NICU Graduates Continued

Will Continued

...waited, watching all the monitors change and beep. We were lucky that night that I was stable enough to not have the baby. This same routine of being told that I was going to have the baby and then not having him, occurred over the next three days. My blood pressure was finally stable and I was told that I would stay in the hospital and be on bed rest while my 31 week baby grew. On Sunday night, four days after I was admitted, the nurse and the doctor that were in charge of my care noticed, on an ultrasound, that my little baby boy was not moving like he should’ve been moving. I was immediately taken down to Labor and Delivery for an emergency c-section. On Monday, June 4, 2012 at 6:31am, William Ross Conlin, my skinny, scrawny, hairy baby boy came screaming into this world! At that moment, I was filled with love and relief that my baby was okay. I wasn’t allowed to see my baby for 24 hours, and when I first saw him, I was scared for my baby, and I wanted to protect him from everything. When Will was 2 days old, I was able to hold him and have my moment with him. When he was placed in my arms, my joy hit me. I was still scared for him, but my joy finally hit and I knew that Will would be okay.

Will spent 40 days in the NICU. During these 40 days, I would walk into Will’s NICU room to find little mementoes from the volunteer group, Common Bonds. I would find a Parents Survival Kit that had a crocheted lovie and hat, candy, a note and a poem inside. I would also find scrapbook pages and pictures of my baby with cute little notes telling me what he had be up to since I left him the day before. Common Bonds, the parent support group, provided scrapbooking nights, parent support nights with guest speakers, CPR nights, etc. It was such a relief to be around other families that had been through the same thing that I was going through.

When my husband and I found out that the funding to the parent support group had been cut, we were so sad. We were sad that other families wouldn’t have all the support that we were fortunate enough to have while Will was in the NICU. We knew that we needed to do something to help keep Common Bonds funded so they could help other families, like us and that is why we started the ‘Got Preemie?’ fundraiser.

NICU Graduates Continued

Quin Continued...

...the committee when the new NICU was being designed at Intermountain Medical Center, and because of this a parent lounge, and private pumping rooms were included in the design. I used these pumping rooms everyday for 140 days, and was able to pump comfortably and privately. If pumping had been a chore or difficult to do, I may have not continued it throughout my daughter's NICU stay. I also used the parent lounge to make phone calls, use the computer, and store things in the lockers.

Common Bonds visited me before my daughter was even born while I was on bed rest at the hospital. They made sure I didn't feel alone before my baby was even born. After she was born, the support didn't stop. We received goodies and little gifts from Common Bonds. They made scrap book pages for my baby and took beautiful pictures of her. Her scrapbook from her NICU stay is one of my most treasured items. I attended parent night meetings where I learned everything from how to give a swaddle bath to infant CPR.

We also received a tremendous amount of emotional support. Members of Common Bonds introduced us to other parents in the NICU with babies who were also very sick and very small. Some of these families quickly became some of our closet friends. Volunteers from Common Bonds also were there just to talk. I can remember as Quinn's ROP in her eyes was getting worse each week, instead of better, and I was feeling so sad and frustrated. A volunteer from Common Bonds let me cry and share my worries with her, and then helped ease my anxiety by sharing her experience.

Common Bonds and its wonderful group of volunteers is very dear to my heart, and I will forever be grateful for Common Bonds!