Love, Makena
"Dear NICU Mama, As another year comes to a close, I hope you celebrate all the days you felt brave. Maybe it was being wheeled into the NICU for the first time to see your baby wrapped up in their isolate. Maybe it was going home to an empty nursery and feeling an intense amount of emotions of what it feels like to walk out of the hospital doors without your baby.
NICU mama, there cannot be bravery without fear. Through this traumatic experience, may you recognize the bravery it took each day to put one foot in front of the other. Watching our babies grow through a glass, smelling hand sanitizer more than the sweet newborn smell and continuing to advocate for our sweet babes even when we didn’t feel strong.
May you always remember the bravery it took to pick yourself up over and over again and continue to fight for your baby. We don’t always feel ready to be brave, but NICU mama did it anyway.
This journey will be tough, but so are we.”
Love,
Makena
More of Makena + Malaki’s NICU Story:
“My son was born unexpectedly on June 21, 2022 in Duluth Minnesota when I was at a dance competition for the dance studio I work for. I took myself to the hospital due to pain and felt like something was wrong and about 40 minutes after I got the hospital and wheeled to labor and delivery my beautiful son was born at 23 weeks in the bathroom. Malik showed me that he was a fighter from the beginning. Malik spent about a month at the hospital in Duluth before he was flown back to our home town of Minneapolis in a small airplane. Once he got settled into our new “home” of the NICU, he under went heart surgery, two eye surgeries, kidney stones, staff assists, code blues, UTIs, adrenal insufficiency, aspiration while feeding, chronic lung disease and so much more. Through this journey, Malik continued to show me how to be strong. I remember one day when he was about 28 weeks where he grabbed my finger for the first time and looked at me and held onto me so tightly. I knew in that moment, I couldn’t stop fighting no matter how scared I was. I spent 19 days waiting to hold my baby, it was the longest 19 days of my life. Malik came home November 19th 2022, he came home on oxygen and that was a learning experience but we adapted and did everything we could to make that transition as smooth as possible. Some days I would sit and look at him and admire his strength. Malik is a miracle, a lot of doctors didn’t know if he was going to make it at the beginning but I knew as his mom that I was going to do everything I could to continue to fight and advocate for my son. Malik is now 2 and a half, he is the sweetest little boy. He loves Mickey Mouse, animals and being outside. We still face some challenges today but I have continued to learn, educate myself and advocate for him to give him the best life I am able too. Malik is my whole world and gave me a new meaning of life.”
