After a 135 day stay in the neonatal intensive care unit of McMaster Children’s Hospital – my tiny little Rachel is finally home!
For the first time today, I have my entire family under one roof – and I have no need to pack them all into a van and rush off somewhere. And I can only describe this situation, as awesome!
As for the story of Rachel’s home coming, I’m a little too sleep-deprived (not to mention a little bit short on my amount of free time) to do a good job of it. Luckily for me, the story has been recounted by several others recently…
Not long after the girls were born, it was suggested to us (by many people), that the story of their birth was news-worthy, and that a lot of people may be interested in hearing about it. The trouble with such tiny babies, is that you don’t want to ‘jump the gun’ on such a story. As I’ve mentioned before, in those early weeks, their survival (particularly Rachel’s) was by no means assured. The usual etiquette is apparently to wait until the baby has been discharged from hospital. And so, with Rachel’s discharge date coming up fast, my wife contacted someone she knew from a local newspaper and asked if the girls birth was something they’d be interested in doing. It was.
The Monday before discharge (Thanksgiving here in Canada), a reporter from the St. Catharines Standard came to the hospital to interview us, along with someone from from the hospitals public relations office. The following day, the public relations person was back along with a local TV news, and Hamilton’s local newspaper.
That evening, we began receiving messages from friends & family saying they’d seen Rachel on the news. We figured there were a lot of people who read through the entire paper to find some small article somewhere. It wasn’t until we were on our way home from the hospital, with both twins, that we realized why we’d been getting so many messages – Rachel was the headline on the front page – along with a life size photo of her!
I had managed to maintain my composure through most of this adventure, right from April on to their birth in June, and all the way through their NICU stay. But seeing my little girl on the front cover of the newspaper was almost too much.
I really don’t think I could tell the story any better myself, so here are just a few of the news items that have been spreading their way across the web over the last few days, All I can really say is that the reporters all did a tremendous job, and that I’m overwhelmed by the level of interest this has generated. Wow!
McMaster’s tiniest baby to go home to Falls
St. Catharines Standard – Tuesday October 15, 2013
Grant LaFleche
Smallest baby ever born at Mac goes home
CHCH Evening News – Wednesday October 16, 2013
Lisa Hepfner & Phil McLaughlin
Mac’s tiniest baby beats the odds and heads home
The Hamilton Spectator (thespec.com) – Wednesday October 16, 2013
Joanna Frketich
Hospital’s tiniest preemie ever thrives and is now home
CBC Hamilton – Thursday October 17, 2013
Kaleigh Rogers