In mid-May, my husband and I got the news that we had long been waiting for: that we were going to become parents. We had been trying to adopt for years, and finally, we got the call that a birth mom in Portland wanted to meet us—and that twins (TWINS!) had been born the month before and were in the PSVMC NICU.
We were both so nervous about the weekend. PSVMC had made arrangements so that we could visit the NICU with the birth mom to meet the children and I didn't know what to expect. Would I do the right thing? Was this a parenting test that I needed to pass? I was a ball of nerves.
And then we met Chloe. Normally in peds, Chloe was working in NICU that weekend, and I think the universe may have sent here there that day because she was exactly the nurses we needed. Our family has such a unique story, and Chloe instantly made us feel welcomed and put us at ease that all of the emotions we were feeling were normal, for any new parent.
Chloe was so kind and patient with us. When I held my daughter for the first time I was overwhelmed with emotions. Chloe was right there to walk me through what I needed to do to support her and keep our daughter safe and happy. I have never fed an infant this small and Chloe was so great at providing coaching (and gentle corrections) to make sure we were doing what our kids needed.
The NICU can be a scary place. There are all these machines and beeps and lingo. As an outsider stepping in, I was terrified that all of the noise meant something was wrong. Chloe took time to answer our questions and tell us more about what the machines did, what numbers of the display meant, and how they were calculated.
As I reflect on that weekend, one of the things that I am thankful for is that Chloe also supported us by giving us our space when we needed it, too. We spent hours holding our kids, getting to know birth mom, and talking about our hopes for the future. Chloe flowed seamlessly in and out as they continued to provide such great care for the twins and helped us learn what it meant to parent two NICU babies.
A month later, our daughter had been discharged and our son was still finishing up his time in the NICU. We had the good fortune to run into Chloe again in the NICU. How far we had come! The beeps of the NICU were now comforting because we knew what they meant. The protocols that had seemed foreign had come to provide a sense of routine and normalcy to our visits. And as we caught up with Chloe in the hallway, I couldn't help but think, this is the nurse that set us off on the right path here. I am forever grateful that it was Chloe who supported us the day that we met our children.