Our Firstborn Son Spent a Week in the NICU
A whirlwind week filled with fear, compassion, and hope
I want to start this story at the present day, because I don’t think there’s a great deal of value in building up any suspense and because my wife Sara and I have experienced quite enough stress. Currently, our little family is home, happy, and healthy. Our son Carl has been through a few checkups and is doing well, and the same is true for Sara. We’re mostly just battling the normal challenges that come with having a newborn. Sleep comes in shorter increments than it used to. We are surrounded by diapers. There are lots of moments of frustration — if only this 3-week-old son of ours could just tell us what he wants — but those moments pale in comparison to the flood of love and joy that we feel for the boy. This is accompanied by the surreal feeling of identifying as a parent. We didn’t have a son, now we do. It’s quite odd, really.
While I suspect most new parents have many of these feelings, Sara and I dealt with some additional challenges. When Carl was born, there were significant complications. His oxygen was cut off for some period of time during labor and we didn’t really get to see him in the delivery room. He was whisked away to the NICU shortly after making his debut. When we made our way from the delivery room to the maternity ward — without…
