A Link to Solidarity
Hello to everyone!
A friend or ours sent us a link to a couple whose son was two and a half months premature. The father made a video montage of their son's first year of life, much of it in the NICU.
What a video to watch! Rebecca cried. I, too, found myself growing emotional. Watching it definitely pulled me back to the earliest days of our time in the NICU.
When the off-camera beeps from the monitor sounded, I knew exactly what their warnings were for. The design of towel used to help keep their baby warm was the same patterned towel we used. The shot of the TPN drip bag hit me hard. Seeing the feeding tube taped to his face evoked sympathy. Seeing the CPAP pulled heart strings. The purple sunglasses and the jaundice lamps brought me back to Xavier's first week outside the womb.
I found myself watching intently as the mother sees her son for the first time. He is connected to his CPAP and a dozen or so other wires and gizmos. Two nurses help her carry her son to her chest and then guide her to a chair.
For a while, the mother is focused on not pulling out tubes or some other thing. Then, the reality of holding her son the first time hits her. Tears well up in her eyes! I watched Rebecca respond with similar emotion.
The montage lasts about seven minutes and I encourage you to watch it. The link is here. It, at least to Rebecca and me, gives a more empathetic experience of having a baby in the NICU than still photographs do.