Friday, October 23, 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
I know I just emailed a day ago but I couldn't help but share the great news!
Today I held Everett for the very first time!!! The nurses worked very carefully to transfer him directly to my chest and he quickly fell asleep and ended up drooling everywhere (which I LOVED). He stretched and squirmed and I could feel him breathing...it was the best moment! I cried, my mom cried, the nurses cried...and Everett loved every minute of it!!!
For your information, placing a preemie on his mom's chest is called Kangaroo Care. In South America, preemies are born without NICUs to care for them and doctors have been sending these babies home with their mom's for decades, telling them to hold them to their chest, feed them with a small dropper, and go about their daily activities. What they discovered is that having a preemie on the mom's chest automatically regulates the preemies' temperature, heart rate and respirations, turning the mom into a make-shift incubator. The mom's skin actually heats up in the spaces that the preemie needs it most! And many of these preemies survive without the intervention of modern medicine. Isn't that just amazing?! The female body is an incredible thing! And of course, all this skin-to-skin time helps with bonding too :-)
So needless to say, Everett is doing GREAT today! We're all smiling like fools...just so happy to be cherishing these little moments of being together!!!
As always, thanks for your love, support, prayers and good thoughts! They are so powerful!!! More updates to come...
Love,
The Bollinger Family
I know I just emailed a day ago but I couldn't help but share the great news!
Today I held Everett for the very first time!!! The nurses worked very carefully to transfer him directly to my chest and he quickly fell asleep and ended up drooling everywhere (which I LOVED). He stretched and squirmed and I could feel him breathing...it was the best moment! I cried, my mom cried, the nurses cried...and Everett loved every minute of it!!!
For your information, placing a preemie on his mom's chest is called Kangaroo Care. In South America, preemies are born without NICUs to care for them and doctors have been sending these babies home with their mom's for decades, telling them to hold them to their chest, feed them with a small dropper, and go about their daily activities. What they discovered is that having a preemie on the mom's chest automatically regulates the preemies' temperature, heart rate and respirations, turning the mom into a make-shift incubator. The mom's skin actually heats up in the spaces that the preemie needs it most! And many of these preemies survive without the intervention of modern medicine. Isn't that just amazing?! The female body is an incredible thing! And of course, all this skin-to-skin time helps with bonding too :-)
So needless to say, Everett is doing GREAT today! We're all smiling like fools...just so happy to be cherishing these little moments of being together!!!
As always, thanks for your love, support, prayers and good thoughts! They are so powerful!!! More updates to come...
Love,
The Bollinger Family
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