NICU Reunion

Today we attended the St. Peter's NICU Reunion, held at the Busch Campus of Rutgers University. We were very excited for the reunion, as we were looking forward to seeing all our old friends. We've said many times on here how much we adored St. Peter's, and the nurses and other patients there have come to feel like family to us. So we were really looking forward to catching up with everyone.

We had a great time! Charlie and Lily were good as gold the entire 3 1/2 hours we were there. They loved checking out all the people, and catching up with the nurses who took such amazing care of them during their three month NICU stay. It was also great to see some of the friends we made during our time there and to see how amazing their babies are doing, not to mention the pure wonder of so many little miracles together in one room.

We saw two of Charlie's nurses, Cyd and Sue, and Lily got to snuggle with one of her favorite nurses, Linda. We spent some time with the wonderful Dr. Hiatt, and caught up with lots of the other fantastic nurses who looked out for Charlie and Lily in the NICU. We also got to visit with many of the families we came to know in the NICU. We were excited to see Gary, Ping, and their adorable twins Vivienne and Connor (born at 24 weeks) and sweet Caitlin (a 26 weeker) and her mommy Donna. We caught up with Elena and her beautiful triplet girls, who were in the NICU a year before Charlie and Lily and who we met through this blog. And of course, we saw Charlie's isolation roommate Ethan and his parents Jovana and Bill. Ethan was born last May at just 23 weeks gestation, weighing 1 lb 1 oz. He and Charlie shared an isolation room in the NICU for two months, so we grew close to him and his parents. He is doing fantastic today and it was so great to see him!

After a busy day of visiting, posing for pictures, and just being a part of all the action, Charlie and Lily were exhausted - but very happy. We can't wait to do it again next year!

(Joe and I are quoted in an article about the reunion! You can read it here.)

All ready to party!

The jungle-themed reunion.
Charlie was super happy to see Nurse Cyd.

Getting snuggles from Cyd and Nurse Sue.

Lily loved seeing Linda, one of her very favorite nurses.

Our beloved Dr. Hiatt. Charlie and Lily would not be here today without him.

Charlie and Ethan got some time to catch up. They miss the late night guy talk they used to share in the NICU.

"Mmmmm...this nametag is delicious!"

Since it was a party, we decided to let Charlie and Lily try some vanilla ice cream for the first time. Lily thought it was okay.

But Charlie just couldn't figure out why it was so cold!

"Yay! This party was fun!"All partied out and ready to go home.