Happy Father's Day in the NICU

When I wrote the blog celebrating Mother's Day in the NICU, I had every intention of dedicating a similar blog to Dad's in the NICU on their special day as well. But here it is July 12th almost a month after Father's Day and I am just getting around to it. First let me apologize to Dad's everywhere....please know that you have a special place in my heart and I have carried this message in my head for the past three weeks.....I guess it's true that Dad's are often the last to get recognized. My husband always says.....there's way more attention given to Mom's on Mother's Day than Dad's on Father's Day and wives or girlfriends on Valentine's Day than husbands or boyfriends...I must admit it's sad but true...even Mom's get more attention on Valentine's day when Dad's may not. So let me go on record by saying that even though June 19th has come and gone..as far as I am concerned every day is Father's Day!!


Father's in the NICU are some of my favorite people...they constantly fulfill two roles...they want to be and have to be strong for the Mom's but at the same time they show incredible tenderness in the face of what for many is the most fragile of human lives. I recently attended a delivery and was reminded by a Dad what a gift it is for me to be there to see a new soul enter the world and not to ever take that for granted. I was standing in my usual spot in the delivery room, near the warmer in what seemed like the zillionth delivery of my life and listening to a mom push and finally deliver her baby. I heard the OB sharing what a beautfiul baby it was and coaxing this new and tentative Dad into his first official Daddy duty...cutting the umbilical cord which he did with impressively steady hands. Finally the nurse brought the baby to my team and we begin to dry her and encourage her already healthy cry and obviously well working lungs.


From the side I heard the slightest sniffle, then a whisper....." Hello Baby Girl.....I love you soo much....and I can't wait to change your first diaper....." I looked in to the face of a Dad, a Father......and I saw pure love, genuine tenderness, and shining adoration...and I smiled....yep another Daddy's girl in the making. NICU Dad's do cry in the delivery room....they also cry in the NICU....they pray in the NICU, they hold Mommy's hand, they hug Mommy's shoulders, they wheel her wheelchair back and forth from Mom's room to the NICU, they bring breast milk to the NICU from home....they get updates for Mom....they go to work and drive mom to the hospital every day while on maternity leave....they figure out how to use their large hands to lift a one pound bundle and change a diaper or take a temperature and every now and then they manage to get a nap while kangarooing the tiniest of humans on their chests...skin to skin, heart beat to heart beat...father to child...and for that and so much more we appreciate them.


But as I shared in the Mother's Day Blog....you don't have to be a NICU Dad to be celebrated on Father's Day. The same traits we see in NICU Dad's we see in all awesome Father's. They are protectors and providers, they know how to have fun, they are troop leaders and team captains, they are movie buddies and confidantes, they give the family security, they make time for their children, they make time for Mom, they love with sacrifice, and they are committed to creating a world that their child can thrive in...and their dreams can come true. So if you know a Dad like that....then thank them....they may be macho on the outside...but they want to know that they are appreciated too...that every now and then they got it right...so for now...we can tell them...and then later....the kids that make them Father's can tell them too..and I am sure that's the best Father's Day present of all!