Kangaroo Care

Peek-a-boo! I love my warm isolette!

Daddy loves daughter!


Mommy loves Kangaroo Care!

Comfy Spot

Wade and I are home again--well, home at my parents' house. Hopefully, we will return to our house later this weekend to give my parents a break and start cleaning our home for Margaret's arrival in a couple of weeks.

We left the hospital yesterday afternoon after my last round of IV antibiotics. Now the docs think that I either had a mild case of pulmonary edema or the early stages of pneumonia. Either way I am feeling much better and will hopefully get all of the excess fluid out of my lungs and body soon.

Today I gave Margaret 'kangaroo care' (what you see in the picture). It is strongly recommended for newborns, especially premature babies. Another name for it is skin-to-skin, and it encourages bonding between mother/ father and baby. It also reminds Margaret of her time in the womb.

I loved it! It was such an amazing feeling to have my baby girl so close again and feel her warm little body. I was able to study her beautiful fingers--so long and delicate! I was able to kiss her little forehead and rock her to sleep! Hopefully Wade will get to give Margaret kangaroo care tonight.

It is easy to start feeling sorry for yourself when you think of all of the hours that you have missed holding your newborn baby because she is in the NICU, but I continue to feel blessed because she is alive and here! People try to warn me and Wade about sleepless nights and hours of crying and feeding. They don't understand---we don't care. Of course, we are going to be exhausted, and it will be hard. However, we will have a daughter in our lives to hold, kiss, share, etc. There really couldn't be a better gift! That is what James taught us---to never take your blessings for granted, to remember what is really important in life, and how to really love one another!