Nicu

Now that Sophia is home from the Nicu, that life seems forever ago. But let me tell you, it was real.

To anyone who ever is going through or will go through that experience, it will be OK. But you do have to keep your guard up. The doctors and nurses want you to sit back and let them do everything without your input. They sometimes are sneaky and try to do stuff that you don't approve of. In the beginning I was OK with that.

I didn't know any better. I thought they knew best.

But I soon learned. And I implore you, if it doesn't feel right, give it time and pray about it, and if you still feel it's not OK, don't let do that particular thing. I tell you. We had to fight. I think they were glad to get rid of us.

For example, they tried to give Sophia antibiotics when she was first born. We said no. And the doctors did not like that answer, but we stood firm, and guess what? Sophia didn't need them. They also wanted to give her lasik when she got a little puffy. I had a bad experience with LASIK, so I said no. Doctors and nurses whined, but guess what. Sophia was fine.

Another big thing were the eye exams. They wanted to give her bi monthly eye exams. We let them do one, but they didn't tell us the side effects would be puffy eyes and broken blood vessels, so it was a shock to us. And we decided to decline future eye exams. That was hard for them to hear. they were bugging us about it every single chance they got. It was getting ridiculous. They even had a big meeting with us on why we should do it. Believe me, it got hard to say no after so much pressure. But I prayed about it, that night I had a dream to sign the refusal form. It took a leap of faith, but as it turns out, Sophia's eyes are perfectly fine.

Then there was her feeding tube. Goodness, how I hated that thing. Once she started orally feeding, and I started staying there 24/7, I kept begging them to take the tube out. I knew she'd do better eating if she had it out. Sophia thought so too. She kept yanking it out everyday, as if to say, “ Hey I don't need this." The nurses would all put it back in and nobody gave her a chance. Until Kathy. Thank God for her. She was our favorite nurse, because she didn't care what the doctors said. She deliberately kept the tube out of Sophia just to see how Sophia would do. We were home 48 hrs later. Who knows how much longer we would have been in there.

Now I'm not saying y'all should do the exact same thing we did. Some babies need eye exams, or LASIK or antibiotics. Not every baby is the same. Sophia was just super healthy and didn't need any of that. She just needed lung support. But the Doctors liked to be overly cautious and sometimes didn't stop to think about the bigger picture. Every baby is different and they need to see that. I'm saying, don't just step back and become apathetic and let them do whatever they want and walk all over you. Think about the situation. Pray. Let God be your guide. Doctors are human too. They are not always right, and they don't always know what the best thing to do is. But they do mean well. I'm truly thankful for the doctors and nurses of the Nicu. They were wonderful. They helped Sophia so much. We got along with them 95% of the time. Sometimes we had trust them and let them do their thing. And it was OK. But I am saying, ask questions. You do have a choice.