Terri Orio, who we call Aunt Terri, and refer to as our 'nurse mom,' has been with us since the first week of our arrival here at CHOP back in May. Since that day, she has always shown us so much love and kindness. For instance, when my daughter was critical, and positioning was vital to help her breathing, Terri suggested to try her on her belly. She loved it so much that she spent hours, even whole shifts on her belly.
Another instance was when Aunt Terri scoured the NICU for a mobile, as my daughter used to stare up at the ceiling quite often. Another time, Aunt Terri searched for a mint colored crib sheets- just because! But the act of kindness I will never forget is when my husband and I walked into the NICU and saw our beautiful blessing dressed in a pink ballerina-like onesie with a gold crown, adorned with flowers.
Aunt Terri went out of her way to dress up our little girl on her half birthday. Can't tell you how much that meant to us to see our daughter in a onesie, all dressed up. It may seem like something so simple/mundane, but it moved us to tears. That simple task of dressing up your baby; my husband and I were not able to do for the first many months of L's life and to know that our amazing nurse would take that time to do that for our daughter, for us, was so encouraging.
Aunt Terri has guided us during the most challenging of times, navigating us through surgeries, diagnoses, medications, helping us in deciphering what all this meant. She constantly checks in on us and our baby even when she does not have her as a patient. Aunt Terri is an extraordinary nurse, and we are blessed to have her as part of our family.