#30DaysofBrave Day 18- Jakob
2020 has been a mess of a year in its own right, something that terrified my wife (Valerie) and I as we were due to expect our baby boy in June.
We had planned as best we could, but this is 2020. I remember the day like it was yesterday. We were both working from home on a Thursday. I was supposed to be in the office, but due to a computer mishap earlier in the week had to switch days. Around 2:00 Valerie checked her blood pressure and it was high. Like, scary high. And she’s already taking BP medicine. So we called the doctor and decided we had to go in. We thought this would be a routine check of the baby and her BP… and we were wrong - she in fact had preeclampsia with severe indicators. An overnight stay turned into a weekend stay, which turned into ‘let’s try to get you to week 34,’ which turned into ‘we need to induce now’ after they couldn’t get her BP down. Any other time and this may have been just a stressful and scary situation, but remember, it’s 2020. I was (luckily) the only one allowed in and out of the hospital to support Valerie.
48 hours of frustrating labor passed to no avail. Val’s OB was on call at the time and we decided an emergency c-section was needed. They got her prepped and wheeled away, and I sat in the room by myself, my last minutes before becoming a father, and waited for what felt like an eternity to be called in to the OR. I walked into that room and minutes later we welcomed our happy little boy Donovan 7 weeks early into the world. The sound of his voice as he cried was music to our ears. Our little miracle had arrived.
In a normal situation we would have been able to hold him and visit him and take him home. Due to the nature of the birth and preeclampsia, Val wasn’t able to hold or see him for 24 hours. Due to Covid, none of our family was able to be there to meet him. And due to his premature birth, clocking in at 4 pounds 3 ounces, the concern that his lungs weren’t fully developed and other bumps in the road he was going to spend some time in the Fairview NICU. We were prepped for this scenario before going into labor but we had no idea just what we were about to experience until we scrubbed in for the first time to see him.
Our plan had been thrown out the window long ago, and the time came for Valerie to be discharged. We were nervous to leave without him. That drive home was the hardest, knowing he wasn’t coming with us, and also knowing I wouldn’t be able to visit for a while, again thanks to Covid (that was luckily lifted after two days, so I didn’t have to wait long). But we were leaving him in the very capable hands of the best NICU around. The next 31 days were stressful and tiring, Van had to learn the last bit of what he would in the womb in the NICU. We had no idea how many amazing people would be helping our son. Speech pathologists to help him learn to feed from a bottle when his feeding tube came out, Occupational and Physical therapists to help him build muscle tone and mimic what he would be doing in weeks 32-40 in the womb and nutritionists to help him gain weight and stay healthy. We learned so much thanks to the wonderful and amazing nurses and doctors at Fairview NICU – things that we probably wouldn’t have learned on our own. The knowledge shared with us was priceless and we are forever grateful for them. When he was ready to come home, we were still scared, but we were ready.
Fast-forward through those rough first nights of no sleep, post-partum (for both of us!) and crushing anxiety, and here we are coming up on 5 months. Our little man is loving life and growing faster than we can keep up with – and packing on the pounds! Thank you Cleveland Clinic Fairview NICU for taking such amazing care of our Donovan. He says hello and hopes to keep in touch!