Tiffany Blaine: NICU Awareness Month

September is NICU awareness month. I just want to shine a light on the NICU at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St. Vincent in Indianapolis. When my son was born he was 3 weeks early. I had gone in because he wasn’t moving. Despite his lack of movement, his heart rate was great the entire time. When he was finally born he wasn’t breathing. To this day, we have no idea why it happened. It took the nurses 10 minutes to get him breathing. He was rushed to the nursery where I found out shortly after that he had a seizure. At that point the Neonatologist told me that he needed to be transferred to a hospital with a NICU. He was just a couple of hours old when he was flown to another hospital. They brought him to be in one of those incubator crib things. I was allowed to touch his hand but I wasn't allowed to hold him. I was absolutely terrified. I was told that he had something called Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy. He had to be sedated and cooled for 72 hours to reduce or reverse the effects that the lack of oxygen could have had on his brain. I wasn’t able to hold him until he was 4 days old. Despite his rough start, he was a model NICU baby. Passed all his tests, no signs of anymore seizures, was never on supplemental oxygen, and ate like a champ. He came home when he was 9 days old. 3 days before Christmas!

I wish that I could remember off the top of my head the name of all the doctors and nurses that took care of him. I would thank them all personally if I could. Eli will be 2 in just a few months and he is absolutely perfect. He has had zero issues since coming home. He has hit all of his milestones when he should have, he talks up a storm, he is so smart, and well, he throws fits like a typical toddler. Honestly though, I would have loved him whether he had issues or not. He’s my baby.

The day he was born. My nurse took my phone and took these pictures since I wasn’t allowed to see him. I will forever be grateful to her for that. Shout out to Martha at Hendricks Regional in Danville, IN!

The first day in the NICU. Seeing him like this was terrifying, but he was such a champ.

The first time I got to hold him. I cried the entire time.

Right after he pulled out his feeding tube. The nurse let him keep it out for a little bit so he could take a break. He was so cute! Still is.

A couple days before coming home!

The day we broke out of there. He was so small compared to his cousin. They are 5 months apart to the day. Don’t worry, 6 months later they were the same size, and still are.

His first Christmas! The best Christmas present a mom could ask for!

One year old! He tested positive for Covid 5 days after his birthday. Luckily he wasn’t very sick. Just a little extra tired, a little extra cranky, and a lot congested. The second picture is 5 minutes after he tested positive.

His second Christmas, he was more interested in the candy than the toys! He had Covid here, you can see it in his face that he didn’t feel good. Poor baby.