My NICU experience at SickKids
It was an article in the Toronto Star about the NICU at SickKids that prompted Eirena to reach out to SickKids. As she read about the lack of privacy and cramped space, it brought back memories of the time she and her husband, Dan, spent in the NICU at SickKids with their newborn son, Lincoln, in December of 2016. After learning about the SickKids VS Limits fundraising campaign to build a new SickKids, Eirena was inspired to share her own experience. One of the elements the SickKids VS Limits campaign will support is the re-imagining of the campus, including building a new patient care centre on University Avenue. The new building would impact places like the NICU, allowing for more privacy and space for newborns and their families. Eirena’s hope is that Lincoln's story will help raise more awareness as to why a new SickKids is needed and inspire people to donate to the cause.
GUEST BLOG: Eirena, mom to Lincoln
My son Lincoln spent the first nine days of his life at SickKids. When people first hear that he was in the NICU at SickKids, they always ask if he was premature. It was actually quite the opposite. Lincoln was born on December 10, 2016, ten days overdue. I think, as a new mom, once you hit the 36 week mark you think, okay I have made it to full term, now everything will be okay. But unfortunately that is not always the case. When the paediatrician at our local hospital said that Lincoln would need to go down to SickKids right away, I remember looking at my husband, Dan, and asking him if this was real. As a nurse who works in oncology, being in the NICU was a whole new ball game for me. Instead of midnight feedings and diaper changes, my husband and I were flung into a world of bedside EEGs, ventilator care, central lines, MRIs, echocardiograms … and the list goes on. At a “whopping” six pounds ten ounces, the NICU nurses would comment on how gigantic he seemed compared to the micro preemies who lay not so far away.
When I was reading the Toronto Star article, which referenced each room having five to six babies in it, and the lack of privacy families experience, it sent me back to those nine days. I was that mom who had just given birth, sitting on a stool in a taped off area with four other babies in the room, as the busy NICU world bustled around us. I remember dreading rounds. We would have to use noise cancelling headphones so that we didn’t hear information about the other babies. But when wearing those headphones, we were always afraid we were going to miss something, especially when Lincoln was extubated, as we were both impatiently waiting for his first cry. I know to some nine days in the NICU does not seem long, but for us it was a matter of life and death for our son, and those were the absolute longest nine days of our lives. Through it all, the NICU staff and volunteers from the nurses to the doctors, from the respiratory therapists to the cleaning staff, were the most amazing human beings. I hate to say they made it all easier, because there was nothing easy about it, but they quickly became our family. We spent all day and a better part of the night with them. They held our hands as Lincoln fought through his first few days, they shared a few tears with us when it seemed things weren’t going as we hoped, and celebrated with us when we were transferred to a NICU closer to home. They made us feel like Lincoln’s mom and dad. From maneuvering his tubes and wires so that we could give him his first bath or do skin to skin, to showing us how to help keep his mouth clean and letting us help turn him to keep him comfortable, they made it possible to feel like Lincoln’s mom and dad and not just spectators starring at an incubator.
Lincoln is now a happy, healthy one-year-old. SickKids gave our son a chance when we were told he didn’t have one, and we owe our world to the staff and volunteers of the NICU. To acknowledge the impact that SickKids had on our son, Lincoln asked for donations to the SickKids VS Limits campaign to help with the NICU renovation (he is a pretty thankful guy!). We are so grateful for the support we received from our family and friends and we hope that our donation will help make an impact for future newborns and families who have to spend time in the NICU at SickKids.
On behalf of Lincoln, Dan and myself, we want to thank SickKids for everything they have done for our family. We hope that, in some small way, sharing our story will help in the fundraising efforts to build a new SickKids.
My son Lincoln spent the first nine days of his life at SickKids. When people first hear that he was in the NICU at SickKids, they always ask if he was premature. It was actually quite the opposite. Lincoln was born on December 10, 2016, ten days overdue. I think, as a new mom, once you hit the 36 week mark you think, okay I have made it to full term, now everything will be okay. But unfortunately that is not always the case. When the paediatrician at our local hospital said that Lincoln would need to go down to SickKids right away, I remember looking at my husband, Dan, and asking him if this was real. As a nurse who works in oncology, being in the NICU was a whole new ball game for me. Instead of midnight feedings and diaper changes, my husband and I were flung into a world of bedside EEGs, ventilator care, central lines, MRIs, echocardiograms … and the list goes on. At a “whopping” six pounds ten ounces, the NICU nurses would comment on how gigantic he seemed compared to the micro preemies who lay not so far away.
"We hope that, in some small way, sharing our story will help in the fundraising efforts to build a new SickKids."
Lincoln is now a happy, healthy one-year-old. SickKids gave our son a chance when we were told he didn’t have one, and we owe our world to the staff and volunteers of the NICU. To acknowledge the impact that SickKids had on our son, Lincoln asked for donations to the SickKids VS Limits campaign to help with the NICU renovation (he is a pretty thankful guy!). We are so grateful for the support we received from our family and friends and we hope that our donation will help make an impact for future newborns and families who have to spend time in the NICU at SickKids.
On behalf of Lincoln, Dan and myself, we want to thank SickKids for everything they have done for our family. We hope that, in some small way, sharing our story will help in the fundraising efforts to build a new SickKids.
