10.08.05: lifetime membership

Today was the Special Care Nursery's annual reunion, where graduates of the NICU are invited back to Sutter Memorial for an outdoor celebration. For the graduates (and parents), it's wonderful to see all the people who helped nurse them to health. For the doctors and nurses, it's rewarding to see how the alumni have grown and developed.

There were a lot of activities for kids including a bounce house, an emcee/musician, a button-making booth, 4-H therapy pets, and more. For the most part, there were families with infants and toddlers. You could see several twin strollers and even a few triplet strollers. Besides that, we heard of at least one adult who attended (a 25-year-old preemie who was born 1 lb 10 oz.) and a couple of teenagers. I'm sure there were many more that we were unaware of. We heard the RSVP list totaled about 250 guests.

From our alumni duo, only Mason had the privilege of attending this first reunion. With Avery still on O2 and with such a compromised respiratory system, we felt it was too risky to bring him out in the crowd. We brought several photos of Avery to share, although it was no substitute for having our precious little squirt with us.

We had the opportunity to visit with several nurses who clearly remember working with Mason and Avery, including two of their primary nurses, Lisa and Marsha (both of whom now hold honorary auntie status). We also visited with Mason's primary doctor. There were still several nurses and RTs whom we would have loved to see but weren't in attendance. We intend to be back for several years though!

It doesn't seem like it's been that long since we brought Mason home from the NICU, but he's actually been home for 4 months, exactly the length of time he spent in the hospital. Click here to see a photo comparison of Mason, then vs. now.