We love our Neonatal Nurses!

There is a special bond between neonatal nurses and families with babies in the NICU.

If I were to explain this to new NICU dads I would start by telling them about our experience and sharing how NICU nurses become more than just caretakers of your baby.

They were one of our main support groups during our NICU stay.

There were so many intimate moments that were shared with our NICU nurses, some good and some bad. From the very first day that I walked into the NICU and saw our tiny baby in her iscolet, with all those tubes, I cried. It was one of our NICU nurses who rubbed my back and told me it was going to be alright. She told me that it is hard to see your baby that way for the first time, all the while the guy that never cries was balling like a baby. It wouldn’t be the last time I would cry in front of a NICU nurse. They were there for all of our firsts with our baby. Her first bath, bottle, breast-feeding, and even our first diaper change. We missed our baby’s first bottle. It was given to her in the middle of the night. We were so excited that she was finally at a point where she could start getting a bottle, but a little sad that we weren’t there to see it. When we walked into the NICU the following morning we found that our NICU nurse had taken pictures of our baby having her first bottle and had made a collage for us of the event! You cannot imagine how special that was for us!

Our nurses were our major source of information.

If we had questions about things that were happening to our baby or certain care she was being given, we would ask our nurses. They would share their experiences and explain to us about things we might experience or what we might expect. Our NICU nurses taught and showed us how to care for our baby once we did get to take her home. They would relay progress reports or daily information about how our daughter was doing, even when we would call during a 4 a.m. pumping session. If we wanted to know anything about our baby, our neonatal nurses had the answer.

Our NICU nurses were the only reason that the unbearable act of leaving your baby every night was even possible.

Every night the hardest most gut wrenching part of our day was closing that door behind us and leaving that little baby who was fighting for her life, while we went home. The only solace we found was that we knew she was in great hands. The trust we had with our NICU nurses was so special. We knew they cared and loved our baby almost as much as we did. It gave us piece of mind during one of the most turbulent times in our lives. When everything in our lives was so unpredictable, it was nice to have something we could count on, our neonatal nurses.

Our NICU nurses became our second family.

It only made sense, because we were spending so much time in the NICU. We spent 67 days in the NICU with our daughter who was born at 27 weeks. They were the only people we were seeing on a daily basis. Our neonatal nurses wanted to talk about the only thing we cared about, our baby. They shared some of our same hopes and goals, which were to get our baby healthy enough to go home. We were so grateful for our experiences with our NICU nurses. We have tried to stay in touch over the years, and have even seen some of our NICU nurses get married and start families of their own. They are the reason that we rush back to every NICU reunion, in hopes to see our friends again.

For us, it felt like they went through our NICU journey with us, standing by our side, holding our hand every step of the way. Going through such a life changing event with someone, there is no doubt that we consider our neonatal nurses our friends and family. For all you new NICU dads, you are going to need your NICU nurses more than you know, and they will be there for you! If you had a special experience with you neonatal nurses, please share in the comments below. As always, don’t forget to subscribe!