Flashback Friday: Moving Day...

Quote borrowed from Life After NICU support group

It's moving day again...pack your things...it's time to go! So many emotions come up on moving day.  There is always the element of excitement. We are going to a new place and we will see new things! We will meet new people and make new friends!  Then comes the element of hope, looking forward to what is to come in the new place and new adventures to be had. But, overshadowing all of that is the anxiety and nerves of going to somewhere unfamiliar with the unfamiliar people! The same is true in the NICU.

Everyday there is an element of anxiety and unfamiliarity even in a familiar place.  What will today be like? Who will be part of the team today?  This post is all about "Moving". During our journey in the NICU the trio moved a number of times, sometimes the move was just a short stay in a new room while a room was cleaned, other times it was a move to keep us together and we even had a move just for a day! These moves often meant new nurses or multiple nurses caring for the trio rather than just 1 or 2 caring for all of us.

When we first arrived in the NICU, it was a busy place.   So many doctors and nurses scurrying around caring for our tiny frail little bodies and all the babies around us too.  When we were born, since it was quite unexpected, the NICU didn't have a place for all 3 of us to be together, so for a time 2 of us were together in Room 4 while our sister Melissa lived in Room 5.  Mommy and Daddy would split their time the best they could between the two rooms talking to us and caring for us.  Each of us would have a different nurse so Mommy and Daddy got to know a lot of different NICU staff throughout the journey.  It wasn't all bad, but a few weeks after we were born a nurse called and asked our parents if we'd all like to be together in 1 room! This would require moving 2 babies because there wasn't room for Melissa in Room 4, but there was room for us in Room 5! Mommy and Daddy were so excited! This was our chance to all be together as a family! When they arrived at the NICU that day, finally all 3 babies were in the same room! There were no other babies in Room 5 so we started calling it the Pitkin Penthouse 5! It stayed that way for quite a while.  Once in a while a baby would come for a while, but then they would move somewhere else in the NICU and we'd have the room to ourselves again! We made friends as we went, but we didn't mind the room to ourselves either!

After a few weeks we were told we were moving again! It was ok, we'd be moving together, all 3 of us and only for a while they said.  We'd be coming back to Room 5 someday.  So we packed our things again and to Room 4 we moved.  This was a scary move for us and it made mommy and daddy sad. Mommy cried that day that we got moved.  She liked being in Room 5, where there was so much space and she could care for all of us, and it was so much quieter with just us. Room 4 was much more crowded and it seemed so busy all the time.  At this time in the NICU journey, mommy was pretty emotional at everything going on.  She had seen babies come and go, she had heard of a mommy who lost 1 of her babies and she was so grateful that she had the three of us, but it was still an emotional roller coaster everyday, not knowing what would be around the next corner. Would one of us get sick? Would we have to move and leave the comfort of what we knew and the people we were growing to know? Luckily for mommy, she voiced her concerns a lot and we weren't gone from Room 5 for long!  We soon returned to the comfort of what we knew!

A few more weeks would pass and we would send our brother home! Then it was just us girls in the NICU, more babies moved into and out of room 5 during this time and we were on opposite sides of the room, Kate in one corner and Melissa in her same ol' spot where she was brought when she was born.  A few days went by of mommy and daddy spending time across the room from each other caring for each of us then one of our nurse friends had a cool idea to move the sisters to somewhere that they could be together.  We were going to Room 6, in a nice little corner, where mommy could reach us both easily and take care of us together! This was absolutely AWESOME! We loved our new little home! That was a year ago today! Remember I said that it was a roller coaster in the NICU and it was kinda scary.  Well the move was pretty scary, but we were going to be in the best place with 2 of the best nurses! WE loved it! This was August 3rd, 2011. What a great day it was!

On the morning of August 4, 2011 when Katelynn and I woke up we looked around and we saw something strange.  We saw what looked to be room 5! Wait a minute I thought, yesterday Katelynn was right here next to me! I don't see her anymore! Where is Katelynn? Where am I? I thought we were in Room 6.  The nurse came over to me and took me out of my isolette.  I looked around some more, sure enough, I was back in the same spot as when I was admitted to the NICU.  We had been moved back :( I was so sad. Not to mention I was sad because one of my favorite nurses was on vacation now and I wasn't going to see her for 2 weeks at least and Katelynn might not see her again! (Kate's goal was to get out of the NICU before she came back from vacation!)  Mommy looked at the nurse who explained to her that the head nurse needed us to move back because of space.  That was a hard day for mommy.  She had already fallen in love with her space in Room 6.  The nurse could see mommy was visibly sad and said she would work on getting us back over to Room 6.  That's the wonderful thing about the nurses in the NICU where we lived for so long, they were such great advocates for us and for our parents too! The head nurse did say she would try, but couldn't make promises.  At least that gave mommy hope! With emotions running high all the time in the NICU, moving day is always stressful and full of emotion! Stay tuned for more flashbacks...another big flashback about me (Melissa) will be coming soon.