NICU Awareness Month
A post about NICU awareness month feels appropriate for Labor Day.
Two years ago in early August, I was diagnosed with sudden onset severe preeclampsia and 24 hours after my incredible midwifery team flagged my symptoms, my kiddo was born and spent 19 days in the NICU. We spent every day sitting in a semi-reclined chair, skin-to-skin, wrapped within with tubes & wires. We filled our little bubble with music off a Bose speaker from playlists friends had collaborated on, had non-stop visitors who brought books and snacks and the most love-filled hand written cards. We were surrounded by the most incredible care team of nurses and doctors and staff, and I walked away from that time more grateful than anything else.
And now, two years later, a week from this toddlers estimated due date (which happens to also be my birthday), the heaviness of that time has just started to make itself known. We are caught in the midst of a million big changes and shifts in our world again. Suddenly, the intense feeling around all of the decisions I had to make while still very zonked on a mag drip — Still bleeding and recovering from my body’s own wild, trippy, beautiful, and unexpected labor and delivery journey — the same high high and low lows have come rushing back. Like many NICU parents, I learned an entirely new vocabulary overnight, became an expert in places I could, or inundated the doctors and nurses with questions about every piece of this journey that was something I never experienced. I became a different parent than I expected that month. And years later, I am still not what I had envisioned. And, I am so grateful for all that the beginning taught me: to slow down, to lean into the music that regulated my nervous system, to accept help from people I never even knew wanted to show up in that way, to find pockets of joy among the constant movement and chaos, and to really really study and capture every little part of this sweet tiny human because this moment will never happen again.
As my little one gets older and my time has become more dedicated to managing a schedule full of therapies and unexpected roadblocks, I’m switching my photography focus (for now) to more intentional time with families in spaces like mine — solo parents, NICU families, kids with complex needs or differences, and immunocompromised systems that often do not allow families to have the images they want and deserve.
For the entire month of September, every NICU session booked will have 10% donated to March for Babies, whose main mission is to support families like mine in their NICU journey. To hear more about this or how to book a session, please reach out here - I want to help honor the journey you’re on and capture the joy in the hard parts.
Stay tuned for more updates in the next month…