It’s Prematurity Awareness Day! For some of us, we are reminded daily. We live it, we embrace it, and we love our little miracles.
To the parents of a preemie:
They are the toughest baby you will ever meet
You will be amazed daily by what they can face head on
You will despise the NICU until you bring your miracle home, in which case you will be terrified to not be surrounded by doctors, nurses, specialists, and machines keeping tabs on everything
You will realize that isolating yourself and your baby is a good thing
You will miss having people around those first few months
You will be envious of full term, healthy babies, and that is ok
You will cringe whenever you hear someone say, “I’m 30+ weeks pregnant, I’m ready for baby to be born!” But that’s ok, too, you know they don’t really mean it
You will get used to hearing “S/he is so small!”
You will have hand sanitizer on every surface of your house, plus in your purse, car, diaper bag, pocket. Etc…..
You will cheer and celebrate every seemingly small milestone
You will learn to convert grams to ounces and pounds
You will speak the lingo
Most importantly, you will realize that you are not alone in this. The journey can be long, terrifying, full of the unknown, but you have the love and support of so many other parents who have been in your shoes. You will meet amazing people along the way. You will learn that you gave birth to a beautiful miracle!
