Premature babies have to spend the first few days of their life in NICU and not in the comfort of their parents' lap. It's not an easy phase for either the mom or the child, and their only solace comes from the  NICU nurses, so Essentia Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, holds a reunion as an homage to these first few days of love and care.

This is the second reunion held by Essentia to reunite NICU nurses with premature babies that they take care of immediately after their birth until the time they are handed over to their biological parents. While most parents have only one child in Essentia's NICU, Traci Vanbruggen gave birth to triplets in the thirty-third of her pregnancy, which meant the triplets first found comfort in the NICU.

"They had to spend about a month in the NICU mainly just learning how to drink and how to keep themselves warm, and kind of basic things that full-term babies know how to do already but they just weren't quite there," Traci said.

Just like Traci and her husband Dave, parents of preterm babies have to observe their babies’ development through the incubator glass. You get to know about your babies’ development from the nurses, and you feel like holding them close to you amidst all the wires attached to them but without many options.

Traci thanks the NICU nurses for their immense patience and cooperation, "It was stressful because you want to spend an equal amount of time with everybody. The nurses were awesome about letting me hold them all at together. And Dave. Whenever we wanted to hold all of them, they would kind of help us navigate all the cords and be able to do that which was great.”

The days and nights spent in the hospital praying for the well-being of the baby are not easy for any parent. But, they could feel at home because of the immense love that the nurses showered on their babies Harrison, Hendrick, and Heath.

During those days a long-lasting bond is built between the three parties – the babies, the nurses, and the parents. “Really over those months with us, the nurses build a long relationship and really just get to know the family, not only from a medical standpoint with their baby but kind of personally,” said Jamie Astrup, Essentia NICU manager.

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It is an unusual celebration that reunites the parents and the babies with the nurses who did so much. Being a nurse in the NICU is not like any other job; it requires the nurse to reach beyond all the lessons learned in school and all the formal education instilled in them. Astrup handpicks each of her NICU nurses and ensures that they hold the values required to be NICU nurse.

The NICU is not just a part of the Essentia, but it is also a part of the parents whose babies have been there. While the hospital’s NICU has an open floor plan that makes it harder for the families to stay, they are planning to open a new NICU with private rooms. This will surely make the stay in the hospital which sometimes lasts for several months more convenient.

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