NICU Reunion ...

Saturday, October 3 ... We got to reunite with some very special people ... Kendall's NICU nurses and neonatal specialist, Dr. Kaplar from the Baylor Regional Medical Center of Grapevine! We spent 8 weeks in the NICU, so to see them everyday for 8 weeks and then having not seen them for 14 weeks, we were excited to see everyone again! It was also exciting to see a some of the babies that were in the NICU the same time Kendall was ... to see how they'd grown over the past 3 months and see their parents, too!

Leah (the NICU's awesome desk clerk/receptionist) holding Kendall


Christy (one of Kendall's night shift nurses) with Kendall and me


Debbie (one of our weekend night shift nurses), me & Kendall, and Gina (one of our weekday nurses)


Me with Kim (one of our weekday nurses) holding Kendall, and Susan (our Charge Nurse)


Cyndy (one of our weekday nurses) with me and Kendall


Us with Jena and Amy (Jena's mom) ... Jena was in the NICU with Kendall ... she was due mid-July like us, but was born at 32 weeks (while Kendall was born at 29 weeks) ... our girls were cubical friends and got moved into the "step up room" (the room you go to when you are nearly ready to go home) at the same time ... we were in the NICU together for about 4 weeks. Jena got to go home about 1 1/2 weeks before we did.

Us with Sheri and her daughter, Marley ... she was born very early but came after Kendall had been there for a few weeks ... Marley got to go home about 2 weeks before us. (Not sure what the girls are looking at, but something must have gotten both of their attentions at the time!)

Not that you want any other family to go through this, but it was nice to meet and talk with others who were going through the same or similar situation as you. Those were happy days for them to get to go home from the NICU, but we had wondered how they were all doing. It was really neat to see all of them again and see how much they had grown and changed, just like Kendall had!


Us with Brandon & Tiffani Spangler and their daughter Isabella ... Ashley and Brandon work together at Staff Care and Tiffani is the Abbott (Similac formula) Representative for the area (and Grapevine hospital) ... Isabella was born full-term in late June so we got to see her at the hospital once she was born since we were still up there. This was the first time they had seen Kendall ...
(It was funny ... we took 2 pictures with them and both times the girls are looking at each other or reaching for each other ... so cute ... in their little pink and brown outfits ... gotta love the pink and brown these days!)

We had a great time catching up with the nurses and doctors that were there, but missed a few of the ones that couldn't be there, including our "primary nurse" Kimbo ... she was on vacation in Hawaii at the time! Can't wait until the next annual NICU Reunion!