I am a father who was fortunate enough to welcome an amazing little boy into the world at Medical City Lewisville. It was a very long labor, and he was finally delivered close to 48 hours after induction.

Sadly, he had some difficulty regulating his temperature and was taken to the NICU a few hours after birth. This was, of course, disappointing and emotionally draining for me and especially for my amazing partner, who was receiving magnesium 24 hours after birth. She was on bed rest and couldn’t visit the NICU. I didn’t endure even an eighth of the physical or emotional strain my partner did, but I was still fairly overwhelmed, running on just a few hours of sleep over the last few nights.

As a first-time dad, I had no clue what to do or think when I visited the NICU the next morning to see my son. Lauren, one of the nurses, immediately noticed that I was eager to bond with my son but didn’t know how and was a little hesitant to ask. Without hesitation, she pulled up a chair for herself and me and spent close to an hour teaching me everything—swaddling, changing him, feeding him, and everything in between.

It was a small part of what every single nurse in the NICU and Labor and Delivery unit did for us daily, but at that moment, it was exactly what I needed. I cannot stress enough how amazing every single nurse we had was, from both the NICU and Labor and Delivery. The compassion shown to my partner, baby and even I, was out of this world, and I can’t thank the amazing staff at Medical City Lewisville enough.