Thankful

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, we have LOTS to be thankful for.

I'm gonna be real honest and tell you, when I heard the words "We are going to
deliver this baby, right now"...I didn't think my baby had a chance of living.

I knew a tiny bit about preemies. K&A were born early. But I didn't even
know that there was such a thing as micropreemies.
I didn't know the chances of living a 26 weeker had.
And it's not like I had time to research it.
Or even think about it for that long.
I just had time to be scared to death. But that's about it.

Now I know more about tiny babies than you could imagine.
I feel like FH and I have gained a nursing degree over the last 2 months.
Although I am VERY aware that we don't know the half of it all.

With all this being said, we have SO MUCH to be thankful for.

-I'm thankful that my baby came out crying. Crying = breathing. And even
though he obviously was put on a breathing machine immediately, him
coming out crying was a wonderful sign.

-I'm thankful that Harper had PDA surgery. I know this sounds crazy. And
at the time I would have never been thankful for it. But if it weren't for his
surgery, he would have never been sent to a different hospital. The hospital where
he was born has an amazing NICU, but when we were there, BH was not
even close to the norm. They had lots of little babies, but he was exceptionally smaller.
Where we are now, we are the norm. Most babies there are tiny or at least have
big problems, so we feel like the nurses there are more capable of handling our needs.

-I'm thankful for the horrible chairs that convert to beds in BH's room. We've spent hours in
them and though you can't say they are comfortable, they allow us to spend the night with our
baby. And for that I will forever be grateful.

-I'm thankful for NICU nurses. They are a rare breed. Most specifically, our primary nurse. Apparently at the hospital we are at now, a nurse can choose to have a primary baby. Meaning
when they are at work, they get their primary baby. Primary baby = favorite baby. We are lucky enough to have a primary nurse and when I say I just love her, it is a huge understatement. She was one of the reasons that BH's infection was caught so early. She spends hours making sure he is comfortable. She will sit with me and answer questions all day long. She spent her entire free time  one weekend to color, cut out, and hang up a monitor for him so he had something to stare at. She sewed him a wubanub, because they don't make them with preemie pacifiers but I really wanted him to have one. She took pictures of bruises on his leg when someone squeezed him too hard while drawing blood so she would have proof when she reported it. She loves him. She is the reason that I got to start holding him when I did, and she is the only nurse who has ever let me hold him. Her patience is out of this world and I will FOREVER be indebted to this lady who has taken such great care of my son. I only wish she could be at the hospital 24/7.



-I'm thankful for my friends who check on my family all the time. This has been one of those situations where you find out who your friends are. I have some friends who constantly check on me and see if they can do anything to help me and then I have friends who never even mention the fact that I have a baby in the hospital. It's nice to know who really cares and also who really just isn't that interested. I'm grateful that mainly everyone loves on us and checks on us!



-I'm thankful for my rock of a husband. He knows how important a Momma is to her baby so he makes sure that I have tons of alone time with BH. He takes K&A home early from the hospital so we can have our alone time. He does dishes, and homework, and everything else that needs to be done so that I can love on our baby. And he understands that I need to be at the hospital every spare moment that I have.



-I'm thankful for family that take care of K&A. It's hard to have kids in different places. And without the help we have had, I know the girls would be feeling neglected....now they are just spoiled!



-I'm thankful for K&A's school. I've always loved their school. But now, I am almost at a loss for words. The entire class took up giftcards to give us to help us while we are on the road between home and the hospital all the time. We are still working on using all of them. And they also are taking up donations to send to our hospital in BH's name as their Christmas charity. To be thought of like this is just amazing. I'm so grateful to everyone for all their thoughts and prayers!



-I'm thankful that God blessed me with an endless supply of milk. I have what one doctor described as "more milk than I have ever heard of anyone having!" This is such a blessing. Don't get me wrong, pumping all day, every day is SUCH a pain. It helps that this is one of the only things I can do for BH that no one else can do for him. I like that so it keeps me going.

I could go on all day long.

So many people tell me often that they never know what to say to me about the baby.
They don't want to say the wrong thing or upset me.
I don't understand this.
Sure, maybe BH was born early and obviously it's not ideal that he's in the hospital.
But he is a beautiful little boy and I couldn't be happier with him no matter his size.

I feel blessed that I get to be his mom. That one day I get to share with him the story of his birth.
And show him pictures of how tiny he was. And how proud I am that he is so tough.
I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.


Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!



























**I have no idea why some pictures are huge, but I'm not spending the time to fix it! ;)

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