Our story about Childrens Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota involves the love of our life James Martel Selstrom.   We had planned to have our baby closer to home but our plans changed at 31 weeks when we made an unexpected trip to our planned hospital as James was anxious to make an appearance.  The doctors and nurses were amazing and we truly felt like we were the only patient as they did their best to keep our little guy tucked away but a day short of 32 weeks there was no more containing him and we welcomed him into the world on November 6, 2014 at a little over 4 lbs.

Our experience at Childrens throughout the first week in the Mother Baby Center involved nurses and doctors telling us what to expect and answering the many many questions that we had about what might happen and giving us advice on what we could do to make sure James was as healthy as possible.  When the time came for delivery the delivery Nurse was absolutely amazing at making my wife the number one priority and making sure the Childrens team was there for whatever challenges we might face being a premie.  Luckily James took his first breaths on his own and didn't need the NICU; however, we still spent 29 days in the Special Care Nursery with James fed by a tube and getting nutrients by IV until he could learn to eat on his own.  During that time is when we truly were fortunate to be at Childrens as the nurses and doctors were unbelievable.  

Our Nurse Practitioner quickly learned we weren't leaving and we loved numbers (we are both accountants) and she made sure if we were away at rounds to come back so she could give us an update in person daily and she also always made sure to bring graphs of James progress on the premie growth charts.  A few of the nurses also took extra care to answer questions and left notes for us if we were away.  A few weeks into our Sons stay I finally convinced my wife she had to go home for a night for sleep and she only agreed when one of our favorite nurses showed up for her shift and assured her she'd be there all night, would call if anything unusual happened, and gave my wife a big hug and told her everything would be alright.  She was absolutely the best!

Our story with Childrens was scary but is a happy one and one we'll cherish forever.  It taught us how much the staff there does for their patients and patients family and we witnessed the struggles of so many who weren't as fortunate or had bigger challenges ahead.  That is why we choose to support Childrens as it has given us so much to be thankful for!