Look at that little face.
Can you imagine leaving him for even one day? Can
you imagine having no choice but to leave him every day for four months, without his mommy and daddy, when he was at his
most fragile? Because his home was not
your home? Because he didn’t belong to
you yet? We did that for 112 days and it
still hurts my heart tremendously if I allow myself to think about it too
long. I actually have to limit myself
from looking at some of Jack’s NICU pictures, because I know if I do, I’ll go
down an emotional road that is sometimes better off not traveled. I start to think about the day when another
parent, heartlessly mentioned, “You know he cries a lot when you aren’t here.” I was there sometimes 8-12 hours a day, but
it was never enough. I almost always
left when he was asleep, because I never wanted him to see me walk away. And I often didn’t visit at night, because
there was something inherently wrong with leaving him when it was dark
outside.
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Last
night, I stayed at the hospital until 9PM (my second visit of the day), because
he was just so alert and wanting to see what's going on in the NICU. I have a
lot of trouble leaving him if he's awake; I definitely don't want him to see me
leave so I always wait until he's asleep. (10.15.10 CarePages entry)
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Or I start to feel the exact same
desperation as I did the day I left the hospital, for the 100th
time, without my little boy, and barely made it ¼ mile down the road before I
broke down in a grocery store parking lot (me, not my car). The feelings involved with leaving your baby,
and not by choice, are difficult to describe.
It was hard on me, hard on Jeff, and I’m unfortunately imagining, hard
on Jack. Instead of it getting easier
every day, it just got harder and harder to leave him behind.
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Jack is still doing very well. He's got his quiet alert
moments when we play, talk, and listen to stories. He's got his fussy moments
when he just wants to be held. And he's adorable as always, which makes the fussy
moments that much more enjoyable. What is not so enjoyable is knowing that I'm
not there to calm him or hold him during all his moments. I know a lot of
people think it will be stressful for him to be home, but it's got to be better
than leaving him every day for the past 85 days! (CarePages entry 11.3.10)
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I
worry about what it did to his sense of security*. At a time when he was supposed to be learning
about the comfort and care a mother provides, he was learning about needle sticks and tubes inserted into his mouth or nose and pain. His
nurses were great, but they also had other babies. So there were many times that he cried
and wasn’t held and comforted as he would have been by me. When he should have been developing a sense of safety and security, he was “alone” without his parents.
No matter how wonderful & loving the nurses may have been, they were
not me and not Jeff...and I will forever be devastated by this fact. Even though I know Jack and I have an
amazing bond now, there will always be a small part of me that worries what
those 4 months did to him and a large part of me that will spend the rest of his life making up for it. Jack rarely calls for me when he is in his crib. Is it because he thinks I won’t come, like
when he was in the NICU? Has he learned
that mommy and daddy WON’T always be there for him? He's not much of a cuddler or hugger, but he does lean on me. Is that because he wasn't held and hugged enough in those early days? He is in a stage now where he seeks me out,
just to make sure I’m still there and I always say, “I’m right here, buddy.” And he repeats it, "Right here, bubby" and somehow, it makes my
heart sing and suffer at the same time. Because
there was a time, when I wasn’t there.
And I should have been.
Jack's doing well...but his mommy is losing it! I have to
say that I can hardly stand to go the hospital and once I'm there, I hate to
leave. I'm just about sick every time I have to leave Jack and it gets worse
each time. (10.23.10 CarePages entry)
Scientists are still learning a lot about bonding. They know that the strong ties between parents and their child provide the baby's first model for intimate relationships and foster a sense of security and positive self-esteem. And parents' responsiveness to an infant's signals can affect the child's social and cognitive development."
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