This Too Shall Pass

Today I went and hung out with a dear friend of mine and her six week old at the hospital. Her sweet boy was born with a heart condition where he has SVT episodes, sending his heart rate into the high 200s. Thankfully his condition is not life threatening and he will very likely grow up and live a pretty normal life and be a healthy little kid. But the past six weeks they have been in and out of the hospital as they try to figure out his meds to get the episodes under control.  I went up today just be a support, since her husband is out of town, and plus it gave me the chance to love on that sweet guy!

While walking through the halls of the hospital, especially the floor he was on gave me flashbacks to when my own little boy Henry was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth. Seeing the giraffe beds and hearing the alarms go off on the O2 Sat monitors reminded me of those long eight weeks.

Henry was born 10 weeks early weighing in at a whopping 1lb. 15oz and 13.5in long. He was my little sea monkey and thankfully the only thing “wrong” with him was his size. He had a real lousy umbilical cord and was basically trying to get his nutrients through a coffee straw. So it became a matter of his growth and that’s why he needed to be delivered early.  You should see his non-bellybutton, we call it a dimple. Poor guy. But happily we just celebrated his third birthday! Every year around his birthday I go back and read over the blog my husband and I kept during his NICU stay, and every time I cry and wonder how in the world we all came out alive. The ups and downs, the three steps forward 10 back and so on. But we made it and today Henry is just as crazy and obnoxious (in a good way) like every other three year old. There are times where I have to remind myself that he’s my little miracle so as to not lose my cool, if you know what I mean.

While I was waiting for my friend today, I ran into another Mom who had a baby in the NICU and had been there for 18 days. She told me how that first day they weren’t sure if he would make the first 24 hours and here they were 18 days in. I told her my go to motto “This too shall pass” and she says she repeats that daily. I told her about Henry now being three and how he drives me crazy and up the walls sometimes, and that one day she will get to experience that too.

As Moms we all go through so much, even if your baby has never been in the NICU or hospitalized, it’s nice to know you’re not the only one. I reminded myself a lot that Henry is NOT the first baby to go through what he did and unfortunately won’t be the last. But I think it’s nice for Moms to find others in their same situation, to connect and talk and sometimes just vent….like when your three year old climbs on the desk, pees all over it and then plays in it…I can’t confirm the culprit but I’ll give you a guess. Moms we’re not alone, and someone somewhere has gone through the same situation. This too shall pass.

Laine Moses is a stay-at-home-Mom to Henry and Lucy.