
A NICU Stay During Pandemic
My son was born at 28 weeks gestation and then spent 99 very long days in the NICU. It wasn’t until we had been home for several months that I started to process the trauma and isolation I experienced throughout his NICU stay. I survived his hospitalization by developing a fight or flight mindset in an effort to protect myself… I focused on every detail of his daily care and, at the time, failed to recognize how abnormal our overall experience was. As a NICU nurse myself, I openly had very high expectations.. I set boundaries for myself with the hopes of not becoming an overbearing, difficult parent…