Our daughter loved to be contained and snug when she was uncomfortable. When we first walked into her room we saw a new nurse with her and we noticed she was patting her continuously. This caught me off guard and almost put me into a panic, because we have been told to practice containment. But the joy that I could see in her eyes and how comfortable she was quickly calmed me down. Whitney introduced us to pats and from that point on our daughter only preferred pats. We were excited to hear that Whitney made the decision to join our primary care team.

Throughout our daughter's five months of life, we made lasting memories with Whitney as her nurse. Whitney showed our daughter a tremendous amount of care and love. When we would be away from the room and when we would return we often saw Whitney singing to her, rubbing her head, or simply just enjoying the stillness of her room. Anytime she was ready for something new developmentally, Whitney was the first to jump on it. An OT chair, a mobile for her crib, a big girl crib, etc.

When our family made the choice to begin comfort care, we were asked for a list of things we would like to do as a family. That day Whitney was the charge nurse and we asked her if we could have a big bed so we could cuddle with our daughter. Whitney tried to figure it out, but she thought her room was too small, so she suggested we move to a bigger room. My husband and I decided we did not want to move her from her home. The next morning we walked into her zone and saw the room filled with people, so we assumed it was our daughter was probably needing more assistance. When we got closer, we saw Whitney holding our daughter while everybody else was quickly arranging the room to surprise us with a big bed. This was absolutely the greatest and saddest surprise of my life. I could never thank Whitney enough for this gift. It was Whitney's last shift with our daughter, and she asked us what memories we wanted to make that day. We had a special and silly request. We brought our printer from home and we told Whitney we needed her help taking some scans of her. So Whitney helped us hold our daughter and the printer while we took scans of us holding her hands, her feet, and most importantly, her cute little tushy. We laughed and cried together so much.

On the day she passed away, Whitney was off, but she still came in to be with us. She was outside with us, and while we were holding our daughter as she passed, Whitney was by my side the whole time. She wiped away my snot whenever I needed her to without hesitation or judgment. Whitney was a true gift to us and our family during our daughter's time at UCSF.