Love, Tiffani

“Dear NICU Mama, I hope you celebrate the mother you have become. This is not the version of motherhood we knew existed prior to taking our first step into the NICU. Instead of experiencing newborn bliss, we were thrown into survival mode.

I hope you celebrate the bravery and courage it took going into the delivery room with uncertainty of what will happen on the other side. I hope you celebrate the strength it took to first walk through those NICU doors – and as you continue to each and every day.

I hope you celebrate the resilience you show as you continue to advocate for your baby through any diagnoses and every challenge you may face in the future.

I hope you celebrate the victories, big and small. Whether you are in the thick of the NICU, just came home, or have been home for a while… I hope you celebrate the mother you have become.”
Love,
Tiffani

More of Tiffani + Paxton + Kamden’s NICU Journeys:

“I had my twins at 28 + 2. At 26 weeks, on a Sunday morning, I had a gush of fluid, so my husband and I went into L&D just to be safe. Upon arrival they deemed I was in preterm labor and I would be transferring to another hospital with a Level 3 NICU. I spent two weeks and two days in the hospital before Baby A decided to make his GRAND entrance. Within a minute of being in the OR Baby A delivered naturally. The room was filled with fear as the doctors and nurses were screaming, “Where is the NICU team?” Moments later I was going under anesthesia due to not being able to locate Baby B on the ultrasound. The last thing I heard before going under for an emergency C-section was, “Don’t let Dad in, he will be traumatized.” Once I woke up I was told both babies were stable in the NICU. We went about our life in the NICU over the next few weeks. At five weeks old our hospital was in the direct path of Hurricane Ian. Once the storm was over the hospital was down to the final generators and had lost access to water, making it a fire hazard. Our boys were part of a 67 NICU patient evacuation and were airlifted to the east coast of Florida. They stayed there for two weeks prior to our hospital being able to welcome us back home! The boys were then airlifted back home where we finished out Paxton’s (Baby A) 77 day NICU stay and Kamden’s (Baby B) 95 day NICU stay.”