You Know You're a NICU Parent if...

I copied this from a great site/Facebook page www.lifeafterNICU.com

You would be excited about...

• increased feedings.
• 5 grams of weight gain.
• O2 levels.
• an inch in length.
• seeing the eyes of a 4-week-old for the very first time.
• poopy diapers
• graduating beds.
• going to the intermediate nursery.
• dread walking out of those doors to go home to sleep.
• 10:00pm or 5:00am phone calls to let you know your little one did something good/new.
• going to the hospital (hey, we get to see our kids!).
• CPR classes (they're coming home soon!).
• outgrowing clothes.
• hearing your baby cry for the first time, weeks old and crying just as hard in joy.

You know...

• the fear of seeing your child for the first time.
• that Brady's are not referring to the Brady Bunch.
• what CPAP means.
• the pain of not holding your child for days
• the workings of an isolette.
• what each beep means.
• how important kangaroo care is (to baby and mom/dad).
• that a parent's job is to fix whatever hurts their child - and know the pain of realizing you can't.
• what a PICC Line is.
• just how important surfactant is, and what it is for that matter.
• and understands the realism of adjusted ages.
• what it feels like to cry the first time you see your baby in a crib.
• the agony over sending birth announcements. 
• how amazing tiny fingers feel clenched to your hand.
• the pain of hearing a woman in her third trimester complaining about her pregnancy, and wondering that that would be like.
• and finally understands the metric system.
• there are no choices in the NICU - you have to be strong. 
• cracked and bleeding hands from washing them so much and coating them constantly with hand sanitizer.
• how hard it is to trust 100+ people you have never met before care for the child for whom you have waited a lifetime.
• what it's like to argue with each other over who changes the diaper - because you both want to - its a chance to touch your baby.
• every inch of their NICU, what walls they cried against, what nurseries they 'lived in', what shifts each doctor, nurse, therapist, and staff member works.
• that you will be a germaphobe for at least the next 2 years, people will think you are weird, and you will know you are literally saving your child's life.
• 50 nurses by name, and their kids' names.
• can give better directions to the cafeteria, gift shop and parking lot than the employees.
• that every day in the NICU makes you one of the lucky ones.
• just how important each new day is and how much significance a new day holds. Sure, every day to a parent of a healthy, full term baby means a lot, but we go in not knowing... and that is scary.