{"id":7403,"date":"2017-01-23T16:09:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T23:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=7403"},"modified":"2022-10-17T09:32:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T15:32:03","slug":"one-nicu-parent-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/one-nicu-parent-another\/","title":{"rendered":"From one NICU parent to another"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"NICU
NICU parents, Steve Armstrong, right, and his wife, Melissa, hold up photos of their girls who were born prematurely at Poudre Valley Hospital. The girls, Maya (back right), now 11, and Sofia (back left), 8, are happy, healthy kids. Photo by Kati Blocker, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was summer 2005, and Melissa Armstrong was having a normal first pregnancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was healthy and doing everything right,\u201d she said. \u201cThe possibility of having a premature baby wasn\u2019t on my radar at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early in her 24th week, Armstrong\u2019s blood pressure began to rise. Despite being monitored, her condition changed rapidly, and by week 27, she was diagnosed with\u00a0preeclampsia\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0HELLP syndrome<\/a>, both serious pregnancy complications. Six days later her baby girl, Maya, was born prematurely at\u00a0Poudre Valley Hospital\u00a0in Fort Collins.<\/p>\n

Weighing only 1 pound, 15 ounces, and measuring 13.5 inches long, little Maya was just big enough to stay at PVH\u2019s neonatal intensive care, a level II NICU at that time. It was awarded level III in 2006. Maya spent the next 77 days there, during which time she was hooked to a ventilator, received five blood transfusions and fought a serious intestinal disease. Her parents, in and out of the unit to spend skin-to-skin time with their little girl, wondered if she would ever be able to enjoy the life they desired for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first saw Maya, I was in awe of this beautiful baby that was so perfect yet so tiny,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cIt is shocking to see your tiny baby hooked up to countless wires and tubes, knowing they have a long journey ahead before they can come home with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a ‘NICU parent’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Armstrong\u2019s first moments as a mother may not have been what she had imagined, but today, her life is everything they dreamed it would be. Maya is now 11 years old. She is in the sixth grade, loves theater and has been learning to play the guitar.<\/p>\n

Four years later, when Armstrong\u2019s second child, Sofia, also was born prematurely at 31 weeks, it wasn\u2019t any easier to watch her new daughter suffer, but Armstrong did know more of what to expect, and she had more hope that her daughter would fully recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew with Sofia that there was life after the NICU \u2026 we had to just be patient and wait for that day when she had checked all the boxes for discharge,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, their prematurity doesn\u2019t impact daily life at all. They are just typical girls, getting the opportunity to live life and enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstrong has spent the past 11 years spreading that hope.<\/p>\n

\"Maya
Maya Armstrong, 11, was born at Poudre Valley Hospital weighing only 1 pound, 15 ounces. She spent 77 days in the neonatal intensive care unit, but now she is a healthy girl who loves theater and music. Photo by Kati Blocker, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMelissa is one of those dear people \u2014 a wonderful mom that has been great for our unit,\u201d said NICU Registered Nurse Rhoda Bailey, who also worked in the unit when Maya was born.<\/p>\n

Since Maya\u2019s early birth, Armstrong has kept in touch with PVH\u2019s NICU staff, and she offers to help whenever they need it. Like many families who spend weeks, even months, in the NICU, she wanted to give back the kindness her family had been given, Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ever grateful for the opportunity to raise these girls and watch them grow up, thanks to their early care and medical research that allowed it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Advising and improving hospital care as a NICU parent<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Most recently, Armstrong became a founding member of the NICU Parent and Family Advisory Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off with three very wonderful, motivated parents excited to give back to the NICU and make the way better for other families coming after them,\u201d said PVH NICU RN Suzanne Richmond. \u201cAnd it\u2019s been really exciting, the things they\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richmond learned of advisory councils at a conference and she believed in creating one to help with the design of PVH\u2019s new NICU unit.<\/p>\n

PVH opened the\u00a0first phase of its new unit\u00a0<\/a>in early 2016, which almost tripled its size from 9,700 to 22,400 square feet and expanded it from 19 to 32 beds.<\/p>\n

The new council provided input into the square footage of the rooms and recommended milk storage refrigerators and sinks in each room, as well as a couch that could be made into a bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s not just about the baby, it\u2019s about that family as a unit, about that trust leaving a baby in the care of others \u2014 forming that connection with parents so they don\u2019t have to stress when they are gone \u2014 and it\u2019s about them being able to stay overnight if they\u2019d like to,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cThe new space allows for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Improving care for NICU families<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When Maya was born, PVH\u2019s NICU was a different place.<\/p>\n

\"Sofia
Sofia Armstrong, 8, born at 31 weeks gestation at Poudre Valley Hospital, is now a healthy, active girl. Photo by Kati Blocker, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cVery different; there was very little space or privacy,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cBut the staff at PVH has always provided exceptional care to the tiniest of patients. Now they have a beautiful new facility to continue that level of excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new unit, with its larger rooms, calming colors and natural light, is all about patient and family experience while also providing the best care with state-of-the-art equipment.<\/p>\n

The second phase, which incorporated many more of the suggestions from the advisory council, including a parents\u2019 lounge, opened in late October 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are in a very fragile state when you have a child in the hospital,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cThose emotions are running high, and you are dealing with a lot coming at you. It\u2019s important to have a gathering place for families if they so desire to connect to others, a place to go and clear your head where you are not in the thick of things, and a place to eat so you don\u2019t have to leave the unit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The advisory council also plans to organize activities that promote parents meeting and interacting with one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are in the NICU, it feels like this will be life forever and that you\u2019ll never be home as a family,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cIt is difficult to be there long term and see families come and go while you\u2019re still trying to get through daily life in the NICU.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot every story is the same, but I think former NICU parents give hope to families in the NICU by sharing their story, being able to relate in part to their experiences now, normalize the crazy emotional ups and downs they are feeling and tell them again that there will be life outside the NICU. The rawness will fade.\u00a0The fragility will fade. They will move beyond those early days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was summer 2005, and Melissa Armstrong was having a normal first pregnancy. \u201cI was healthy and doing everything right,\u201d she said. \u201cThe possibility of having a premature baby wasn\u2019t on my radar at all.\u201d Early in her 24th week, Armstrong\u2019s blood pressure began to rise. Despite being monitored, her condition changed rapidly, and by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2164,"featured_media":7404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4828,511,1581,1789,2182,212],"class_list":["post-7403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-neonatal-care","tag-neonatal-intensive-care-unit","tag-patient-and-family-advisory-council","tag-uchealth-medical-center-of-the-rockies","tag-uchealth-poudre-valley-hospital","tag-womens-care"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom one NICU parent to another - 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