Our beautiful Black, Native, Latinx preemie...

"Our beautiful Black, Native, Latinx preemie was born at 33 weeks 2 days. She wrote new dreams for me as I had to let go of ones I’d held on to before her arrival. I let go of the golden hour and treasured any minute I got to hold her in the NICU. I let go of nursing and was so excited when I saw the first drops of milk I had pumped, days after delivery. We were so grateful that our nurses would carefully give her those first drops of milk to taste, and teach us how to hold a syringe with donor milk. And then with my own milk. I let go of sharing our newborn with family & friend visits, and cherished hours of kangaroo holds in our pandemic bubble.

We were bewildered; riding this rollercoaster of NICU life as new parents. There was so much newness, so much to learn, so much to wrap our heads around. The longer we stayed, the more we learned.

The added layer of being parents of color to a precious baby of color, meant we had to step into advocacy during our NICU stay. This mama bear advocated for my baby, myself, and for the families of color that come after us.

We grew slowly, day by day, as a little family. So many things were measured with numbers, but the love that grew there will always be immeasurable. Our babe continues to push us forward into new dreams and hopes. We know our little acorn will be a great oak some day." NICU Mama, Monica