Thursday, September 11, 2008

Listening to the Short-Timers Gripe


It never fails. You'll be entering your third or fifth or eleventh week of hospitalization and someone will strike up a conversation with you at the hospital. They will immediately launch into how sick they are of the hospital, how long they've been there, and how rough their road has been. Nine times out of ten? They've been there less than a week.

It's really frustrating to listen to these tales. It's really difficult to try to be sympathetic. It's just plain hard.

By now, you've probably watched dozens of babies come and go in the NICU. You've met some great people who breezed in and out of your life. When you give birth to a micropreemie, you know from the get-go that you'll be there for awhile. That doesn't make it any easier.

I honestly felt that perhaps I was more at peace with our lengthy hospital stay because I never anticipated anything else. It's not that I wanted to be spending months on end in a NICU, but I knew that was the only option I had if I planned on bringing my precious little girl home.

When you're facing a long, practically no-end-in-sight kind of hospitalization, you're just about guaranteed to have to listen to a few "short-timers" gripe.

My advice?

Just realize that these are people who need to talk. They need to vent. For whatever reason, they're not getting the support and communication they need from others in their lives. So let them. With people like this, you really don't have to say much. Just nod. Smile sympathetically. When they've run out of complaints, they'll often ask, "So how long have you been here?"

Three months.
Ah, the glorious silence...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you :) I am always happy to see babies leave with their smiling families, and the quicker the better. After 12 weeks and 3-4 more to go (dd was born at 25 weeks) I am undoubtedly jealous too. It is hard to be patient with some people, the stunned looks on their faces when they hear our story always makes me smile inside, heehee


And I read you everday...cry at some, laugh at others, learn lots, and don't feel so quite alone *big hugs* Thank you!!!
~K

JessieLeigh said...

K- So glad to have you here! Congrats on your precious daughter; I know it might not seem like it, but you're in the home stretch! Keep your chin up and use this time to learn everything you can to make caring for your little girl easier when you get home. Thanks so much for the encouraging comment- makes my day. : )