Lucas' NICU Stay

It was absolutely horrific, yet we were SO SO grateful that he was going to be OK. The other babies in the NICU were 2 pounds and had been there for so long. We felt blessed that his stay would be short and his prognosis was good. He was taken to the NICU moments after birth due to meconium in the amniotic fluid which he aspirated. He was born grunting and not breathing well. The intubated him in our room to remove some of the poop from his lungs but with an apgar of 3/9 he had to go. We were devastated. Our room was empty, I only held him for 5 seconds and didn't see him again for 6 hours. Ryan brought me pictures and I had NO idea that was what he would look like. All the wires, IV's, the CPAP...I was horrified. Poor Ryan came back from the NICU looking like he saw a ghost. Lucas would cry and we couldn't soothe him. All we could do is touch him with a finger. I couldn't hold him, it was just pathetic. We were told his stay would be a minimum of 2-3 days. We had no name for him, and the experience we had expected was a distant memory.