June 4th Signifcance

June 4th will always hold a special place in our little family's hearts. 

This date was the date Aria was discharged from the NICU in 2015, after spending the first 138 days of her life there. The day we knew we were going to be discharged, is when the real reality of parenthood hit us. We hadn't had to take care of a "normal" child yet, yet we were bringing home a 4 month of child. 

The night before we stayed the night at the hospital with Aria in our room and in our 100% care. Nurses were there if we needed, but it was our trial night to make sure we could handle taking a baby home on oxygen and the other special needs Aria required. 

The hospital rooms aren't mean to sleep three people, lets just start there. I spent most of the night in the chair dozing in and out when I could. Neither of us could sleep much, as the paranoia of a baby with multiple cords attached to her, kept us from truly relaxing. Needless to say, we made it through the night.

June 4th around 2:30 pm, on a beautiful day, Aria breathed her first breathe of the outdoors. This moment was a truly special one for our family. We had waited for months for the day we could put Aria in her carseat, place that seat in the back of our car, and drive home together as a family. for 138 nights prior, we had driven home without our little girl. That was no longer going to be the case.

The date June 4th also holds significance the following year. In 2016, Aria was discharged from her in home physical therapy she had been enrolled in ever since we NICU discharge. Her amazing therapist took Aria from the NICU vegetable, and helped her learn how to roll over, sit up and finally to walking. It was a bitter sweet day, as yet again, we as parents were taking all the responsibility of teaching Aria these methods we'd been trained on for a year, and implementing them without a return visit. Again, Aria blossomed.

Now, in 2017, we are so happy to celebrate this day with a huge campaign to give back to all those who helped Aria.

We are launching the Aria Hope campaign. This campaign will donate part of the proceeds for all Hope branded purchases, to an organization that helped us during our NICU journey.