Dear Henry, skin to skin.

July 6th was a huge day for us, 2 very exciting things happened. 1. at 3:41pm Henry turned 1 week old!! When everyday feels like an accomplishment, a week feels like a huge milestone. 

Looking back, there are things I said I wouldn't do when I was pregnant. In a day where so many people posts weekly pictures of their babies, and people talk about how annoying the picture overload is. I vowed to not be the mom to flood everyones feed with the baby obsession that all new moms seemed to have. 

Now I'm looking down at this precious little person with 2 thoughts... 1. I want everyone to see this miracle, I want everyone to marvel in his imperfect perfections, so I want to post picture on picture on picture, I want to be that annoying mom, I long for it. On the other side 2. He is so fragile and tiny that I don't want to put him out there I just want to protect him and enjoy him myself, I'm not ready to share him. 

Now I'm rethinking, if he was full term how would I feel? Would I do the mom overload or would I stick to my original thought. I guess we will never know. 

Moving on...The second exciting thing that happened and my favorite thing to date is... I got to hold him. Watching the nurse move him from his incubator to my chest was terrifying, he had to be unhooked and unplugged from all of the lines everywhere then carefully positioned on my chest. We sat this way for 4 hours, it was such a beautiful feeling, it's the happiest I've felt in a week, and knowing I can do this daily is so exciting. This is called "Kangaroo care", this skin to skin is contact is supposed to be so good for Henry, it helps with bonding, it helps get his appetite up, it helps his weight gain, and for me it helps with milk production, bonding and emotionally it's just so rewarding. 

They say there will be good and bad days... today was a good day. 

- Nikki