This is where our journey begins.

I had never really heard or thought about the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) until we experienced it firsthand. My first son Nicholas was born at 35 weeks after an emergency C-section. He wasn’t moving around anymore, so after a few hours of being on the fetal monitor, we decided to deliver him since nothing was improving. We found that the cord was wrapped around his neck and twisted three times. I held him for about 10 minutes until he was whisked away to the NICU because he needed help with oxygen.

We didn’t think we’d have to stay there for very long initially, but then he had trouble with feeding so our plans changed a litte bit. We found that Nicholas was aspirating when he ate. Instead of the food going into his stomach, it would go into his lungs. He was diagnosed with silent aspiration when he was two weeks old. “Silent” meaning he wouldn’t cough when he would aspirate. The only way we knew that was happening was his oxygen level would fall. A swallow study confirmed aspiration and he would need a feeding tube.

We had a choice. We could either keep him in the hospital for another month, do another swallow study, then go from there, or we could take him home and come back in a month for the swallow study. We decided to keep him in the NICU for another month to see if things improved.

We spent a lot of time there. We made it a point to be there everyday for his cares where we took his temperature, changed his diaper, and fed him. He wasn’t hooked up to very many machines, so it was easy to hold him and rock him. We stayed for about two hours in the evening after work.

I was never depressed with him being there. It was sad not being able to have him at home, but I knew he needed help and was getting the best guidance possible. Our nurses were amazing; literally voted the best in the region. We were constantly updated about his care and always in the loop. I’ve heard of some baby’s having the same few nurses during their stay. That didn’t happen for us, but all the nurses were extremely helpful and so nice. We would get one nurse for a few consistant days, then they would change. That definitely made us more comfortable that he was getting at least a little bit of consistency. It made it better when the nurses knew his story.

With that being said, if we had to do it all over again, we would have taken him home after his diagnosis at two weeks. I will never willingly leave any of my kids in the hospital if they don’t need to be there. We played a waiting game that caused unnecessary stress. We didn’t want him to go through surgery. We didn’t want to take him home then bring him back. We thought after one month, his aspiration would subside.

We were incredibly naive and obviously didn’t understand that aspiration doesn’t just go away. Before Nicholas was diagnosed with Autism and developmental delay, I thought his time in the NICU effected his development because he was there for so long. That wasn’t the case. In the end, although we had a good experience and were treated well by the nurses and staff, we should have brought him home sooner and come back for the surgery.

Nicholas had surgery for a G-tube and Nissen when he was six weeks old and he came home after seven weeks (52 days) in the NICU. We were finally able to be a family at home.