NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT
Emily, my wife, and I spent 69 days in the NICU at Aultman Hospital in Canton, Ohio.
Emily was born 12 weeks premature and weighed only 1 pound 11.6 ounces due to preaclampsia.
(a disorder that occurs only during pregnancy and the postpartum period and affects both
the mother and the unborn baby. Affecting at least 5-8% of all pregnancies, it is a rapidly
progressive condition characterized by high blood pressure, the presence of protein in the
urine, swelling, sudden weight gain, headaches and changes in vision.)
The night of her birth has to be one of the scairest nights of my life. We left for the hospital around 8:30pm
on the 26th, because my wife had a feeling "something" was wrong. Emily was born via c-section at 12:03am
on the 27th. I was in the room while they did the operation, and my wife was awake for the entire thing. I sat
up by her head and talked to her the entire time. There was a sheet blocking our view of what they were doing
but my wife knew when the took the baby out!
When they took the baby out of my wife I didn't want to see her. The doctor kept saying "dad turn around and see your
daughter" but I couldnt. I wanted to wait and see her for the first time with my wife. He accually brought this tiny
little baby back over so both my wife and I could see her at the same time. He said that was the first time in his 20 some years
as a doctor that the dad wanted to wait to see his baby until he could see it with his wife." The next time we saw her
she was in, what we called, the box. She had tubes going in and out of her and all kinds of moniters and machines hooked
up to her.
Please keep checking back!! This page is a work in progress!!