OnBeingaDad

“Your baby is coming now! Prep the room for the delivery!” yelled the OBG to the hospital staff in the maternity ward.

That was not what my wife and me were expecting to hear on our random emergency visit to the hospital to investigate the stomach pains my wife was suddenly experiencing during her pregnancy. Minutes later our son was born. He was 28-weeks premature and was taken away by a specialized team who were rushed in from the world famous SickKids hospital. An hour later, we saw our baby boy briefly in an incubator surrounded by so many wires and tubes that it was hard to really make out what he looked like. He was being wheeled away to be in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the SickKids hospital in downtown Toronto.

Not only were we not expecting all this to happen to us, we were just not prepared to welcome our second child – we had not picked a name for him, we did not have his car seat installed among other things. At that moment, we were just so in shock and were filled with various emotions – its hard to describe. I was trying my best to hold it all together for my family. I needed to act and make quick decisions – and at that point in time, I knew we just needed to be with our son at the NICU.

My wife and myself drove to Toronto. Since the COVID pandemic was still underway, extra precautionary measures were in full force at SickKids. We had to sanitize our hands, wear special robes over our street clothing and wear a medical grade surgical or an N95 mask before entering the NICU. It all felt so scary to me and my wife at this time, cause we had never experienced what the NICU was like and had no frame of reference on what to expect.

We walked into the room where our son was held and monitored in an incubator. There were two other babies in the same room space who were each in their own incubators as well. I recall seeing my son with the infant CPAP attached to his nose and mouth which enabled him to breathe. He was so tiny in length and looked so very fragile that we were nervous to touch him at first, but the on-duty nurse reassured us that it was alright to hold his hand. We did just that. We wanted to let him know that we (his parents) were there by his side.

He had a team of healthcare specialists including a nutritionist, a cardiologist, a nurse, a pediatrician and ofcourse my wife and I all of who worked together to make informed decisions on how he was progressing health wise. My wife and I had the chance to cuddle him everyday for a little bit while he slept. The SickKids staff were very professional and caring towards us – always ensuring that we were kept well informed every step of the way and there was comfort in knowing that our son was in the care of the best team while we had to leave him alone every night at the NICU.

After being in the SickKids NICU for close to 2 weeks, my boy was transferred to a NICU at a hospital that was much closer to our home. He remained there for what felt like eternity but was just another 2 weeks after which he was discharged as he was feeding well, was breathing without the CPAP and was in a stable condition.

Fig. 4. “Convert provided image into a water colour sketch” prompt, OpenAI, 10 July. 2026, labs.openai.com/.

My journey being in the NICU for those 4 weeks was difficult. I am thankful for all the support me and my wife received from our family, friends, the NICU staff and for me, I was grateful to have the support of online support groups where fellow dads offered advice and shared their similar experiences.

If you are a dad who has had a premature child who was in the NICU, please take this short 5 question survey as it will help shed light on the experience for other dads. Thank you for your input!