Stories of motherhood, medicine, advocacy, faith, and purpose
8.1.2025
01 - a personal blog
Welcome to The Ivy Branch
A place where love lives on, grief finds gentleness, and stories remind us we are never alone.
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Hi, I’m Sydney—a nurse, a mother, and Ivy Irene’s mom.
I’m also the voice behind The Ivy Branch, a space created in honor of my daughter and the life, lessons, and love she left behind.
The Ivy Branch is more than a blog. It is a piece of Ivy’s legacy — a place where I can share the things her life taught me about motherhood, medicine, advocacy, faith, grief, resilience, and unconditional love.
I never imagined that becoming a mother would change the way I understood my own profession. Before Ivy, I knew healthcare from the bedside. I was a nurse caring for newborns and families during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
Then I became a mother.
And suddenly, I was sitting on the other side of the bedside.
I became both the nurse and the mother. The caregiver and the advocate. The person who understood the medical language and the person desperately searching for answers.
That perspective changed me forever.
Before Ivy
Nursing has always felt like more than a career to me. It has been a calling. As cliché as it may sound, I truly believe I was meant to be a nurse. Even as a child, I remember having a strong desire to one day hold that title.
My interest in healthcare began in part by watching my mom work from home as a medical transcriptionist. She primarily worked nights, and I admired the discipline and flexibility her career provided. Her work gave me an early glimpse into the medical world and sparked a curiosity that continued to grow.
That curiosity eventually became a career.
As a senior in high school, I enrolled in a Certified Nursing Assistant program. After graduating, I pursued my nursing degree while gaining experience as a nurse technician in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
In 2018, I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Two years later, I stepped into the role I had dreamed about for years: becoming a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse. I began my NICU career in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, caring for some of the tiniest and most fragile patients and walking alongside their families through uncertainty, fear, hope, and sometimes heartbreak.
I loved being a nurse.
But nothing—not nursing school, textbooks, clinical experience, or years at the bedside—could prepare me for the role that would ultimately shape me the most.
Becoming Ivy’s mom.
Becoming Ivy’s Mom
In 2023, my life changed forever.
I became a mother to a beautiful little girl named Ivy Irene.
Ivy was born at 37 weeks with Down syndrome and two congenital heart defects. From the moment she entered the world, she required intensive medical care.
I already knew what a NICU looked like.
But I had never experienced it from the chair beside my own child’s bed.
I knew the terminology. I understood the monitors.
I knew what the numbers meant. But this time, the baby behind the monitor was mine.
Seven weeks after leaving the NICU, Ivy returned to the hospital for another ICU admission. What followed was a medical journey far more complex than anything I could have imagined.
Over the months that followed, Ivy endured surgeries, procedures, critical illness, transfers, complications, and countless hours in hospital rooms. She spent nearly six months hospitalized in New Orleans before finally coming home.
When she came home, our life looked very different.
I became her primary caregiver, her personal ICU nurse, her protector, her advocate, and her mom—all at once.
I learned how to care for a child with complex medical needs around the clock. I learned how to navigate equipment, medications, appointments, specialists, emergencies, and the endless stream of information that comes with caring for a medically complex child.
But more than anything, Ivy taught me how fiercely a mother can love. She taught me resilience.She taught me patience. She taught me how to celebrate the smallest victories. And she taught me that a child can change the world without ever knowing how many lives they have touched.
Ivy’s Legacy
In February 2025, my world changed again when Ivy passed away unexpectedly.
There are no words that can fully explain what it means to lose your child.
I lost my daughter.
I lost the future I had imagined.
And, for a while, I felt like I had lost a part of myself.
Grief forced me to question things I had once been certain about—including my career, my identity, my purpose, and what life was supposed to look like without Ivy in it.
But even in the middle of that heartbreak, one thing remained certain: Ivy mattered.
Her life mattered.
Her story mattered.
And the love she gave me did not disappear when she did.
I believe that love continues to grow, and The Ivy Branch is one of the places where I choose to let it grow.
Why The Ivy Branch?
The Ivy Branch was created because I don’t want Ivy’s story to end with her death.
I want her life to continue to mean something.
I want the lessons she taught me to reach people who need them.
I want to share what I have learned — not because I have all the answers, but because I know how lonely it can feel when you don’t know what to ask, where to turn, or whether anyone else understands what you’re experiencing.
Through this space, I hope to turn some of the hardest parts of our journey into something that can help another family feel more prepared, more informed, more supported, or simply less alone.
You may find stories about the NICU, Down syndrome, medical motherhood, tracheostomy care, caregiving, healthcare advocacy, grief, faith, motherhood, and life after loss.
Some stories will be educational.
Some will be deeply personal.
Some may be difficult to read.
Others may simply remind you that you are not walking through your circumstances alone.
The Mission
The mission of The Ivy Branch is simple: Advocate. Educate. Empower.
I want to encourage families to ask questions.
To seek understanding.
To speak up.
To trust their instincts.
To advocate for themselves and their children.
And to remember that their voice matters.
As a nurse, I understand the healthcare system from one perspective. As Ivy’s mother, I learned to understand it from another. That combination has given me a perspective I never expected to have—and one I feel called to share.
I also want The Ivy Branch to be a place where grief can exist alongside love.
Where faith can coexist with questions.
Where hope doesn’t require pretending that difficult things don’t happen.
And where remembering a child doesn’t mean we have to stop living.
For Ivy
Ivy was only here for a short time. But her life changed mine forever.
She became my greatest teacher.
She taught me that strength can exist in the smallest people.
She taught me that motherhood can stretch you beyond anything you thought you could survive.
She taught me to celebrate moments that might otherwise seem ordinary.
And she taught me that love does not have an expiration date.
I will always wish I had more time with her. But I am incredibly grateful for the time I was given. Ivy is the reason The Ivy Branch exists.
Her story is the root.
Everything that grows from it—the stories, the advocacy, the resources, the conversations, and the connections—is part of her legacy.
From Ivy’s Branch
Inspiration continues to grow.
My hope is that Ivy’s story can become a source of comfort, light, education, and encouragement for someone else walking through their own difficult season.
Whether you are a new mom, an experienced mom, a medical mom, a NICU parent, a caregiver, a healthcare professional, someone navigating grief, or simply someone trying to find your way through an unexpected chapter of life, The Ivy Branch was created with you in mind.
I don’t have all the answers.
But I have a story.
I have a perspective.
I have lessons that Ivy gave me.
And I believe they are worth sharing.
If Ivy’s life can continue to help someone else, then her story still has more to give. So wherever you are in your journey, I invite you to stay awhile.
Read a story.
Learn something new.
Ask a question.
Share your own experience.
Find comfort in knowing you’re not alone. Because sometimes the most meaningful growth comes from the places where we have been broken. And sometimes, from the smallest branch, something beautiful can continue to grow.
Welcome to The Ivy Branch! I’m so glad you’re here.
