I had a very challenging pregnancy (TTTS, surgery, strict bed rest, bleeding, and a c-section). My twins were born at 28 weeks. My husband and I do not have family in the area or much support, so the NICU was even scarier. I say all this to explain why we value having guidance and support in the NICU from someone at the hospital.

Elena was one of the first nurses we had in the Garden neighborhood of the NICU. She was the first nurse that waited for me to give them their baths. It seems small, but I had no idea they could or that we were allowed to be a part of it when they were so small. She walked me through it and encouraged me to change their diapers. She recommended we take their fingerprints and footprints too, then, without any prompting, made each of them a little poster with the prints, their names, and ages. She also asked if we had any other kids and told us about Family Life and if we wanted her to contact them, which we did.

Aside from helping me start to feel comfortable and understand how I could participate in their care, she also took especially good care of them. She paid attention to their oxygen levels and when it was time to go down or up. She also was constantly looking for ways to make them more comfortable. That was all within a handful of days that we had her in the beginning. Even when she wasn’t our nurse, she stopped by to say hi and check in on them. She also knew how much we liked getting their hand and footprints and did it for us a few weeks. She also followed up with Family Life for us when she wasn’t assigned as our nurse because they hadn’t gotten in touch with us yet. During our anxious time in the Garden, she made it a bit brighter with her caring personality and helped us find ways to create memories and moments with our little ones.

Once we moved to the Beach (another neighborhood), she even brought over a welcome to the Beach present on behalf of March of Dimes. We’ve been lucky to have her a few more times since moving to the Beach, too. You can tell she really loves her job and cares about the babies. She remembers what things they like to comfort them, what we like are nervous about, and how to help us. She even remembers our oldest daughter’s name and asks about her. She’s taken pictures of the twins which always turn out better than the ones we take and used a break to help the nurse on call for our twins give them a bath one day I couldn’t make it. She consistently pays attention to their oxygen support and general well-being. Whenever an alarm goes off, she is quickly in the room to see the cause and find a solution. I’m so happy we’ve had her because she is amazing, kind, and knowledgeable. Her desire to help us and empower us to participate in caring for our twins and understanding their care plans is unmatched by any other nurse. I can relax whenever she is on call as their nurse because I know they are receiving the best care.