Love, Mollie
“Dear NICU Mama, the seasons may change, but your worth as a mama never will.
Enduring an extensive NICU stay truly warps your sense of time. Walking past the same trees, landscape, and outdoor areas in and out of the hospital day after day for months—it shows you how the world continues to spin and change around you, even when your baby remains indoors.
One day your baby will get to enjoy the sunshine on their face. They will witness the leaves turning colors and falling off of their trees. They will get to build a snowman. They will smell lovely flowers and play in the dirt.
That may seem like a lofty goal, but take it from me, mama: Your baby will get to experience the changing seasons alongside you.
No matter how long your little one stays in the NICU, your worth as their mama will remain constant. While Mother Nature continues to change the world around us every day, your value, love, and devotion for your most precious one is steady.”
Love,
Mollie
More of Mollie + Athena + Veronica’s NICU Journeys:
“At our very first ultrasound, we found out that we were expecting identical twins! They shared 1 placenta so this immediately made my pregnancy high risk; I was told that I would need to deliver early & through a c-section and that our babies would likely need an extensive NICU stay. At 26 weeks & 2 days, my water broke and I began bleeding. I was fully dilated and Baby A’s head was already coming through my birth canal! I was rushed into an emergency c-section in which I had to be unconscious and my husband couldn’t even be in the OR with me. It was absolutely terrifying; we had no idea if I would make it or if our girls would. 15 days later, after an incredible fight, we lost our sweet Athena (who was always the bigger & stronger baby). I was only able to hold her for the first - and last - time as she peacefully passed away in our arms. Our surviving twin, Veronica, stayed in two different NICUs for 130 days, needing intense medical interventions. A few times, in fact, we almost lost her as well. She finally came home more than a month after their due date, and she’s on oxygen and uses a g tube. She still has a long road ahead of her, filled with many appointments and will likely need more surgeries, but she is such a fighter — her name, Veronica, literally means “she who brings victory”. She continues to amaze us with her strength and resiliency every day! She will grow up knowing about her twin, her other half, who she never even got the chance to meet. They once were one, and Athena will be a part of our lives forever.”
