A YouTube video

This video was created for our church, for Jonathan's baptism about 10 months after his birthday.

It give you a look at our full NICU experience in about seven minutes. If you're journeying with me for the first time through this blog, we're just a few weeks from half-way through the five month ordeal, and this gives a good overview of that experience.

I thought it was overly emotional, it is definitely raw, but then I watched a documentary on prematurity called Little Man, and I decided my youtube video was NOTHING compared to that documentary. (Leave it to a professional to add in all the creepy minimalist music and such to make the experience even more horrific feeling than the feeling the beeps of the monitors alone produce.) 

By the way, this isn't a recommendation to watch Little Man, ESPECIALLY if you have recently had a NICU baby. That'd be a very, very bad idea. It'll make you physically a wreck, because it's just a bit too good at describing the emotional yo-yo. (By the way, I refuse to call it an emotional "roller coaster" -- the NICU has nearly nothing fun about it, you never know where you'll end up, you don't wait in line for it, but there's LOTS of being jerked around).

It's also a little too good at describing just how raw the experience can be on the full family, not just the baby that was born. So, wait a long long time after you've gotten through the experience to watch it.  I liked it well enough, but I'm a pretty tough cookie, and even I had to take it in small chunks long after Jonathan was safely back home with us.  Steve's never had any desire to brave that two hour journey. And as I don't think I ever want to watch it again, he probably never will brave it.

A year ago the documentary DID prompt my sister (who recommended the film to me in the first place) to ask us how our lives were going, apart from Jonathan. And, hopefully the "after he came home from the hospital" part of Little Man will give her a bit of forgiveness for the state of our house when she visits tomorrow.  (Right, sis? Because, Mimi successfully got her toys out of the guest room, and Ella promises to make your bed, and made me promise I'd let her make it, which means there's a 50% chance you have a made-bed tomorrow night. It's all cool, though, right?)