Today, our daughter C is one year old adjusted. Her due date was early November, but she was born 14 weeks early, and we spent four months of last year with the incredible team in the Swedish First Hill NICU. We are so grateful to everyone on that team for all the care and support, but I thought it would be nice to commemorate today by sending in these nominations for our Primary Nurse Team comprised of Courtney, Faith, and Heather - something we've been meaning to do since we were able to bring Cordelia home, but haven't had the time to do since we've been busy taking care of the healthy, happy, girl that these three worked so hard to make sure we got to take home at all. Four months is a long time, so we have lots of stories about how these three took care of us as a family, and worked as a team to make sure C was cared for, but here are a few examples for each nurse that I hope will help with this nomination!

Exactly a year ago, D had COVID, and we couldn't be in the NICU on her due date. We were devastated, but Courtney was on shift that day and somehow made the day special for us even though we couldn't be there. She made this beautiful and funny 'Due Dates are overrated' sign, made extra time to talk to us on the phone, and assured us that she was okay, and it was okay to be sad. Throughout our entire NICU stay, Courtney always helped us find joy and things to be excited about like this - from calling to share the news that C had a new bed spot but it was still a window seat, to surprising us with her first real outfit, to making sure every milestone was celebrated with a photoshoot and a sign. She also had an incredible way of explaining the scariest medical procedures and tests without making you feel scared or stupid. She's going to make an incredible charge nurse one day, and while I'm sad that means fewer families will get to see her bedside day-to-day, I'm excited to think about how she'll lead the nurses who help families like ours.

Faith was assigned to C the night she was born, and she was there when I woke up and got to meet her for the first time. We got to be together as a family of three! She was so reassuring and kind and reserved - exactly what we needed in that particular moment. Later, as we had more shifts with Faith as our primary, she matched our weird sense of humor about what we were going through and made us laugh, and laughed with us, all the time - which was exactly what we needed to get through some of the harder moments and to still enjoy and have some normalcy on this unexpected start to our family. She also constantly told us she was proud of us for doing things for ourselves during our time in at Swedish - even if it felt like something that wasn't a big deal to us, such as walking down the street to get dinner or watching a movie once we got home, she made it a big deal. She is so empathetic and in tune with the families she works with, and cares so deeply for her work and the families with babies in the NICU. I'm happy for us and for others that she transitioned her career to nursing.

One of the first times that Heather took care of C, she had an IV in her forehead. This was the early days, and it probably would have been scary for us, but Heather made it look like she was wearing a little party hat, and it was such a small gesture that made a world of difference. Time passed, Halloween came, and Heather surprised us with a homemade costume - BB8 from Star Wars that was so detailed and impressive and thoughtful - something we would have picked to dress her up as ourselves if we'd been home, but would have definitely never matched the quality of it! Beyond helping me instill a love of crafts in my daughter even before her due date, Heather was an absolute rock for me as a new mom navigating a very unexpected start to motherhood, having had a baby in the NICU herself. She always made us feel like we were doing the best we could as new parents, given that we couldn't do much of anything. I feel so lucky to now have her as an experienced mom to look up to, on top of having had her take such good care of our daughter. We don't miss being in the NICU, but we do miss our late-night chats with Heather.

It's been almost a year since we got to take C home, and we
know that without the care of these three, we wouldn't be so lucky. We didn't expect parenting to start with having a micro-preemie. Still, we must begin our parenting journey with the extra kindness and support of these three wonderful women, and we have no idea how to properly express our gratitude for that. However, we hope these awards help a little bit. Courtney, Faith, and Heather -C was so lucky to have had you as her Primary Team, and so are we. Thank you.