Found this and had to share..

I am not religious. I have faith in some kind of higher power though and so even I can appreciate this.. it brought a tear to my eye..

How God Chooses Preemie Moms Author Unknown

Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen?
... Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his
instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he
observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger.
"Armstrong, Beth, son. Patron Saint, Matthew.
Forrest, Marjorie, daughter. Patron Saint, Celia.
Rutledge, Carrie, twins. Patron Saint...give her Gerard. He's used to
profanity."
Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles.
"Give her a preemie." The angel is curious. "Why this one, God?
She's so happy."
"Exactly," smiles God.
"Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter? That
would be cruel."
"But does she have the patience?" asks the angel.
"I don't want her to have too much patience, or she'll drown in a sea
of self-pity and despair.
Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it.
I watched her today. She has that sense of self and independence so
rare and so necessary in a mother.
You see, the child I'm going to give her has a world of its own.
She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."
"But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."
God smiles. "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect.  She has
just the right amount of selfishness."
The angel gasps, "Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?"
God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally,
she will never survive.
Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect.
She doesn't know it yet, but she is to be envied.
She will never take for granted a spoken word.
She will never consider a step ordinary.
When her child says momma for the first time,
she will be witness to a miracle and know it.
I will permit her to see clearly the things I see--
ignorance, cruelty, prejudice--
and allow her to rise above them.
She will never be alone.
I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life
because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."
"And what about her Patron Saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in
the air.
God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

Articles

Here are some articles I found on The Bump about Preemies:

The Worst Things to Say to Moms of Preemies
NICU Cheat Sheet
Advice for Surviving the NICU

The first one has a lot of things I've heard.. and I have to agree with how they felt when they heard them. Like when my son was first born, when I saw how many people on facebook were saying how happy they were for us and congratulating us it felt like a double edged sword. I mean my son was 2 months early and in the NICU and I nearly died. It didn't feel very celebratory to me. Unless you've gone through it yourself I think its hard to understand. We've been one of the lucky ones though. The baby that had our area before us was born at 17 weeks and did not make it. We've had a pretty easy go of it although he is taking his dear sweet time with the bottle feeding.

Going to head to the hospital soon. I'll update you all on how is doing. I am hoping he will be home before Football season starts.. which for us is on August 9th with the Broncos playing the Bears.

Care Times and Physical Therapy..

Yesterday I spent the longest I've ever spent in the NICU. After having spent 3 weeks as a patient and going through hell and back I honestly had problems staying for more than about 2-3 hours for a care time with Flynn. Yesterday though that all finally changed. I was there from 3pm to 7pm.

I was almost late for his 3pm care time! When I arrived he was finishing up his physical therapy. She was doing some tummy time with him and I was so proud of him. When he heard my voice he started lifting his head and of course grunting more. His little grunts amuse me.

I was only able to get him to take 20ccs from his bottle at 3pm but and about 27cc at 6pm. The nurse said he took that at 9am and slept through the noon. I was told it really is up to him. That one day he will just suddenly be strong enough to feed out of the bottle all the time. I'm just waiting patiently for that to happen.

It is getting better all the time..

Tomorrow officially marks Flynn's gestational age at 37 weeks. The nurses are confident he will not be there past his due date. He is up to taking a bottle at nearly all feedings but its the amount he takes from the bottle that is the issue now. He needs to get a little stronger so he can start taking more of his bottles. He weighed in at 6lbs 6oz the other day so he is still growing.

When I saw him yesterday the had said he took 3 out of 4 bottles the night before. Not the whole bottle but something. He took his whole bottle at 9am yesterday and was awake when we got in at 10:15. It was so nice to spend time with him awake like that.

Flynn gets visited by physical therapy 3-4 times a week. We met with them yesterday at 11:30. The woman who came was the one that had gone over his Morgan test results last week for me. He for his age range had to get a 66 on the test and he scored just over a 67. So I was really happy for him. Yesterday she basically just reviewed the abdomen curls, and the hand exercises on his face with us as well as taught us an exercise to do on his feet. I learned that you don't want to poke them on the bottoms of their feet as this can result in making their feet too sensitive when they are trying to learn to walk. There are so many things I feel like I still need to learn. I guess that comes with the territory. The other exercises she taught us have to do with strengthening his neck. One has him sitting up in my lap and I support his head by holding onto his cheeks and then sliding him backwards, forwards, and side to side just a small amount and just for a minute or so so he can slowly build up his neck muscles. Then there is one where he is laying in my lap and I have to get him to follow my voice and face from side to side to help again with his neck but I think that also works on other senses too since he has to follow you.

I know I'm probably biased but everyone agrees he is adorable. Can you blame them?

5 Weeks Old!

Hello!

 

Proud Momma

Well I better get going so I can go see my little man today.

Big Boy Diapers

When I went to see my son Flynn yesterday in the NICU he was off the oxygen. I was so thrilled to see that. It also appears his neighbor may be leaving soon because they were giving him a circumcision. They told us that happens a few days before they leave. The nurse was also talking about formula with them.

Flynn has a new nurse everyday. They rotate so he has the same one more than once but typically it is a different one everyday. The nurse he had yesterday was very informative. She covered a lot of care tips for me for when he comes home. She went over signs of dehydration, and other problems. Also told me to clean his mouth twice a day which isn't just for cleaning but also to help with prepping him for a toothbrush when he has teeth.

The most interesting thing she taught me was that it is important to rock with him twice a day for 30 minutes. As a preemie he needs help with his brain development and apparently its been found to help with left and right brain function if you rock them. This should not be hard for Chris and I. Chris loves to rock. Just have to make sure he doesn't rock him while he eats or just after. 

I spent part of yesterday working on the happier bits of his baby book. I really can't wait to bring my son home. I hate that I can only see him for short times.

Today when I went in he was still off oxygen which is great. They had told me yesterday he has mild lung disease which is actually the better end of what to expect with a preemie and the only way to fix it is for him to be off assisted oxygen for at least 30 consecutive days so it seems like today marked day 2. We shall see if he can stay like this.

The other big news today was that he is no longer in preemie sized diapers. The nurse he had today went ahead and moved him over to newborn size. He weighed in the other day at 5lbs 14oz so he is so close to 6lbs I can understand the move. Diapers go by weight after all. My son is almost 5 weeks old and finally fits in newborn diapers. He isn't long enough yet to fit in new born clothes but by the time he comes home he should be.

Before I go. Here are some of the photos from when he was little. This was after he had been there for over a week. I don't have any from earlier. Not available to share here. You can see how much he has grown in these.

 

I'm hoping the next time I share photos they wont be from the hospital. ^_^