I stay in bed (meals and everything!) and do as much skin-to-skin as possible with Wes. Though he slept in his own bed for safety, he was cuddled up with me for all his waking hours. It completely changed our connection. For the first time, we finally got in sync with nursing, I slowed my manic pace, and we established a rhythm for life at home together.”