....window shopping....

As my sister use to say when my baby was done being held... time to put her back on her shelf.... referring to the isolette or incubator.... preemie babies under a certain weight can't maintain their body temps so they have to stay in their make shift "womb" or isolette... kangaroo care is the skin to skin contact between baby and mommy or daddy which our body heat can warm the babies enough to be held but when the baby becomes stressed they either have an "A or B" which is bradycardia .. heart rate fluctuates really low or high. or Apnea which they temporarily stop breathing sometimes having to be stimulated to remind them to breathe.. they then have to be put back on their "shelf"..... and some days they are just to stressed out to even hold.... which is when we just get to watch our babies through a "window".... you can't help but feel like you have just given birth to a plant.. just watching it grow...

Here is what My sis had to say on March 2nd.. Ryenne is 8 days old

"today i was able to hold my baby girl for the first time. i finally feel like a mother and not just a window shopper. she is doing really good and was able to get off her respirator. yay"

Didn't want to MISS it...

I was driving like a maniac worried I would miss it... the birth of my new niece making her debut 12 weeks early... it was Déjà vu all over again.. except I was on the other side of it... the side of the unknown.. waiting... wondering... praying.. hoping...... desperately praying for some miracle as we were told only days before with Alicia in the hospital that Ryenne had a 50% chance that she would not make it...given the option to go home and let nature take it course...with the fear that the shape of her uterus the doctors would have to perform a bi-lateral C-section which would put Alicia at risk with any future pregnancies of uteran abruption, death of baby and possibly mom... the decision made to take all necessary steps to save this little precious miracle we had not even met yet but could not help but feel that she was here... sent to us..to her parents... for some reason... for a lifetime. Not to go home and let "nature take its course"... did she surprise us all.. born at 28 weeks weighing 1 lb 12 oz and 12 inches long... the first thing that came to my mind was a ruler... she was the length of a ruler.... and she was fighting hard!

Baby Ryenne is here... and early at that....

After going thru my own NICU journey with my last baby and only girl born at 28 weeks gestation....I never expected fter all the many talks I have had with my little sis while she was preganant and counting down the weeks until her due date that she would travel down a similar path with her beautiful angel baby Ryenne. I remember every week saying just imagine in 3 weeks is when Savanna was born.. in 2 weeks is when Savanna was born...etc, etc... and to much surprise she ended up right where i was... in this "underground" world of the NICU.. crazy huh??? I say underground because you never really know what to expect or what a family might go thru when you hear they have a preemie other than a tiny baby right??? WRONG... the NICU world is one of its own... i will share a little of what it may bring and updates into Ryennes journey as well as a few of my own little girls experiences thru her temporary home in the NICU... so I hope you enjoy:0)