The Best Day Ever!

Well, that was fast! Just a couple days ago, I wrote to you about how you were coming home soon. Well, I went to the NICU yesterday morning and was told that you'd be coming home today! You have no idea how thrilled Daddy and I are! It feels like Christmas!!

You passed your carseat test with flying colours. You didn't even fuss one bit; you just sat there happily looking around the room. A lot of babies find the car seat uncomfortable or scary (because it's new) and will cry hysterically. Not you! You're so ready to come home.

You've also created your own feeding schedule already. Instead of drinking the 60mL every three hours that the nurses were giving you, you prefer to drink about 90mL every four hours instead. This helps me out, because it means the pumping schedule I've already created for myself ensures that there's always at least two feedings worth of milk available for you.

I hope you're just as happy at home as you seem to be in the NICU. I find myself amazed at what a "Dream Baby" you've been so far. You don't cry hysterically, like most babies, until your needs are met; and, when you do fuss or cry, you calm down almost immediately once I start talking quietly to you and stroke your hair or pick you up. You're a surrpisingly mellow, easy to please, little girl! Even the nurses said that you constantly surprise them with how content you always are. The only time you ever cried like a baby normally does (loud and inconsolable for a while) was when you were still having tummy problems, and you had an enormous amount of gas that needed to be passed. Since too much gas can cause actual pain, I'm not surprised that you cried that hard until you had passed it! Besides that one episode, you always seem to be at peace.

There's a lot of mothers who swear they have a "psychic"-like bond with their babies. These mothers know what their baby needs almost instantly without having to analyze the type of crying their babies are doing or their body language, etc. Some mothers even know, without being in the same room or having the baby make any noise, when their baby is awake. I've never heard of a baby having that same bond with its mother and responding to that bond! Babies only have the capacity to recognize their own needs, and whether or not those needs are being met. They certainly don't (can't) realize that there's other people who have their own needs and that they can effect those people's moods by meeting or not meeting those people's needs.

You, however, are different. It's like you know what makes Daddy and me happy or content, and you do what you can to ensure we're fulfilled as well. You know we love it when you smile, so you smile all the time and even laugh. You seem to have picked up that I was struggling to keep up with your feedings, so you've made yourself a feeding schedule that gives me an opportunity to keep up with your tummy. You are constantly blowing my mind with how mature you are, Baby! You aren't just a gift, or even just a miracle, you are indescribable.