A Phoenix From Its Ashes: What is Love?

Today was one of the happiest days of my life! Luke and I experienced our first Kangaroo Care session and it went absolutely perfect! It was the most amazing experience I have ever had in my life. The love for this sweet little man grows more and more!

Kangaroo Care is skin to skin contact for Mommy and Daddy both where baby can lay on your heart and hear the heartbeat and other body sounds they heard while they were inside the womb. This helps baby a great deal in development because they feel like they are still on the inside. And of course it gives Mommy and Daddy the contact they crave.

I was very surprised to be able to do this so quickly. We thought we wouldn't be able to experience skin to skin until he at least had his breathing tube out. But his nurse today said he has had such good days lately that skin to skin could be just what he needs to keep up the progress. Mommy loves hearing this because she loves skin to skin for her own selfish reasons too. Another dream come true today - snuggling with my sweet baby boy! Words will never describe the happiness I experienced today.

LUKE UPDATE:

Luke is doing amazing! Little man is going potty so well now that he's on his steroids!! YAY! He's also decreasing on his ventilator settings, little by little each day - AWESOME! The steroids may make him feel grumpy but if he continues progressing so well then we can have more Kangaroo times and this can only make him feel better.

He is tolerating his feedings - so much so that they increased him another 1/2 cc's today! He's pooping too - with the help of suppositories, but he's going when needed and that is awesome! Now sweet man will start putting on the lbs and this makes Mommy and Daddy very very happy! Grow baby grow!! He's my little BEAN-stalk. ;)

We still need the prayers for a positive report on his brain scan Friday!! The thought of him having surgery on his brain scares me to death and I certainly don't want him to have to experience anymore pain or discomfort than the poor baby already has to go through daily.

Like I said previously, Luke tolerated Kangaroo Care very very nicely!! His vitals stayed strong and steady the entire time! This obviously makes us very happy, he's making steady improvements.

He's having a little malfunction with his ports. He keeps getting a positive bacteria reading from the port in his PICC line. The doctor says she isn't concerned with this because she's fairly confident it is a contamination of the port site as opposed to him having an actual infection. Prayers for this please!!!! We don't want him to have to be on antibiotics unless necessary since the antibiotics can destroy his good bacteria as well. We want his immune system to stay as well as it can right now.

I have to share a few stories with everyone that has given me a little more peace in the last couple days. Last night the NICU staff had a pizza/pasta party for the parents of NICU babies. It was very nice! While we were eating during shift change, the nicest older lady talked to us. She assured us that we were in the right place and Luke was in the most capable hands. She had a nephew born a preemie and he is now a very grown man in college and doing very well. This gave me hope for Luke. She also took out a little piece of paper and got our names and Luke's and told us she would put us in her nightly prayers. She also gave me a big hug and comforted me when I got upset telling her our story. She was almost like a little angel sitting there waiting to encourage us with her sweet words and actions.

We also met another preemie mom who had her daughter at 24 weeks as well. Her daughter had been in the NICU for 3 - 4 months and was looking at another month in. She weighed 3 lbs. I thought to myself - this mother has been doing this for that long! And she was as strong as I hope to be one day! She gave me some awesome advice for dealing with everything. I hope her daughter can go home to her Mommy soon.

Yesterday Luke got a new neighbor. He's just born at 27 weeks. Last night while we were visiting, Scott and I saw his Daddy for the first time. He looked very scared and worried. He didn't stay long. Tonight we saw him again and I introduced us to him right away. I gave him the encouraging words I felt he needed - and it made me feel good! I told him even though we are still new at everything in the NICU, we know what he feels right now at this very moment. I think we comforted him. And this made me feel GOOD!!! I hope he could feel our sincerity. I told him I would keep his baby boy in my prayers along with my sweet Luke and every other family and their babies that are in NICU.

Even though today was a most awesome day, I am still preparing myself for the bad news. And that may never come. I hope and pray it doesn't. But I want to be prepared if it does.

Luke has some amazing people rooting for him - and I can't thank everyone enough! One day when this is all a distant memory and my Luke is a big and strong young man, I will tell him about everything that got him where is at. And I know he will be appreciative because I will never allow him to be anything otherwise. The saying is true - "It takes a village to raise a child" and every one of you have proven this to be true! We appreciate every single kind word, positive thought and vibe, prayer, story of encouragement, and effort made by so many people to make sure Luke is taken care of!

Scott has been taking me in the morning to the hospital and coming back at lunch to spend time with Luke and take me back home until he gets off work and we can go back for the night time routine. I love this routine! Every second I spend with that sweet baby, the better I feel. Even if I am sitting there with him in an incubator, things could be worse. Things can always be better and worse. So I am taking it hour by hour still but every hour I am still thanking God that Luke is doing as well as he is.

Below are some pics I have from the past few days of bonding times with Luke! I hope everyone enjoys, and again thank you so much for taking a minute to check in on my sweet baby Luke and his progress so far!!